How to Scrimshaw a Whale (Your First Scrimshaw Project)

In this scrimshaw tutorial you will learn how to How to Scrimshaw a Whale by first preparing an ivory whale tooth for carving and then the techniques for carving a whale on to it.

Scrimshaw carving is an ancient art dating back to prehistoric times. Scrimshaw is essentially scratching lines into bone, ivory, tusk, or horn, and then filling those in with ink. Brian Stockman is a master carver who has practiced scrimshaw for more than 45 years. Brian is a scrimshander.

Of course, not everyone has a whale tooth hanging around for scrimshawing, and anyway there are laws governing ivory, particularly elephant ivory, that you can research on your own. You can sometimes find existing ivory in antique stores: elephant, walrus, warthog, hippopotamus and even mammoth tusks; and whale and elk teeth. "Existing" being the key word.

You do not need ivory to scrimshaw, though. You can scrimshaw on antler (moose, deer) and bones. Turkey bones are a great material to practice scrimshaw on. You can even use cow bones sold cheaply as dog chews.

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00:00 How to Scrimshaw a Whale
00:25 What Natural Whale Teeth Would Look Like
00:44 Preparing the Ivory (Sanding!)
02:45 Nice Little Piece of Ivory
03:07 Inking the Surface (w/ India Ink)
03:34 Colors in Scrimshaw
04:26 Draw the Outline (Graphite)
05:33 Start Scratching!
05:53 Scribing the Outline
06:17 The Fun Can begin
06:29 But First, Glue the Ivory to a Board
07:16 Shading the Tail Fins
08:14 Giving the Tail Motion
08:26 The Main Body
09:15 Cross-hatching for Depth
09:36 Other Materials for Scrimshawing
10:08 Making the Whale Smile
10:30 Interlude (Having Fun)
10:46 The Eye (Triangular Point Scribe)
11:00 Re-Ink the Ivory (Fill the Scratches)
11:33 Reveal (0000 Steel Wool)
12:27 Polish
13:05 Thanks for Watching!





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Brian Stockman is a master carver with a deep knowledge of traditional wood, stone, bone, and ivory carving.