RealMontanan's schrimshaw

[Bryan]

I don’t know if anyone has been watching the progress of RealMontanan’s scrimshaw work on this forum… If not, I would highly recommend viewing the following thread...
http://www.allaboutpocketknives.com/kni ... out32.html

I have enjoyed it so much that I have talked him into doing a project for me. He has an ivory handled case russlock from Michael Prater and Co. to work on. I spoke with him on the phone today and left it up to him on whether or not to share pictures. (side note… he is a very nice fellow)

Hopefully, he will post some updates here as he goes along… if not, I’ll sneak some on here when I get the finished product. Unless he forbids me of course.

Bryan

[RealMontanan]

Greetings!
Finally after a messy bungled start here is the 'Re' start!
Anyone out there practicing scrimshaw or just learning beware of leaving a project under the lights with transparent tape on the ivory.
Something about the glue and the ivory don't like each other much at all! After having some company show up for the Memorial Day weekend, and leaving Bryan's knife on the bench a lot of the time with the bench light on, the tape (scotch) glue turned into a stubborn goo!
When I returned to the knife after a five day hiatus..... ok, six days! I began by applying the rich black Ivory Black ( actually made from burnt ivory ) oil paint to the surface of the ivory on which the whole fish outline had been dotted in with a .008" point on the end of a carbide pin in a pin vise. Lots and lots and lots of tiny, tiny holes should have filled in with the rich ivory black oil paint. The paint, heat, time and tape glue turned the surface into a greasy, gummy, messy, mess! Never heard of or seen anything like it and of course hit the panic button as hard as I could both hands! Yikes! Well to make a messy story short, the holes just would NOT fill with rich black oil paint, they filled with gooy glue....... Arg!
After repeated attempts to let or get alcohol to dissolve the glue and then blow it out with compressed air I gave up and repolished the ivory using a linen wheel on my dremel tool. If you do repolish ivory, stay away from the hard felt polishing tools.... they can burn ivory very quickly and the dark brown spots are not good, not good at all! Yes, I've done that before.. (and NO, not on this piece! ) Anyway the repolish takes the surface down by probably a fraction of a 'thousandth' of an inch. But it's just enough to leave a little tiny, barely visible under the microscope, dots! In this first photo, if you have good eyes you will see very faint little dots that tell the tail and then of course the newer darker fresh work that I have just redone.
I intend on making a contribution each day until this complex and hopefully good looking job is finished. A time lapse accounting of the work of scrimshawing an already classic Case Russlock rework by Michael Prater and Co. and belonging to our leader Bryan Sanders!
Here is STEP 1 done twice!
And Thank You all for stoppin' by and taking a look.
Colin Paterson, a.k.a. RealMontanan
P.S. After I get going here I promise to be a lot less 'wordy'!! And use a lot more pictures... Promise!

[El Lobo]

Good story....very interesting! (Now, where is that "Thumbs Up" Emoticon??).



Bill

[RealMontanan]

Maybe gonna get two posts in today... on a run!
It never fails to amaze me how much construction looks like destruction....?!?!?!
RealMontanan..... <<<<< "my eyes" after a good long session of scrimshaw! Hahaha! That Icon is funny..... Heeeeeee!

Now, let's see here, where's that SPELL CHECK thingy .... Oh oh.. Hmm...Oh well, Ok, I guess I better keep it cimpul because I don't spell whell sumtymes. Moore L' ate her.

[RealMontanan]

How many dots could a scrimshander eat,
If a scrimshander could eat dots?

Oh Boy..... Sheesh!

[RealMontanan]

Close up of a LARGEMOUTH'S MOUTH....
I'm trying to make his eye look forward and down because there are going to be a whole school of minnows trying to out race the HAWG!
Long ways to go and countless dots to finish....
Thanks for lookin' in on the progress...
Colin Paterson, a.k.a. 'RealMontanan'

[RealMontanan]

Tough photography... If you get the BIG image centered in the screen, and then back away from the monitor it will look a little better... The THREE labeled 100% - 150% - 200% look a lot larger than life-size on my monitor.... Well it's the best I could do.... Dotted Out.
RealMontanan

[RealMontanan]

Here is the knife itself, folded, with the about half the bass on it.... the fins although large shouldn't take the exhaustive efforts that the rest of the fish is.... of course there is the school of minnows yet to do and if the design calls for it some underwater vegetation.

For those that have noticed....... the green cast on the right side of the knife is how my digital camera interpreted the light being cast by the fluorescent tubes on that side of my work area. I use three light sources .... a color corrected incandescent, a regular incandescent, and the small F15T8 fluorescent tubes. If this where in color, I'd use only color corrected bulbs. I find the mix to be the most relaxing to work under. Of course, nothing beats day light for the absolute best source.
I'll see what it looks like this evening... and I may post again.

Thank you all for looking in.... it is truly appreciated!

[RealMontanan]

Yes Sir.... THIS is one fish story I'll never forget! I'm going to call this bad boy my own at least for a time.
Although scrimshawing this big bass is fun for me, there isn't anything that beats the thrill of having one of these big boys launch themselves, from the depths, and SLAM your lure while coming up and out of the water with your lure dancing on the end of his nose! I got in on that action one time.... It was right about dark and the lunker didn't make his move until the bait was just about to the little row boat we where sitting in the bottom of ... so it was darn near eyeball to eyeball as the big fish slipped the hooks and returned to it's watery lair. My empty lure swung from the end of my ultra-light rod just as my lower jaw hung from my skull- HUH? What - a - shocker! You quit breathing for about a minute when that happens to you! I swear! Oh well,...er, I guess that makes two fish stories about Big Bad Bass I'll never forget!
RealMontanan- a.k.a. Colin Paterson

[RealMontanan]

A school of minnows that is..... take a look at the last three images of the BASS as it becomes complete! Hmmmm if I could take better photos, I'd post a close up of the finished BASS. My current ratio is about one out of five or six.... so I'll have to try some more. But before the minnows are all done, I'll get ONE.... I hope!

RM.

[Bryan]

RealMontanan finished the scrimshaw project!!! He has been a very bussy man lately tying things up. I told him I would post a picture of the finished product.

He took this picture yesterday. It's a great picture of a great knife. (I made it smaller so that it would fit.)

He sent the knife yesterday, and he set me up with a delivery confirmation number to track and everything. Great job Colin! I have really enjoyed watching this one, and I can't wait to see it in person.

If anyone is interrested in contacting Colin about having something scrimshawed, his email address is...
[email protected]
He gave me permission to post this BTW; He said he would love to find some more projects.

[Bryan]

I forgot to report that I received this knife. It seriously left me speachless and stunned. In person, it looks much more impressive than the pictures here make it look. I've showed it off to friends and family and the reaction was the same all around. Everyone thought it was amazing. Thanks Colin for this great piece of art!

Bryan

[El Lobo]

Very, Very nice Bryan, in fact, AWESOME!!.....

Great work Colin, true art......Blackie Collins would be GREEN with envy...

Bill