I think I cut this in the wrong direction. Can I use this wood for scales?
I think the way you cut it looks FANTASTIC! Lots of contrast.
I personally wouldn't try and remove the oil from the wood... wet sand to 800 with baby oil and then buff with a clean cotton cloth and I think you will be very happy with the results.
Tom
I'll try that. Do you have any pics of what it looks like?
I have been having trouble thinking of a good way to apply the CA finish on both the scales and wedge while keeping the fit.
Yeah, you won't be able to do it that way. You will have to CA each piece individually and then assemble them. CA will set way too fast to work in the little gap between the scales.
You can however, do this with Shellac.
I was thinking of sanding the outer portion of the scales, gluing the wedge in with the hole drilled, shaping the wedge and that portion of the scales together, then sanding everything to 1000 grit.
After everything is nicely smooth, then apply the CA to the scales and wedge at once-what do you think Trick?
I would use epoxy to glue the wedge with a temporary bolt in the wedge hole and a rod in the pivot hole to keep things lined up.
I use it just like I would on furniture. Lot's of thin coats - wet sand between them. I am currently using Zinsser Seal Cote sanding sealer, which is nothing more than blonde dewaxed shellac, pre-mixed. I don't thin it, and I just pad it on. Usually 6-10 coats depending on the finish you're going for - inside the scales, I just do enough coats to protect, as I'm not worried about a smooth, shiny finish in there since you can't see it.
I haven't tried it yet on any oily exotics - I mainly work in domestic hardwoods. If you look through some of my threads, I have three scales done in shellac - The red imp in Walnut, a Henckels in Osage Orange, and a Gold Dollar 208 (Paco664's razor) that is in Mora - which is very similar to walnut in every way but with more grain distinction. I haven't tried something like Cocobolo or Bocote, although, all three razors I did were oiled with Watco first, so my guess is results would be similar.
I will do a pretty heavy build if I'm going to polish out the scales - I use Tripoli on a buffing wheel to do that. If you're going to hand rub out to a satin finish, I just use a green scrubby and some paste wax - which is what I did on the Osage Orange scales.