Scrimshaw is a technique of engraving and subsequently filling the grooves with India ink.

It dates back over two thousand years and was a medium of folk art on this continent during the whaling era.

Ernst E. Oslender is known worldwide as the Scrimshaw artist of genuine Canadian scenes. His design is entirely engraved by hand on recycled piano ivory, utilizing rejects and leftovers from a company in Solingen, Germany, which prior to 1935 manufactured cutlery handles and piano keys.