Layout of a new scrimshawed horn - not a copy

[rich pierce]

For those who do this, any hints or tricks?? I’m considering drawing panels on paper and sticking them on. My horn will have name and date, borders at butt and neck, and be nearly fully covered with panels but not be a copy of an original. I’m doing a lot of drawing and erasing. Does anyone draw an “unfurled” horn and work on that?

[Cory Joe Stewart]

I have learned it is very difficult to use templates on  horn.  If you think about it the diameter of the horn is always changing, so a flat piece of paper will always just end up distorted.  I learned this from a friend of mine you is a tattoo artist and does not use templates. 

I have always just free handed on the horn itself. 

Cory Joe

[rich pierce]

I have learned it is very difficult to use templates on  horn.  If you think about it the diameter of the horn is always changing, so a flat piece of paper will always just end up distorted.  I learned this from a friend of mine you is a tattoo artist and does not use templates. 

I have always just free handed on the horn itself. 

Cory Joe

Aarrrgh, Cory! I’ll have to be brave and go for it!

[T*O*F]

Get some Frisket paper and make your templates.  You can mold it to the horn.  Poke thru it with a pointed stylus to transfer pattern to the horn.

https://www.amazon.com/Grafix-Purpose-Frisket-9-Inch-12-Inch/dp/B0027A7CO8

[rich pierce]

Get some Frisket paper and make your templates.  You can mold it to the horn.  Poke thru it with a pointed stylus to transfer pattern to the horn.

https://www.amazon.com/Grafix-Purpose-Frisket-9-Inch-12-Inch/dp/B0027A7CO8

Thanks!

[Tim Crosby]

 Would this help? I know you've seen the "Hartley Book" any hints in there?

   Tim

  https://americanlongrifles.org/forum/index.php?topic=6915.msg65158#msg65158

[rich pierce]

Would this help? I know you've seen the "Hartley Book" any hints in there?

   Tim

  https://americanlongrifles.org/forum/index.php?topic=6915.msg65158#msg65158

Yep that helps. Just a lot of artistic decisions to make on layout. I’m thinking I should get the borders and name and date in place and then fiddle around more with panels. I have the cart in front of the horse. I’d better do the construction bits first before trying to work out all the design details.

The horn is going to be based on an ancestor who spent a winter among the Seneca repairing their pots and guns and whatever else in 1754. So, planning the horn to represent that winter there. He was supposed to stay till the corn was a foot high but they were in a famine and he had to return earlier.

[Bob Gerard]

I am sure that whatever you come up with that it will be really beautiful.
When I do my scrimshaw horns I just draw the designs on the horn. The hardest thing sometimes is coming up with what to incorporate in the designs. Going with panels is how I like to do them and have come up with some nice and simple bordering designs.

[T.C.Albert]

Rich, after I have my drawings and layout decided on, I free hand transfer it onto the horn with a #2 pencil. I squirt it with a little hair spray to help keep it from smudging while I carve it. To some extent you can use dividers and compasses to help accurately transfer your drawings too. That said, though I've never tried it, I've been told that some Tansel horns have little stipple marks presumably left from using a sharp awl or big needle tip to transfer the rough outline of a drawing done on paper to the horn. 
Tim A