SCRIMSHAW

[doc623]

Anyone know anything about this of have tried it with any success?

[BEAVERMAN]

Weve been known to scratch some things on horns with resonable success, look at a few of the posts in the section by me, what do you want to know Doc?

[scrimman]

Well, I suppose with a moniker like 'scrimman' I should speak up here.  Like Beaverman said, what do ya want to know?

Sean

[doc623]

To any and all.
I would like to know the basic detail.
Do you use a needle or do you make small cuts?
How do you prep the surface?
What medium do you use to coat the marks?
What do you put on the finished scene?
I have just started scratching the surface.
I am having the local library do a search for reference materials and am still waiting.

[BEAVERMAN]

Doc, I use a #11 exacto knife to do most of my work, needles and other blades for thicker hevier lines and shading, when using the #11, break off the first third of the blade, way too flexible, sand or scrape your surface smooth, very smooth, remember your going to ink this and when you do it will fill any scratch in the surface, cut in your design, ink it, we use india ink, wipe off the excess, when alls said and done, we use some #0000 steel wool to clean up and knock down ridges, then a good coat of paste wax ie old johnsons in the yellow can, buff and voila!

[rweber]

Apologies for a hijacking, but I get a lot of 'bleeding' out of my lines and into the surrounding horn, is that from having the horn not smooth enough?

thanks

[BEAVERMAN]

Apologies for a hijacking, but I get a lot of 'bleeding' out of my lines and into the surrounding horn, is that from having the horn not smooth enough?

thanks

That be it!

[Gambia]

Apologies for a hijacking, but I get a lot of 'bleeding' out of my lines and into the surrounding horn, is that from having the horn not smooth enough?

thanks

That and it can also be if ya' don't get all that brownish scale off. When ya' scratch your design in, that scale will make fine chips along your lines and when the ink hits it, it goes in ALL scratches or lines. If your workin' horn, try and get rid of all that yellow/brown scale. get her down to the good white stuff and then smooth it, smooth it and then smooth it and after that smooth it some more.......you get the point.
Listen to beav, he's got it.

[BEAVERMAN]

we actually sand down to 320 then hit it with #0000 steel wool before scrathing it!, and FYI, technically, any scratcjing done on a horn is refered to as engraving, IE an engraved horn, scrimshaw is done on any ivory surface, just a bit of trivia for ya!

[scrimman]

Yeah, Beaverman is quite right; you gotta get it looking like glass before you start trying to scribe into it.  If you're going to use an xacto blade, make sure it stays SHARP!  A dull one will rip the horn instead of cut it like you want.  Personally, I use either a sharpened concrete nail or a sharpened micro file.  They take some time to make, but they're well worth it because you don't snap the tip off.  I use india ink as well (and it's period correct), but sometimes I use sepia mixed with india depending on what I'm doing at the time.  Lamp black (that black crud from the inside of your lantern) and linseed oil would work as well; it's the closest thing you can get to what the old whalers used for their scrim nowadays.
I've never put anything over my scrim; I'll have to try that out and see how it works.
A tip; use a single relatively low watt light source when you scrim.  After you pencil your design on, angle the horn to where you see the light reflecting off of that nice, shiny glass-like surface and start scribing there.  That way you'll see exactly where you are actually cutting the lines in as you are doing it.  
If you've a spare chunk of horn, polish it up and practice on it first.  Horn has a grain to it that's much more pronounced than Ivory or Micarta.  You'll have to learn how to work with it.
Whatever you do, don't rush.

Sean

[Voyageur]

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[rweber]

Great info, and thanks!

having lived and worked the waterfront in new england as a younger man I gave scrimming a go a number of times and I learned then that a mirrow finish had to be had before attempting inking, I do not know why I wouldn't assume the horn would be the same way, but I didn't connect the dots, and so maybe I will break out these horns that are sitting here idle for the last 12 years and see what I can do with them.
I thank you and apologize again for hijacking.

[BEAVERMAN]

Give it a go gents, worst that can happen is it does'nt turn out like you want, simply scrape and or sand it off and start again! You wouldnt be the first guy to do this!