The eyes have it: artistry in ivory by Mike Hasbun (Saturday Night Blade Porn)

Scrimshaw is the age old art of carving a picture into ivory and filling the image in with ink. It became a popular pastime for sailors on whaling ships who would try their talent on tusks and teeth and went through a revival in the 1960s after President John F. Kennedy revealed his personal collection from his native New England. Fifty years later another artist tried his hand at it and has been carving and dying artistic images in ivory, stag, micarta and even the teeth of cave bears and prehistoric sharks.

Shark on shark.

Mike Hasbun has shown an artistic side from an early age. An avid hunter and fisherman, he began his artistry carving gun stocks and painting in oils as a teenager. He discovered scrimshaw about five years ago and has taken the custom knife world by storm with his talents.

Pinup on a tanto

Geronimo on a stag round

His earliest “Celebrity work” came through the Safari Club International Convention where he paired up with long time knife maker Rob Charlton for a knife to be presented to President George W Bush.

President Bush and Mike Hasbun

He has attended the show every year since and has presented knives to Dick Cheney, General Chuck Yeager, Sarah Palin, Oliver North, Vicente Fox and several US Navy SEALs and other military types.

Hasbun made this knife for Lt Col Oliver North

Just because he scrimshaws for the famous does not mean his prices are in the tens of thousands. Hasbun genuinely loves his art and his passion is bringing these images to life in the material whether it is a knife handle, pistol grip or a piece of jewelry.

Knife scrimshawed for George H W Bush

Dick Cheney scrimshawed on Emerson Comkmander

The Good The Bad and the Ugly with a silver dollar bolster on a Damascus dagger designed by Hasbun.

When we saw his work the first time we naturally assumed he was using an engraving machine or a laser, but no. He still does it the old fashioned way and uses (of all things) a steel guitar string honed to a fine point. Each one of these designs is made up of a series of dots that takes the hands of a surgeon and the eyes of an artist.

Vicente Fox's cuchillo

General Chuck Yeager's knife with portraits of him taken 30 years apart

Jaguar on mammoth ivory

USS Iowa on whale tooth for Naval special War Foundation

He can be difficult to get a hold of (when a guy is making dots this small on a knife handle, he isn't exactly waiting by the phone) but is responsive once you make contact. Reach out to him on Facebook.

Two of the Big Five in mammoth ivory

Tuna on megalodon tooth.

Up from the deep.

The most recent piece of his work we've seen is from the recent Usual Suspect Gathering in Las Vegas on an ivory handle Terzuola ATCF.

Before adding color and text

Finished scale

Finished piece

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