Advice on wood scales

[pmaster]

I've never worked with wood scales before, however I just bought an old razor on ebay which came with such scales and I'm still undecided if i'll keep them, or make some new ones out of acrylic or horn. The wood itself seems pretty basic, but I'm thinking with a good sanding and thinning down it might look alright after all. Plus its quite a bit hot to make scales these days in my little apt.

What do you think? (white balance is a bit too warm in the second picture but didn't have time to reinstall lightroom on new computer).


Also, what would be the best process to then get them shined up if I decide to keep them? Shellac or several layers of CA glue?

I was very lucky with this buy, i wasn't sure why I had bought it, I definitely have enough razors already, but finally the blade ended up being 7/8 (15/16 at its widest, but with a big smile that will have to go).

 

[daflorc]

Use whatever you have available. Don't spend money on those beat up scales. Just FYI, you'll have to buff CA when its all said and done, or sand it to like 10,000 grit to get that high gloss shine. With shellac, just shlep it on and your done.

 

[pmaster]

Hmm alright, I'll take your word for it given what I've seen you do with wood!

I'll start by thinning them (they're way too thick), and then see how it looks, if its nice i'll keep going on, otherwise i'll scrap them and put the blade aside for when I have time to make nice horn scales or something.

I don't have any shellac, but have a small tube of crazy glue lying around, however I imagine that won't be enough to do all the scales.

 

[daflorc]

If its one of those little tubes of CA, you might get 3 coats of it on the scales. But I dunno how you'd do it, because the scales are fixed together, and you have to hold it or prop it up by the interior to apply CA to the entire exterior... Then sand until there aren't any shiny spots, then repeat at least 6 times. It'd be a pain to go through all that trouble for old homemade scales. You might want to just sand it down real fine and rub in some car wax if you have it.

 

[pmaster]

Yeah I was hoping maybe it would magically turn out very nice once polished with a few coats of CA but I didn't realize it meant so much trouble. I'd rather keep all that effort towards something that will give a nicer finish in the end.

I've decided what I'll do with them (I hate throwing stuff away! I'll shorten them slightly, thin them a bit, and use them for a gold dollar blade I have lying around. It still beats those awesome GD scales! :-D

And when I get more time I'll make some nice horn scales for the original blade which I suspect will be very very nice.

 

[daflorc]

I've decided what I'll do with them (I hate throwing stuff away! I'll shorten them slightly, thin them a bit, and use them for a gold dollar blade I have lying around. It still beats those awesome GD scales! :-D

I'd say theres no better pairing than a gold dollar and those scales, lmao!

 

[pmaster]

hahaha I'll let ya know how it turns out :-D