speaking of scrimshaw

[qtrhrs7]

Do darts REALLY work for scrimshaw, as long as it is a small job? By that I mean a simple or small picture. Or was a joke in the making? Thanks.

 

[LRB]

Anything with a sharp point will work. A knife type point may be better than a round point as it will be less apt to be controlled by the horn grain.

 

[dlpowell]

Exacto knife works best for me.

 

[Robby]

I sharpen or grind concrete nails to a point or even like a small skew chisel, re-harden, and mount them into dowels.
Robby

 

[2172]

I use an old pyramid point leather working needle inserted in the wood body of a lead pencil, the lead removed. That's for initial scratching. Then I switch to an ex acto knife..I use a caligraphy pen nib for filling in the lines with black India ink.Hank

 

[AeroncaTAL]

I use both a small xacto blade (with the tip cut off) and a carbide scribe. You can do it all with the blade, but the scribe will allow you to do small curves easier. If you look at original engraving on horns, you can tell that quite a few were done with a knife.
Scott

 

[omarick1948]

It seems like a lot of the newbee's to engraving horn like to buy stock in Exacto knives and blades! The old sailor's who originated scrimshawing, commonly used a knife tip or sail cloth needles. Horn is alot softer than ivory, so is easy to engrave. Ivory on the other hand is harder. It doesn't seem to matter what a person likes to use, as long as the tip is kept sharp and you cut deep enough so the scratching comes out darker and very visible, when inked. Remember ware! Over time shallow engraving (scrimshaw) will ware or sometime disappear from rubbing and hard use!

:2
Rick

 

[Walks Alone]

What I use is a couple of hardwwod handles I made, one with a taper reamer point that has been ground to a pyramid point; the second handle uses old phonograph needles. First one is strong enough to scrim antler/bone, second does the light work. Like drawing with a sharp pencil rather than cutting with a blade.

 

[chance]

Awsome!!!