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Bengall got some Kirinite scales.

Just cleaned up and rescaled this one. You folks were certainly right, it is a great shaver. I did my best to give it the looks to match! I had two pairs of horn scales twist all up, so I tried G10 and Kirinite and liked them both. This stuff shined up very nicely.

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You will also enjoy KROPP razors. In fact most vintage Sheffield and Solingen hollow grinds will shave fantastic.

Your Bengall cleaned up nicely and the scales look great. My Bengall in my avatar, here is my latest KROPP, work in progress.

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You have a booboo on your finger. Looks just like the two on my left cheekbone.

That Kropp is coming along nicely!
 
Ouch. Touch wood, I have not cut myself shaving in close to a year. That said, put a dull razor in my hands and I end up looking like this. I should consider working with gloves...
 
LJS, I just put the horn scales aside for now. I may try reshaping them at some point, because they do look nice.

I can understand that. But what I was asking was, did you heat and shape them before you used them? Or did you buy slabs and shape them without heating/flattening? Just wondering what lead up to your warping horn scales and how to avoid it. But the new scales look fantastic.
 
Or did you buy slabs and shape them without heating/flattening?

I think I am about to learn something here... Guilty as charged of slab-shaping. It was a mystery how horn scales could survive 150+ years, yet mine warped after a couple weeks. Could you give me a quick rundown of the correct procedure? Thank you!
 
Well, I am no expert to offer advice. But I understand high dry heat is the way. I bought some slabs for good price from a luthier and some came shaped like a “C” along their length. Few minutes with a heat gun and some welding gloves and they were quite flat. I still want to try the metal plates in a toaster oven - probably easier than tweaking and eyeballing. I haven’t tried a torch or flame but should be the same as long as you don’t scorch the horn. But heat gun worked well for me and allows you to work on certain spots you need to tweak. Get it hot and it turns rubbery and you can shape how you like. Flex it beyond where you want it to stay (to help reduce shape memory) and then flex back to flat or whatever shape you want and let cool (or dunk in cool water). But I don’t have years of experience so I still wonder about the longevity which is why I asked you what happened to yours - still trying to learn myself :)

I read this some time back. May be of use to you.

 
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