This is my just started current scrimshaw project. 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  .

This is some really cool subject matter,...time period couldn't be better. Kentucky wasn't a sate until 1792,....this is still the frontier. We had just licked the red-coats,...kentucky long rifles were still the king,....scrimshawed powder horns were their constant companion,....and when you went to the outhouse you better have one eye out for injuns  

 

 

Interesting piece of history

This ought to be good, hope you take us along for the whole journey...

55 minutes ago, Cal said:

This ought to be good, hope you take us along for the whole journey...

Can do.

Welp Gent's,..per Cal's request I'll go ahead and make this a little "build thread" on some scrimshaw if you like.

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. 

Edited May 21, 20206 yr by aaronc

Very precise and exacting work, Aaron. Your hours of contemplation are paying off. A great start to another beauty.

Great start, indeed.  What is the tool that you are using?

12 hours ago, Cal said:

Great start, indeed.  What is the tool that you are using?

 

https://www.ebay.com/str/coulterprecision

 

I have 3 different ones,...plan to get a few more  . 

Back on this a little the last few days. Compass rose has been penciled and scratched,..more shading to add later. The little scroll cartouche is just penciled at the moment. In it will go the owner's name as follows...  "John Doe  His Horn" on 2 separate lines. It was very common on the originals for "His Horn" to follow the owners name,...just how they did it 

 

Still a lot of detail to add to the main cartouche box,....but it is at least framed in.  Here's a few progress pics  

 

 

 

 

That looks like very tedious work.  Great looking work!!

Aaron, flat out cool work, so the scroll cartouche, will that have only the two lines in it? I first looked at it and thought, all that writing in the original surely can't fit into that little box. But hey, with your skills, who knows.

 

I purchased a poor boy horn from October Country awhile back, no where nears the quality you and Bill are putting out, but for a starter in the black powder shooting craft it'll do me fine for now in the field. When I know what I am doing, I would like to have a horn with meaning, "John Morris~His Horn" does sound cool.

You and Bill will be hearing from me in the not so distant future!

 

1 hour ago, John Morris said:

Aaron, flat out cool work, so the scroll cartouche, will that have only the two lines in it? I first looked at it and thought, all that writing in the original surely can't fit into that little box. But hey, with your skills, who knows.

 

I purchased a poor boy horn from October Country awhile back, no where nears the quality you and Bill are putting out, but for a starter in the black powder shooting craft it'll do me fine for now in the field. When I know what I am doing, I would like to have a horn with meaning, "John Morris~His Horn" does sound cool.

You and Bill will be hearing from me in the not so distant future!

 

That is correct "Owners Name" and then under it will be " His Horn"..in the scroll cartouche. I'll post a couple examples of originals. It was extremely common back then and the contemporary guys do it today. ,....And Nosireee could I  fit all that script in that little bitty box. The large cartouche will have some of the original script in it,..and I'm gonna do my best to make it accurate. "This Map",..Washington's name,...Filson's (the mapmaker) name,..and enough extra to make sense. 

   On a side note,..in the scroll cartouche..count about 3 lines down and who's name do you see..Col. Dan Boon. He and the map maker John Filson were actually companions and Filson was the first or one of the first to put events in DB's life into print. This map just oooozes coolness for me 

      Certainly nothing wrong with any horn,...all them rebels were poor,...many horns weren't scrimshawed at all. Bill is still cranking them out at the moment,..I think he plans to run at least a few more years,..one never knows. I've got this horn,...2 more in hand,..and pretty much committed to a 4th to scrimshaw,...not exactly sure how that happened. Basically I'm about 6 months deep. I'm going to get caught up and just get back to doing simpler quality work for Bill....I really don't enjoy a backlog. I just turned down a couple this week,....but when you get ready down the road get with me and I'll try not to leave you hanging 

 

,........His Horn examples

I love these short illustrated history lessons Aaron

57 minutes ago, Cal said:

I love these short illustrated history lessons Aaron

 

Yes sir,....I never would buy a book without pictures....

Got a few more sessions in,..it's looking a little more "mappy" or is it "mappee" ,...anyway,..a little more like a map horn. I figure I have about 1/2 the map part roughed out. It's all only sketched and scratched so far,..no ink down yet. 

Wow that looks great so far!

13 hours ago, Gunny said:

Wow that looks great so far!

 

I second that!

1 hour ago, Cal said:

 

I second that!

So do I! Or, should it be that I third it? In any case, it's gonna be another masterpiece.

Got in 3 days this week,..not full days but you know,.... got to spend some time on this 3x  ,....So I think I really only have 1 large leg of this map to get down. I'll have to double check that but that's where I think I'm at. After that I'll finish up the cartouche box,.....then we'll do our first inking Everything shown has been gone over with the scrimshaw tool.