Scrimshaw

[Gossman Knives]

Question for those that scimshaw. What basic hand tools are needed for doing scrimshaw? Any links to suppliers would be nice.
Thanks in advance.
Scott

 

[SDS]

In my VERY limited experience with it all that is needed is some fine sandpaper, india ink, and a scratch awl. I'm sure there are folks here with much more knowledge than me but I was able to buy one of those starter kits and it scratched the itch for me.

I don't know of any suppliers. Sorry.

SDS

 

[Josh Dabney]

Scott

I began with the starter kit also which is available from Jantz supply. The kit comes with what is basically an exacto knife with normal blade and also a stippling point that goes on the same handle. Also India ink, some trace-able patterns, a q-tip, a minute piece of steel wool, and the book "How to carve and scrimshaw ivory" by Blackie and Micheal Collins. I think the kit is only $13 so it is a worthy investment IMO.

However, I've done 2 of my own knives on Ivory paper micarta and am currently working on a piece on elephant Ivory (take with a grain of salt due to my limited experience) but I prefer using oil paints over the india ink by far. The ink will definatly get you going though and I did use it on my first knife. My quality improved drastically after reading some tutorials done by Katherine Plumber (She scrimmed the knife with the zebras drinking water)that are over on the forums at I-graver.com You'll probably find as I did that "scratching" technique is much more difficult to control for very detailed work and the "stippling " technique is capable of amazing detail.

There are pics of my scrimmed knives on my profile album, 1 in Kit Knives (1st) and 1 in Recent Knives if your interested in taking a look. Feel free to Contact me if you have any questions or just wanna chat about doing scrim and knives. Here are some links to get you going

http://jantzsupply.com/cartease/item-detail.cfm?ID=TR101
http://handengravingforum.com/showthread.php?t=2256
http://handengravingforum.com/showthread.php?t=2282

There is other info online also. Google "scrimshaw tutorial"

Hope this help ya out -Josh

 

[Gossman Knives]

Thanks for the info guys. Josh, it is my daugther who I'm interested in getting involved in this. She is a very talented artist who is getting ready to go to Maryland Institute College of Art this fall. I really would like to have her artwork involved in my knifemaking.
Scott

 

[RonJr.]

Hi Scott, If your daughter has any questions I would be more than happy to try and answer them and while you can start out very cheaply and get very good results with kits if you want to go to the next level you will need some higher end equipment. Ron Jr.