Playing around with a little scrimshaw

Karl G

Inching towards the next rabbit hole

I have been doodling this design for a while. I thought it would work best as a scrimshaw. This is the start of it. I still have some details to do and of course the other scale.
Very cool idea. What's the detail you want to add and what did you use to do this?
 

RezDog

Member
The details left to add are the little squares between the weave need to get shaded as well as a couple of the lines do not quite touch the intersecting lines, and sand it wet to 2K. So not a lot left to do.
The pretense of scrimshaw is pretty simple. Prep the surface, in this case I wet sanded to 1K. Too slick and it is hard to draw on. Then the surface needs to be waxed to seal the pores. The pattern is draw out. Carefully each line is scratched in. I used a very fine point engravers chisel. The hard part is there is no erasing any of the lines. Once the chisel slips a little material away the only way you can erase anything is to sand the entire piece to just below your scratch lines. Once all the lines are scratched in it is inked with India ink and then wiped clean and then sanded and then waxed. You can then do any touch ups or ad more lines and details. This particular piece is all lines so it is a little more simple. You can also do solid blocks and shading by dimpling the surface with a fine chisel or carbide scribe similar to pointillism. It is fairly tedious, but I kind of like the challenge. It will likely take me a half a dozen of these to really dial in my lines and get my layout done at any kind of rate. I intend however to only make two or three of them. I am making carved bone scales for most of the razors that are regular users in my collection.
 

Karl G

Inching towards the next rabbit hole

Here it is all done up. I had a wee bit of bleeding on the show side. I don't think I get to control that, it is from the ink sucking into the grain of the bone fro the exposed area. The first set I broke, so there is a copper lined set in the future.
Love it - great idea and really unique.
 

RezDog

Member
I am liking what I have gotten done so far. I just went over the, with a guy here in town that used to be a scrimshaw artist. He gave me a series of pointer and now I have to keep making more and practicing the technique. I will have to do more homework pieces and doodle more designs and see what is next.
 
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