Nearly Finsihed Rum Horn, 1st Attempt at Scrimshaw

[mtgelaude]

     Howdy, Have been a member, and posted here a lot a few years ago, but sadly have fallen off the face for the last couple of years.  Figure that this is a good time to get back into it with asking for some feedback at my 3rd horn/1st rum horn/ 1st attempt at scrimshawing.  hopefully I can get the photos to work.  So what do u think, be honest, I can take it? 

     The horn is slightly antuqued, using yellow rit dye, with the process described in the Scott and Cathy Sibley book.  The plugs are made of Black Walnut, with the one being completly flush with the horn, while the larger one is slightly domed.  Has iron staples, and a reproduction of a North West Trade Co. token, secured with copper pins/nails.  Scrimshawed by me, obviously, with an exacto knife.  measures about 6" long, plug is about 2 1/2" X 3 1/8", naturally contoured not rounded or tapered.  I will probubly buy a woven strap for it, I think that it would look better than leather.

     This shows an overall of the horn, with one of my belt axes, and my belt knife, sheath enspired by a knife I saw on Chuck Burrows web site.  I also have a unfinished cow horn to show how much it is aged....not a whole lot, but noticeable.  Looks like a well taken care of antique.



     Here is a picture of the opposite side of the horn.  A tree with a beaver at the bottom, with the word "PERSEVERENCE".  This is taken of of the North West Trade Co. Coat of Arms, which is much more intecate,and the ree is only a fraction at the top of the overall symbol.



A close up of the tree and beaver, not so much of the beaver.  Admitedly the words look bad, I know, but it was my first shot a letters, not as easy as I though.  I learned the importance of a sharp blade on this part.



     This is similar to the coin, but is also a symbol of the company, with the date of their creation underneath it, 1779.  This is the second part I did, and the beaver admitedly looks better, clean cut.



     A picture of the side, showing the chevrons that I have going down two sides of the horn, with a little better picture of the beaver.



     Overall picture of the front, showing the iron staples, coin with a sunburst pattern scrimshawed to accent it a bit, which also inspired the little stars over the front.  Also the Freemason symbol, which was often done on many horns.  Quote from Thomas Paine, "reputation is what men and women think of us, character is what God thinks of us."  kinda hard to read, but can be made out if u work at it.



     The Freemason symbol, and some of the stars.  I will admit that I liked all the horns that I saw that have the tiny, tiny, pin sized dots, so I used them when I found an excuse.



     A close up of the coin, which was origionally planed to be drilled and I would place the stopper here, but I changed my mind, it looked to cool as it was.



     And the writing on the top of the horn....scratchy, I know.



     And the chevrons going down the sides of the horn.



This one shows just a bit more of the beaver, with the chevron right belw it.



     A final picture showing the domed plug, which is still goign to get a beeswax finish, on both plugs.  and the staples.  i am going to drill a hole in the opposite plug for the spout/stopper, do u have any hints, or is there a trick, or should it be straightforward.  My one concern is that this one is thiner, about 1/4" or so, hope that will work.




     Now for some questions, I have seen some horns with two plugs, assuming that one is for air, for ease of pouring, but are the required?  I know how to coat the beesway in the horn to make it sutable for drinking, and such, so I am set as far as that goes.  What do u guys use for scrimshaw, I tried razor blades, that failed, and found that the Exacto Knife got dull fast, but what could be used?  Here is a slightly lazy question, what would you use for a stopper, I can buy a fiddle peg, but that seems a little standard.  I found some bone ones, but I am not paying 60$ for 4 of them.  Would u use a turned peg, or whittle one on yor own?  I though about a nice turned one, but I do not have a lathe, do any of you have any to sell, or are u willing ot make one or two, for money of course?

[SPG]

mtgelaude,

Nice job...the only criticism I would offer is that if you are going by your date of 1779 then you should leave the "G" out of the Masonic square and compass. It is my understanding that the "G" was a later addition to the symbol. A small point, and probably unimportant.

Steve

[Ky Ken]

I like it 

[Tom Currie]

Scrimshawing horn is tougher than it looks. I have done one horn and my lettering was somewhat crude also.  I like your horn, it's got a nice a nice folksy feel to it for me. I like the Northwest Trade Co theme also. Well done.

[seesbirds]

You did a nice job on the horn.  It has a consistency of theme and execution throughout and all in all I think you should be proud of this as your first attempt at scrimshaw.  I like the theme and the coin but you need to put the two holes in it if you are ever going to use it.  My compliments to you on the photography.  Your photographs are well lit and well composed and they show off the various elements of your work very nicely. 

Keep scratching, you will improve with practice.

Regards,

Mark Preston
www.shinintimespowderhorns.com

[Randy Hedden]

A couple of tips.  Most people who use an X-acto knife for scrimshaw,  break the blade off short and resharpen the blade.  This takes a lot of the "flex" out of the blade and reduces breakage.  Anytime you are using a knife type tool for scrimshaw you need to keep a sharpening stone handy to touch up the blade when it starts to get dull. 

When scrimshawing letters you should cut three parallel line to act as a guide for lettering.  Upper case letters will use the top and bottom line for the top and bottom of your letters.  The middle and bottom lines will be the top and bottom of lower case letters.  The middle line can also be used to locate where the cross bars, such as on an "H" or "A" will be and to find the middle of letters such as "B", "P", etc.  If you are going to use nothing but upper case letters then you don't have to use a middle line and can just fudge in the cross bars, but the middle line will help.  The three lines should actually be lightly scrimshawed onto the horn and will show in the finished product.

Randy Hedden 

[mtgelaude]

Thanks everyone,

     I did not really plan on the horn being dated by 1779, but was aiming for the horn being done by someone years later, in the 1800's.  I actually though about putting "- 1821" after the 1779, like it was not planed when the horn was designed, but decided against it for some reason or another.  Honestly, I did not even think about the G in the freemason symbol, I am not one, though I do have family who are, but did not even cross my mind as to the age of the G or when it was added, or if it even was eventually added by the masons.  I have seen some horns, antiques and contemporaries also, that have the symbol, G and all, but Maybe they were latter. 

     Thanks for the tip on the knives, I would use the knifes for a bit, then the very tip would break off, and that would work well for slow curves and straight lines, but not to good for sharp curves, breaking of the tip might be a good idea, I will give it a shot next time I do scrimshaw on a horn.  The next thing I want to try is doing spots on a horn, I have seen a few, but am not sure how they do it.

     As far as using three guide lines for lettering, I decided that that would work the best to, for the very reasons u stated, so I drew three lines, but only scrimshawed the top and bottom ones.  Scrimshawing those letters is hard though, I wonder if there is a better tool, but I will try the X-acto knife trick.  Now that I have received an answer, I will drill a second hole, somewhere, I don't know where right now but will find one soon.  Thanks everyone for the comments, they are much appreciated.