Home » Visual & Performing Arts » Wildlife Art » Art of the Scrimshander

Art of the Scrimshander

© Jen Longshaw

It was a time of sailing ships plying the oceans, empires and explorers, new lands and expanding horizons. Whaling boats carried on their bloody trade, their crews composed of a tough kind of individual used to a hard life of gruelling work. Yet while idling their time between whaling on their 2-5 year voyages these rough men crafted items of lasting beauty and incredible delicacy.

Scrimshaw is the art of etching a picture onto ivory, bone or baleen (strips of keratin found in nails and hooves and instead of teeth in the Baleen whale). The word was used to describe the objects carved or etched by the whalemen who adopted the art in the early 19th century although in Dutch scrimshaw means "to waste one's time". Originally an indigenous American craft (pursued by the Inuit and other Native American groups on the Northwest Coast) American whalemen found it an enjoyable and also profitable way in which to fill their spare hours on board. They were often part-paid in the whale teeth and jawbones which were a by-product of their profession and would trade the finished artwork in port for goods and services. Otherwise the items were made as homecoming gifts for loved ones.

Besides teeth they used whatever they came across on their travels. Hippopotamus teeth, elephant tusks, tortoise shells and even coconuts were used to craft canes, corset stays, decorated etched teeth, pastry crimpers, boxes, rings, bracelets, picture frames and even bird cages. Favorite subjects were of course whaling scenes, women in the fashions of the time, pictures copied from contemporary magazines and ships.

Each object took hours to complete as the bone was filed and sanded (a process often done with shark skin), polished and then etched. Knives or needles were used to "scrim" the whalebone along with saws made from barrel hoops, jack knives and home made files. Soot or other pigments such as ink, tobacco or fruit juices were then mixed with whale oil and rubbed over the engraving, the excess wiped away leaving a residue of pigment in the lines.

Today's contemporary "scrimshanders" face a different world with depleted natural resources from which to compose their work. CITES or the Endangered Species Act (1973) limits the materials allowed to be used. Instead naturally shed deer, moose and elk antlers, ivory keys from old pianos, fossil walrus, mammoth and mastodon ivory, and vegetable ivory from the Tagua nut from South America (which has the look and durability of ivory) are their canvases. Besides using the age-old methods of scrimming these new artists also use machinist scribes and high-speed dental drills keeping this craft alive in the new millennium.

The copyright of the article Art of the Scrimshander in Wildlife Art is owned by . Permission to republish Art of the Scrimshander in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.