Gents,
Please find below my first, humble attempt at a "re-scale". The razor was (and still is) a piece of cr@p ebay special. It's totally anonymous and came from a beauty supply store. The seller claimed it was "made in Germany" but I seriously doubt it was anywhere near Solingen
I've been using it to practice stropping and to get used to handling a real razor, instead of risking a "real" razor.
It came with a flimsy set of black, plastic scales that didn't feel great to handle...so I decided to use it as my first re-scale project
The new scales are 1/8" maple, with a basswood spacer (I'd hesitate to call it a wedge). The "pins" came from my local hobby shop, they're approx 1/16" diameter. Unfortunately, they're slot head rather than hex-head so they're slightly asymmetrical. However, I did file down the nuts on the back to reduce their profile a bit.
I used the shape and size of the original scales as a guide, but made the new ones a bit fatter in the middle. I shaped them with a junior hacksaw to get a rough slab and then cut back towards the outline with a dremel, once I'd got the rough shape I went to work with sanding by hand (started on 160 and went don to 1200)....with hindsight, if I do more I'll use my jigsaw to take off a lot more of the excess before moving to the sandpaper.
I'm leaning towards finishing them with wax, although as the blade is probably never going to take an edge, it's unlikely to get wet and I'll probably just end up using it as a letter-opener!
If I get brave enough, I may use the blade to experiment with some grinding, although not knowing the state of the steel used it's probably a bit risky!
Feel free to be as brutally honest as you want...I know I'm unlikely to be taking up any slack from Seraphim or the other craftsmen here
Please find below my first, humble attempt at a "re-scale". The razor was (and still is) a piece of cr@p ebay special. It's totally anonymous and came from a beauty supply store. The seller claimed it was "made in Germany" but I seriously doubt it was anywhere near Solingen
I've been using it to practice stropping and to get used to handling a real razor, instead of risking a "real" razor.
It came with a flimsy set of black, plastic scales that didn't feel great to handle...so I decided to use it as my first re-scale project
The new scales are 1/8" maple, with a basswood spacer (I'd hesitate to call it a wedge). The "pins" came from my local hobby shop, they're approx 1/16" diameter. Unfortunately, they're slot head rather than hex-head so they're slightly asymmetrical. However, I did file down the nuts on the back to reduce their profile a bit.
I used the shape and size of the original scales as a guide, but made the new ones a bit fatter in the middle. I shaped them with a junior hacksaw to get a rough slab and then cut back towards the outline with a dremel, once I'd got the rough shape I went to work with sanding by hand (started on 160 and went don to 1200)....with hindsight, if I do more I'll use my jigsaw to take off a lot more of the excess before moving to the sandpaper.
I'm leaning towards finishing them with wax, although as the blade is probably never going to take an edge, it's unlikely to get wet and I'll probably just end up using it as a letter-opener!
If I get brave enough, I may use the blade to experiment with some grinding, although not knowing the state of the steel used it's probably a bit risky!
Feel free to be as brutally honest as you want...I know I'm unlikely to be taking up any slack from Seraphim or the other craftsmen here
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As this was just a "proof of concept" experiment...to see if it was possible to re-scale whilst basically just using hand tools and the dining table...I went the "easy" route. I've got some real microfasteners ready for the next project. Then I can show the other side 
