Scrimshanders: Two Hundred Years Behind the Times

Most of us have learned all we know about whaling from reading Moby-Dick. But artist Gary Kiracofe can tell us more, like what whalers did during down time, when they weren’t chasing a great white whale or one of his many gray siblings.

“During the 1800s whaling voyages lasted about three and a half years,” Kiracofe explained. “On those days without wind or whales when they had exhausted their tasks, they needed a hobby to keep them out of trouble.”

At the captain’s encouragement, Kiracofe continued, they’d make implements (pie crimpers, swifts, sewing tools) out of bone or ivory to give to a wife or girlfriend when they returned home. Often times they’d use baleen, 12 – 14 foot long thin strips of horn-like material taken from the whale’s mouth.

Those more artistically inclined would be given whale teeth the captain had saved in a chest. (In the 1960s, whale teeth were sold on Cape Code for a dollar a piece.)

“Sailors sometimes treated the tooth like a journal,” Kiracofe said, “doodling, adding dates, letters to a wife. The place where most of these turned up was bars; they’d go in and trade them for bottles of port or something.”

Scrimshaw artist Gary Kiracofe demonstrates the technique of bone-carving.

Both activities were designed to be therapeutic, he added. And both were originally called scrimshaw. “Somebody at some point in time realized that carving a whale tooth was a uniquely American craft,” Kiracofe said, “and scrimshaw came to mean only the engraving process.”

In short, beginning as early as the mid-18th century, whalers would create scrimshaw by painting a whale tooth with a mixture of soot and whale oil, carve text or designs using a 5 – 7 inch sailing needle as a stylus, wipe the tooth clean, and then ink the inscriptions with the same mixture. Sometimes designs were etched in brown, with tobacco juice as ink. Modern artists under good light engrave directly on clean ivory and then ink their designs.

The last Atlantic American whaling ship left in 1924, Kiracofe said, and the art dwindled. In 1972 the government declared whales a threatened species and in 1989, banned the importation of elephant tusks. Present day scrimshaw artists must respect regulations limiting them to ivory (including that used for piano keys) brought into the country.

But contrary to what we might expect, scrimshanders have access to ancient walrus tusks and prehistoric mammoth tusks and bones. Fossil-like walrus tusks accumulate on the shores of their habitat in Alaska and may legally be collected and sold by the native population. Pipeline installations in both Alaska and Russia uncovered vast quantities of mammoth tusks and bones; because they are not rare, they are also legally available to artists.

Equally unexpected is the biographical fact that scrimshaw artist Gary Kiracofe does not hail from New Bedford or Nantucket, both renowned scrimshaw centers, but rather from the inland town of Gratis, Ohio. However, Kiracofe was raised with a link to New England; his father had served with the Coast Guard during World War II, stationed on an icebreaker that navigated between Portland and Provincetown.

“We’d go out there for military reunions,” Kiracofe recalled, “and my older brother loved the Cape.” Dan Kiracofe went to the Cape for summer jobs and attended college on the East Coast.

“He was working on a master’s doing cancer research,” Kiracofe continued. “The money dried up and he was laid off.” Dan had been fascinated by scrimshaw and had taken adult education classes in the craft; it had enjoyed a resurgence of interest because John Kennedy was a collector.

While Faneuil Hall was being revitalized in Boston local artists were invited to sell their work from kiosks. Dan seized the opportunity and made a major career change.

Gary’s career shift followed. He had been teaching industrial arts at an inner-city high school in Columbus and became disenchanted with the work. He and his wife Dawn moved to St. Ignace looking for teaching jobs, and were offered the opportunity to manage a hotel.

As both brothers were naturally artistic, when Dan found he couldn’t keep up with the demand for his artwork, he taught Gary the craft, told him, “Make me stuff!” and he did.

Before long Gary was working full time and in 1979 began selling his work from a shop in the lobby of the Chippewa Hotel on Mackinac Island.

His younger brother Brian worked for Gary making scrimshaw as a summer job. “He sold his work to people in college,” Gary said, “and almost put himself through school with it!

“Once he graduated,” Kiracofe continued, “my older brother and I decided to help him get a start at Harbor Place in Baltimore.”

Now all three brothers are successful scrimshaw artists. Dan works out of Boston; Gary moved to the Green Gable Shops in 1992 to open Scrimshanders when his oldest child began high school, but he still maintains the shop on Mackinac Island; and Brian has moved to Newport.

Schrimshanders offers not only a selection of Kiracofe’s work, but that of other artists, some representing other cultures, including art created by Inuit. Vintage artwork, some Asian, is available as well.

An array of other art is also displayed in the store, including Nantucket baskets, coveted by collectors for their high quality.

Kiracofe’s work appears in a variety of forms. While he is working within an indigenous folk art genre, his art has evolved over time. For example, he uses ivory inlays from mammoth tusks for scrimshaw money clips, and other ivory for knife handles. And he buys old primitive walrus tusk tools and uses the artifacts as canvases for his scrimshaw.

Some authorities now consider scrimshaw to be fine art rather than a folk craft, and some purists object when scrimshaw departs from traditional forms. Kiracofe has chosen not to limit himself to copying primitive scrimshaw, using only black or brown ink to create traditional nautical motifs. Midwestern collectors of contemporary scrimshaw also enjoy other images drawn from nature and like a range of colors.

Kiracofe credits his wife and staff for his success as an artist. “Dawn is a natural retailer and organizer,” he said. “She made the store.” He also praises her for her ability to train staff and for her wish to treat them well.

Nineteenth-century whalers left the ship in rowboats for the hunt, throwing by hand harpoons attached to ropes into their victim who then took them on what was called “a Nantucket sleigh ride.” Whalers took chances in their work.

As did Gary Kiracofe and his brothers in their pursuit of a craft “Two hundred years behind the times.” It has been a good ride for them.

Scrimshanders is located at the Green Gable Shops in northern Ephraim on Highway 42. Gary Kiracofe demonstrates his artistic process of scrimshaw every Friday from 2 – 5 pm. For more information visit http://www.scrimshanders.com.