I'm going to make this a little build thread on a scrimshaw project,...I had posted some initial pics in Carl's pic thread,..but we'll start at the beginning and move forward here with a little repeat of the background info... Subject matter happens to be a 1784 Kentucke Territory map. The map is the work of a gentleman named John Filson, and as per the fancy cartouche title it was presented to the Congress but more specifically George Washington. It states "Late" commander of the army so he was no longer an active General but this was also before he was president.........things were just getting going
I kinda have just taken a light week or 2 off from my swing at being a scrimshander,..really this initial sketchy outline of the cartouche was just simply kickin my tail. Anyway,...I at least got it boxed in and a once over with the tool on everything shown. No way this will be a bench copy of this image,..way too complicated for my skills...but it is one of the main points of the work so there is much more on it to come. I had 3 sides drawn,..so today I finished to 4th side of the cartouche and then went over all of it with the scrimshaw tool. Next time it'll be pick up the pencil and add more drawing. Spent about 2.5 hours on it today. Probably got a good 4 or 5 hours in it on previous sessions....I've done some erasing I know it doesn't look like close to 8 hours work,..but it is. That's not counting the chair time I spend with a horn at night laying stuff out in my head before I ever put a pencil on it The thing is with these horns,...they have an obvious strong taper,....so something like a "boxy" kinda image sometimes has to have a slant to it as well or you end up with a am image that just doesn't look right on a nice curvy horn,..at least to me. So here is some pics,....First one is of the sketch before scratching and you can figure it out from there. As I move along I am constantly holding the horn up to natural light to make sure I haven't missed any lines.
What a project !!! You're lucky. The voices in my head started speaking Portuguese. Now I don't know what the heck they're jibber jabbering about...
That is an amazing map! Notice that Harrodsburg and Bardstown are on the map.... Excellent work! Thank you for sharing!
Yes,..the owner of the horn actually wants Harrodsburg to be sure and be on the horn. There is a fort there and a yearly camp/show that these guys go to. Thanks to the rest for the comments,..
Have gotten 3 or 4 more sessions in,...compass rose is roughed in,..and I'd say about half of the map is roughed in. Fancy box cartouche is not finished but we'll get back to that. I wanted to get the overall layout kinda in place. Also there is a scroll that is found on the map,...Daniel Boones name is actually in it,..but it is in place opposite side of the horn as the cartouche,..the owners name will go here. No ink is down yet,...only sketched and scratched in.
