Antler Scrimshaw

[joehenz]

Anyone have any success doing scrimshaw on deer antlers? Any tips & tricks & tools you can share to make it turn out half-way decent?

I tried making a geometric design on a shed antler using a very fine exacto knife, and the results were on the poor side of mediocre.

So then I tried "stipling" the design using a sharpened awl, and the results were even worse!

 

[pichou]

Couple things.

Seal the antler first.

Use a extra fine permanent pen to mark the lines. Even still it might bleed a bit.

 

[omarick1948]

Only the solid non-porious antler material can be scrimshawed with any success. Usually, this is the crown or sides of the antler.

File, sand and high polish the area you want to scrimshaw. Don't leave ANY scratches...period, or they will show later. Antler is harder than horn, so I like to tape around the rest of the antler I am not going to scrimshaw. I then use common office Whiteout and brush a thin coat on the polished surface. Draw on my design with a No.6 hard pencil. I then cut-in the scrimshaw with my scrimshaw tool. For simplicity, my tool for antler is no more than a Glovers needle set into a piece of antler tip. Honed very fine and kept very sharp and flat sided.

After I have the main guide line scrimshawed on to the antler. I ink the area...let dry a few minutes and then lightly rub the ink and Whiteout off with 0000 steel wool. Don't rub too hard or you can loose some of the details. Now finish your scrimshawing...ink, hand buff and apply a little wax to seal your work. Some seal with finger nail polish.

Hope this might help,
Rick