Scrimshaw
A scrimsbander is a person who does scrimshaw work. The word
scrimsbander possibly has its origin from the word scrimsbanker, an old
man-o-wars man’s nick name for a shirker. Scrimshaw was theoretically done on a
man’s leisure time.
Most scrimshaw was done on whaling ships. Etched drawing and
carvings of scenes and designs were done on sperm whale teeth, whalebone, and
ivory. The etched areas had India ink wiped over them so the etching would
stand out.
I like scrimshaw and I was trying to tell the 8 year old
girl that lives in the house next to my sister, what scrimshaw was. I found a small piece of scrimshaw in my
sister's house and showed it to her. She liked it as well as I did. We went on
line and found pictures of scrimshaw. It is nice to see a young person show
interest in things like that.
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