- Scrimshaw is considered a folk art so most anybody can do and make a piece of scrimshaw.

It takes time, it takes a lot of practice.

(claps) I'm Brian Kiracofe and this is my take on scrimshaw.

Scrimshaw is the art of engraving on ivory or bone.

The sailors were at sea hunting the whale for the oil.

That would take anywhere from two to five years was an average voyage.

No one really knows the origin of the word scrimshaw.

It does mean a lazy person or killing time.

So the sailors were doing scrimshaw in their downtime between the whale hunt.

They would scrape down a a whale tooth with their jackknife and sand it with usually shark skin and then buff the tooth with chamois and get it somewhat polished enough that they can scratch a design into the tooth.

From there, rub paint over it, or for the most part it was lampblack from the whale-oil lamps.

The early scrimshaw onboard whale ships, especially on whale teeth, were mostly scenes that they saw every day, but they also did designs that were reminding them of home.

You see a number of women on whale teeth and you know, you can date it almost by the attire that they were wearing.

So a lot of times they're in Victorian outfits and often the sailor would take a picture from a magazine and lay it out on a whale tooth, put little pin pricks into that, like a connect-the-dot type of idea, and then come back and do the engraving.

So they weren't as artistic as a lot of the modern scrimshaw artists are.

But there were some absolutely beautiful pieces done by the sailors on board a ship.

In the 1960s, President Kennedy was a scrimshaw collector.

There's photographs of him in the Oval office and a whale tooth on the desk.

It was said that Jackie Kennedy was, you know, buying pieces for him for his collection.

He was buried with a scrimshaw piece.

And then the art became much more popular when people realized that he was a major collector.

(comfortable music) (comfortable music continues) I've been there 38 years.

We sell mostly my artwork.

I have other artists that I work with that specialize more in working on whale teeth.

I like to work in miniature, so I do a lot of the jewelry and pocket knives and cuff links.

A lot of items for men.

Do pendants, earrings, bracelets for women.

When I'm doing a piece, often I'll look at the ivory and based on the grain pattern and just the variations in the natural material, that'll help determine what design I'm doing.

And from that point, it's just a free-hand engraving, scratching the design and when I'm finished I just rub a paint over it, wipe the paint off, and there's the design.

It takes a lot of manual dexterity, focus.

I've found I do better work when I can sit at my work bench and have no distractions.

Over the years I've had to go towards magnification, get into your 50s and you can't see up close.

(ethereal music) Prior to 1972, there were no restrictions on taking and killing animals.

And at that time we realized that we better start protecting these animals that were either going extinct or on the path.

Congress passed the Endangered Species Law.

In 1973, they expanded with the Marine Mammals Protection Act and that specifically covered whales and walrus, and you know, any marine mammal.

There are exemptions that allow us to work with the old materials.

The laws are strict.

It's five years in prison and half-a-million-dollar fine for breaking the Endangered Species laws.

So everything that we work with has documents, has paperwork that shows its origin prior to the dates.

And you know, we can follow that law and still work with, you know, the same materials that the sailors worked with.

Scrimshaw has an appeal because of the history.

Very uniquely American.

It's called one of the few original American folk arts.

So a certain number of people will always like the history, like that this was something that started in America.

It's a very unique art form and I think people will always be interested in it as a folk art.

Just the uniqueness about it.

(claps) I'm Brian Kiracofe and that was my take on scrimshaw.

- Finally tonight on this episode of "Weekly Insight,"