Scrimshawed Powder Horn

[Coyote_Kyle]

Hello, here's something I've been working on over the past few weeks. This is my first time properly working with horn (spoiler - it was a success). After all the very positive comments on the moose antler I posted here, I've decided I'll be listing this one for sale. Anyways, thought y'all would enjoy some pics of the process I took.
This horn is one of only a few I have, and was pretty beat up to begin with. But after sanding it, the horn ended up taking a pretty good polish, so I decided to go ahead with a design.
Here's the horn after polishing.

 

[Coyote_Kyle]

For the design, I went with an older illustration of a Continental Soldier priming his musket, from a reference I found. This is also my first time scrimshawing a detailed image of a person.

A nice action shot of myself carving the flag in the background

 

[Coyote_Kyle]

Winged skull motif on the reverse, during application of India ink

 

[Coyote_Kyle]

And, after many hours of work, the horn is finished. This older beat up horn really cleaned up nicely, and I'm very satisfied with the result. I managed to breath new life into a less than perfect horn, and gave it some real character.


Anyone here that has done scrimshaw on horn before, I had a few questions I was wondering about. First of all, I've seen some much bolder, darker, and deeper lines on others' work, but mine always ends up very fine, with some lines being almost erased upon final polish. So what's your preferred tool?
Second, I found it difficult to get the india ink to polish off the smooth surface, as it tended to stay on the surface in spite of the fine sandpaper I use to polish. I've never had this happen to such an extent with bone (my usual material of choice) or the two bits of Ivory I was lucky to work with. Does this happen often, or is there a better way to ink horns?

Thanks for looking, hope you all enjoy viewing my work! Senior year of high school doesn't leave much time for scrimshaw, so I enjoy when I can find time to do a piece like this.