Scrimshaw – "tattoos" on the knife handles

Scrimshaw is a type of bone carving, which includes engraving with a touch-up of the drawing. It appeared as an “art movement” in the XVIII century on fishing and whaling ships of the United States. Initially, the main material for creating scrimshaw was whalebone, shark and sperm whale teeth, as well as walrus tusks. 

The topics of the first prints were selected various events of marine themes, images of fish, mermaids, etc. The products on which the images were applied were most often a variety of boxes and kitchen utensils: spoons, forks, and of course knives. As tools for carving, needles, and penknives were used, with which numerous strokes and dots were applied. Then the resulting image was filled with paint, which was rubbed and gradually penetrates the bone. As the size of the navy increased, the popularity of scrimshaw began to grow, and the geography of its distribution expanded. Land artists who were not associated with marine fishing began to use the bones of land animals as a material for their work. For a long time, before the ban on elephant hunting, ivory and above all tusks were used for scrimshaw. In our time, in addition to the bones and teeth of marine animals, scrimshaw is applied to the tusks, bones, and teeth of mammoths, the extraction of which is actively carried out primarily on the territory of Russia. 

In Yakutia, there are huge cemeteries of animals that have died for several tens of thousands of years. The best materials are tusks, as they have a dense and non-porous structure, which allows you to get a smooth and uniform working surface. It is important for drawing the smallest details of the drawing and the uniformity of the distribution of tone and paint in the image.

The basis of the performance of scrimshaw is the drawing of small dots on the surface of the bone. For this purpose, two main methods are used: pyrography (burning on the bone) and engraving. Many artists create a mixed type of scrimshaw: part of the image is formed by engraving, part by burning. After applying the image, it is painted with paints by applying layers. 

The work of creating scrimshaw is usually divided into several stages.

1. The stage of preparing the material for work.

First of all, the master selects the material. Bones, in particular, are pre-boiled and bleached, this method is not used for tusks. Then it is sanded with files and sandpaper, after which it is polished using polishing compounds. Also, any natural material needs to eliminate small surface defects, such as cracks, small chips, etc. They are tightened with glue or rubbed with wax.  The surface is polished almost to a mirror state.

2. The stage of applying the initial drawing.

On the prepared material, the desired composition is drawn with a soft graphite pencil. Or craftsman works on a stencil of an already created drawing and transfer the image to the bone along the contour with short, small punctures with a needle, then tint it.

3. The stage of the final creation of the picture.

When using the pyrography technique, the drawing on the bone is burned out by applying very small dots. Various incinerators (pyrographs) are used, both factory-made and hand-made. As a working tool, a variety of needles are used, which have different diameters and sharpening angles - to obtain points of different sizes. When drawing, the points are applied with nichrome or brass needles of different temperatures with different pressures. This affects the size of the point and its color and allows you to create bright checkered light and shade. 

In the engraving technique, the points are applied by piercing, also with specially made needles with different sharpening angles. Most often, homemade needles are made from dental borers. The borers are made of high-quality tool steel and meet the necessary requirements for hardness and strength under impact loads. The needles are hit with a special small hammer. The first blows are made with a minimum amplitude, then the pressure increases. Besides, electric jewelry engraving machines (drills), as well as pneumatic engravers with various sets of special attachments are used. Electric tools significantly reduce the time of engraving.  

After applying the pattern to the surface of the bone, it is tinted with paints or ink. The paint is applied pointwise to a specific part of the picture and shaded on the surface with a cotton swab. Then the paint is washed, but it remains in the places of punctures left by the needles. The paint of different colors is distributed in layers, gradually painting over the entire surface of the picture. Creating scrimshaw requires drawing very small details, for this purpose, various magnifying devices are used: powerful magnifiers and various microscopes.

Scrimshaw is created not only on knives with a fixed blade but also on folding knives. Most often, these are highly-artistic products, various souvenir sets, table compositions. But on working knives, the image made in such a technique can also be used. The themes of creating miniatures are most often different scenes of hunting, fishing, or landscapes.  

The work on the scrimshaw is characterized by a very high level of painstaking and patience, which is inherent primarily in master jewelers. Therefore, it is the workers of jewelry workshops, who have a great skill of precise work and the necessary tools, who today make up the bulk of the scrimshaw masters. For more than three hundred years, this technique has existed and improved.