Are these scales salvageable?

[Seelector]

This is a nice shaving razor from the bay, but the scales are badly warped. I’ve put it through 4 or 5 rounds of hot water and they’re straighter than they were but still pretty bad.

You can see how they are misaligned at the pivot, and the wedge points off at an angle.

Can I save these or are they beyond hope? What’s a good approach here?

 

[joamo]

Possibly, at least you can try. What has worked for celluloid scales for me in the past is to fit a popsicle stick between the scales with the blade at a 90 degree angle and place this into a heavy duty Ziplock bag, the blade doesn't need to be enclosed but the scales do.
Boil some water in a pan wide enough for the scales to fit into and deep enough to completely cover the scales. Also prepare a bowl of ice water of similar dimensions.
Dip the scales into the boiling water for 20 seconds or so, take out and allow to cool just enough that you can make adjustments with your fingers while still in the bag, hold those adjustments and dip into the ice water till cool.
Remove from the bag and inspect to see if further adjustments are needed, repeat the process if necessary.
The popsicle stick gives you a straight line to work against and just a little bit of leverage, you may want to use 2, if you have a wide blade, to fill the space between the scales. The baggy protects the scales from water marks.

 

[Seelector]

Possibly, at least you can try. What has worked for celluloid scales for me in the past is to fit a popsicle stick between the scales with the blade at a 90 degree angle and place this into a heavy duty Ziplock bag, the blade doesn't need to be enclosed but the scales do.
Boil some water in a pan wide enough for the scales to fit into and deep enough to completely cover the scales. Also prepare a bowl of ice water of similar dimensions.
Dip the scales into the boiling water for 20 seconds or so, take out and allow to cool just enough that you can make adjustments with your fingers while still in the bag, hold those adjustments and dip into the ice water till cool.
Remove from the bag and inspect to see if further adjustments are needed, repeat the process if necessary.
The popsicle stick gives you a straight line to work against and just a little bit of leverage, you may want to use 2, if you have a wide blade, to fill the space between the scales. The baggy protects the scales from water marks.

I’ll give it a try again with the ice water and popsicle stick. In my first attempts I freehanded it until it looked straight then held it there while it cooled.

I dont have any popsicle sticks but I found a wooden paint stir stick which seems like the prefect thickness to fit between the scales.

 

[H Brad Boonshaft]

You must get horn hot enough to make it flexible, hot water, hair dryer or heat gun.

Once hot you need a form, (strip of wood, aluminum or steel to fit between the scales and something to clamp flat until it cools, (vise, clamps or hands with gloves). I use a woodworking vise with a couple strips of wood on outside and a thin stick cut to size between the scales.

It may take a few heats to get them flat, and you must get it into clamps quickly, you can shim with coffee stir stick, popsicle or tongue depressors to over bend a stubborn spot. Get them hot enough and they will straighten and stay straight.

Pivot pin is misaligned from the warp of the back scale, should straighten out.

I use hot water from the tap, but I have a sink in my shop, a few steps from a bench with a large vise. Do a dry run and have everything ready to go, before heating.

 

[Bevel]

I use a woodworking vise with a couple strips of wood on outside and a thin stick cut to size between the scales.

I'd like to emphasize this bit as the last thing you want to to imprint the clamps grip pattern into the scales.

Pivot pin is misaligned from the warp of the back scale, should straighten out.

That's what I noticed too.
I'm surprised it centers. If it does center it's possible the previous owner warped them so that it does.

There's also a twist in them I can see from this pic below where the blade is angled toward the non-showside scale.
I wonder is one pivot pin higher than the other, can't see from pics.

It might be better to take it apart and straighten them properly.
It's the non-showside scale that originally caused this as it's clearly longer than the showside in the second picture. To really fix it one of the pin positions on the back may need to be re-positioned and hidden under a washer. That obviously requires disassembly, proper flattening which should show if a pinhole is in the wrong place, and taking it from there.

 

[Seelector]

Thanks for the feedback guys. The blade didn’t center and had that twist when I first received it, you can see some chipping where the blade had contacted the non showside scale. I improved it with my first tries in a hot water bath but it’s still not great.

I’ll try again using a shim between the scales and see how it turns out. I was afraid it would require repinning, which I’ve never done so I want to do whatever I can before I resort to that. I recently received 3 cheap SR’s off ebay that I can use to practice pinning before I try it on something nice. I only paid $14 CAD including shipping for all 3, so I won’t cry if I mess them up.

 

[Gamma]

I would take them apart, realign, flatten, etc - line up the pivot, reshape the wedge end, etc. Trying to fix them while assembled might not work so well, might make things worse, etc. I use steam to heat and moisturize old horn scales, sometimes I have to rubber band the ends with a chop stick in the middle, other times I have to sorta set them up, and do a trial-run pin at the wedge end and then re-adjust later. pins can be angled because of bad pinning with larger pivot holes in the blade. I've found it best to correct stuff like that and then move forward. When they're warped or bent at the wedge, which I think these might be, sometimes one scale needs to be 're-flattened' inside, or some such thing. Sometimes, just cleaning crud off the wedge can help the fitting go a lot better. Constant trial fitting throughout the process helps me 'see' where I have to fix the bends, warps, twists, etc. Can take a while to get it sorted, many 're-do' moments usually. Installing proper (very thin) thrust washers can help, esp if the scales are very worn up at the pivot. Occasionally I can get 'center' by putting an extra washer on one side, or using one of a different thickness. Sanding the scales down to alter that angle is possible but removing material from old damaged horn scales can weaken them further.

 

[HazMat Shaver]

I unpin! And use a heat lamp. Heat them up to the point of flex and flex then back and forth. All around. This works the shape out of them. Heat them up enough that they bend by themself if you just hold the tip of the scale. Then heat more and clamp between two flat surfaces. Let cool for a couple of hours. If they are not straight then, do it again. I've taken some seriously curved scales warped much more than those and made them completely straight again. Just don't get in a hurry.

If they have any metal fancy stuff pressed into the front scale that will cause them to warp more so it takes an extra bit of effort to straighten those. When you are done straightening check your pivot holes. You might need them to be offset, you might need them drilled out so you can adjust for a warped blade. So be sure to check and test-fit the blade before pinning again.

 

[Seelector]

I tried another hot water bath and held it in a bench vise with a shim between the scales. I did a few rounds of this and it didn’t help so I’ll have to repin it.

One scale is definitely higher at the pivot end.

I think someone has repinned this in the past and did a sloppy job. You can’t see it in the pictures, but the collars are different from pivot to wedge.

 

[Legion]

I love these guys trying to salvage. But sometimes just walk away and say “this is my opportunity to learn how to make scales”.

Save the blade, I think those scales are shot.

 

[HazMat Shaver]

When you see the offset, this normally means the pin is bent. Someone left the pin too long when peening and instead of filing it down or starting over before it got too far they just kept going. Pull the pin, Clean up the scales well, I still say a heat lamp to straighten as it works well for me. Then pin it back up.

You have never shown the face of the scales so I'm just guessing they are ok. IMO, The scales are worth fixing. But you need to take it apart first. Good Luck and be sure to let us know how it goes.

 

[Seelector]

I love these guys trying to salvage. But sometimes just walk away and say “this is my opportunity to learn how to make scales”.

Save the blade, I think those scales are shot.

You might be right. There's a good chance you're right but I'm going to take them apart and try anyways. If it doesn't work out, then at least I'll get some practice. I don't know how one scale gets to be longer than the other but that's what I've got... combine that with one higher than the other, and I'm going to end up with a weird double hole after I flatten and redrill, aren't I?

Maybe I need to invest in a scale stretcher. I bet you can buy them at the same place you buy board stretchers. My grandfather asked me to find his when I was a kid helping him build a deck and cut something too short. I never did find it... he must have lost it.

 

[Seelector]

When you see the offset, this normally means the pin is bent. Someone left the pin too long when peening and instead of filing it down or starting over before it got too far they just kept going. Pull the pin, Clean up the scales well, I still say a heat lamp to straighten as it works well for me. Then pin it back up.

You have never shown the face of the scales so I'm just guessing they are ok. IMO, The scales are worth fixing. But you need to take it apart first. Good Luck and be sure to let us know how it goes.

The face is OK but not great. All the trips through hot water brought out weird imprints on them that look like parting lines from injection molding or something. They looked better before I tried to straighten them, but I'm sure they will sand and polish up nicely. They have nice brass inlay so I want to save them if I can.

 

[HazMat Shaver]

A quick soak in acetone usually removes the bolsters or brass that is glued on. Then they can be reglued with CA after the scales are fixed. Just be sure not to change the shape of the scales much.

Inlays can cause warpage after nany years as if it is inlayed the scale is a different thickness.

Hot water and steam can cause problems. Dont try to straighten celuloid. It turn white with steam and water. So ive always stuck with a heat lamp.