Rod Lacey is a busy and productive artist. This is from February of 2020, on a knife he’d made some years back. My comments and edits will appear in italics from an email he’d recently sent.
“[This] scrimshaw will be on a “Fighter Knife” that I made years ago. The knife blade is 440c stainless steel with Snake Wood, Sterling Silver spacers, and a Whale tooth handle.
The overall length of the knife is 320 mm, with a weight of 441 grams.”
Stage 1- 4/2/2020
The knife with an ivory handle
Stage 2- 5/2/2020
This picture shows the knife handle with the picture attached ready to cut out. (at this point the picture is just adhered to the handle, no scrimshaw has occured. If you look closely you can see where Rod has cut the paper so it will lay properly)
Stage 3 -8/2/2020
This picture shows the Tiger cut out and black paint applied. I have masked the remainder of the knife with masking tape so as not to mark the knife as I work.
A problem had arisen, when I added the black paint; the ivory is quite porous and has soaked up the paint and left a cloudy effect on the ivory, I may have overheated the ivory when I polished it.
I think I will be able to overcome this problem, “here’s hoping.” (“here’s hoping” is a well-known saying of the world-famous “Hacker,” Gareth Herring.)
Stage 4 – 20/2/2020
This picture shows the areas with black finished; now the fun starts, the color.
Stage 5- 21/2020
The background is now complete; next, I will do the Tiger. Because of the curvature of the Ivory, the picture looks out of proportion.
Stage 6- 21/2/2020
The colour is now applied, I have now finished the scrimshaw, its time for the base.
Stage 7- 22/2/2020
Not sure what wood this is, I found it in the offcuts bin at the local timber yard, I made the nameplate from Mammoth ivory.
The finished piece.
To see more of Ron’s stunning work, head over to https://scrimshawaddiction.com.