Sometimes fishing expeditions can get a little boring – especially if the trip lasts more than a year (sometimes up to five years). At least that was the case for whale fishermen in the 1700’s and 1800’s. So to pass the time, the sailors used what they had to entertain themselves. One way they did this was to carve beautiful designs and scenes into whale’s teeth or bones or even walrus tusks. The sailors would use a pocketknife or sometimes a sail needle (a thick sturdy needle used to repair sails) to carve pictures into the teeth, bone or tusks.
Once the carving was complete, they would rub soot from fat or oil burning lamps (this soot was called lamp black) over the carving so the picture would stand out. Many of the carvings were detailed and quite intricate. They included fishing scenes, landscapes, flowers, musical instruments and more. A person who makes scrimshaw art is called a scrimshander. No one knows for sure where the word scrimshaw comes from but many believe that it comes from a nautical term that Dutch and English sailors used that means “to waste time.”
While scrimshaw art is pictures carved into teeth and bones, sometimes sailors would carve the bones into useful things like hinges, pie crimpers, handles for canes and umbrellas and other useful items. This is also scrimshaw art. While this art form peaked in the mid 1800s there are still scrimshanders that make beautiful pieces of art today.
