Murrmurr
SF VIP
- Location
- Sacramento, California
My oldest son took the very first piece of scrimshaw I ever did to his tattoo artist. Result pictured below.
Back in 1983, when Grant (the son) was 8 or 9, I started doing scrimshaw. For my very first attempt, I scrimmed a tiny clipper ship onto an old ivory backgammon piece I found in the drawer of a chest that I bought at a thrift store. It turned out ok. Not great, pretty simple, but it was a really tiny canvas, as you can see. Grant was fascinated by it, so I put it in a 6" velvet-lined wooden box, also from a thrift-store, and kept practicing.
A year or so earlier my dad had started making knives of all sorts, and when my scrimshaw improved by a lot, he had me scrim some artwork on several knife handles made of pieces of Elk antler, or that had faux ivory inserts. People who bought them were happy to pay double for knives with scrimshaw. Most of them asked for something specific; a deer in a pine forest, a big trout on a fishing line, a pin-up girl, stuff like that.
Scrimshaw pieces that I did for practice or for fun or to try out new material, I chucked into that 6" box. And about 6 years ago, when I moved into the small apartment I just moved out of, I gave the box to Grant.
And this was my Christmas present from him last month. The tattoo was just finished when Grant took this pic, so it's still pretty red and still has some betadine wash on it.
That's the actual scrimshawed backgammon piece sitting on a tattoo of a compass, above the ship. Weird knowing I did that almost 40 years ago. And I made the scribes myself, out of Exacto knives and sharpened nails embedded into wooden pen-handles. There's no way I could scrimshaw now. My hands would totally cramp up within a couple minutes, and they'd get all swollen and achy. Not to mention I'd need a really strong magnifier, too.
Back in 1983, when Grant (the son) was 8 or 9, I started doing scrimshaw. For my very first attempt, I scrimmed a tiny clipper ship onto an old ivory backgammon piece I found in the drawer of a chest that I bought at a thrift store. It turned out ok. Not great, pretty simple, but it was a really tiny canvas, as you can see. Grant was fascinated by it, so I put it in a 6" velvet-lined wooden box, also from a thrift-store, and kept practicing.
A year or so earlier my dad had started making knives of all sorts, and when my scrimshaw improved by a lot, he had me scrim some artwork on several knife handles made of pieces of Elk antler, or that had faux ivory inserts. People who bought them were happy to pay double for knives with scrimshaw. Most of them asked for something specific; a deer in a pine forest, a big trout on a fishing line, a pin-up girl, stuff like that.
Scrimshaw pieces that I did for practice or for fun or to try out new material, I chucked into that 6" box. And about 6 years ago, when I moved into the small apartment I just moved out of, I gave the box to Grant.
And this was my Christmas present from him last month. The tattoo was just finished when Grant took this pic, so it's still pretty red and still has some betadine wash on it.
That's the actual scrimshawed backgammon piece sitting on a tattoo of a compass, above the ship. Weird knowing I did that almost 40 years ago. And I made the scribes myself, out of Exacto knives and sharpened nails embedded into wooden pen-handles. There's no way I could scrimshaw now. My hands would totally cramp up within a couple minutes, and they'd get all swollen and achy. Not to mention I'd need a really strong magnifier, too.
