Carving horn, bone...

My favorite hobby: I reenact the middle ages in the SCA. I pretend that I am a viking from Greenland in the year 1100 or so (usually earlier). My hobbies have veered towards such activities that a viking would do. Nalbinding, horn and bone carving, embroidery, styles and patterns of clothing that have been recovered and re pieced together.

Today I will show you a photo of a blow horn that I carved. I began with the soak in warm water, carve a bit, then soak and carve a bit more... After two days of a few hours at a time, my wrists and hands were in agonizing pain. Ow! Just thinking about it...! So I used diamond-tip dremel bits. Even my little rechargeable dremel is immensely easier than the way "the ole vikings" did it in their day, certainly!

Nice shadow effect,I think. It is not completely finished as fine sanding needs yet to be done. Here's a close up where you can see the fine point sahrpie marker that was used to draw the design. It is supposed to be a gripping beast (rabbit). The deeper one carves into the horn, the darker brown or black the design gets. When it is all dne a glossed up, it'll sure look pur-tee!