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Making My First Set of Scales (timber)

rbscebu

Girls call me Makaluod
I didn't have any thin two-sided tape on hand when I wanted to stick the scales timber together. It's a 1½hr round trip for me to town and back.

What I did was put three small drops of PVA glue on one piece of timber, then lay a sheet of copy paper on top. I then put another three small drops of glue onto the copy paper directly on top of the first three drops. The two pieces of scales timber were then stuck together.

This arrangement worked well. After all the cutting, sanding and drilling was done, the two halves were easy to separate.
 
If the template is an actual scale (not a piece of cardboard/paper), I attach the template scale to the material using Scotch double-sided tape and then scribe the pattern using a (sharp) awl. Much easier to see than a pencil or ink link. I repeat, way easier to see. The double-sided tape prevents the template from moving.
 
The glue and paper are how I did when I started. I used Elmer's Glue and paper. I just had to go have lunch or something while it got hard enough to work with. A little sanding took it all away if the razor blade left behind any. Nothing wrong with that at all. Now I keep a couple of rolls of Scotch Double-sided transparent tape on hand. It's very thin and holds well.
 
I use double-sided carpet tape to hold the two pieces of material together. And then Goo Gone on a dull knife to separate the two pieces. Takes a few minutes to separate, but the carpet tape will not fail.
 

rbscebu

Girls call me Makaluod
This morning I got time to make the lead wedge. With hammer and anvil, I hand forged a 10mm diameter lead singer into a rough disc about 2.5mm thick. Then I cut out the rough shape of the wedge. More hand forging developed the taper and sanding finished it off.

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I marked the pin hole location by pushing a sewing pin through the lead.

All was looking good so I pinned the lead wedge into place and peened it all together. Using a pair of scissors, I trimmed the lead close to size and then finished it off with sandpaper.

Finished!

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Not bad for a first go, even if I say so myself. This SR has good balance at about 8mm from the pivot pin towards the blade. Overall mass is 46g, about 20% lighter than an original Cadman "Bengall".

Now to hone it up. Will probably finish this SR on black Arkansas.
 
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rbscebu

Girls call me Makaluod
Now all honed up and polished with Renaissance wax. Decided to finish on diamond pasted balsa as the black Ark was more work and would not have produced such a keen edge.

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The perfect toe on a French point

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The blade

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Everything finished
Learning the black Arkansas can wait. Tomorrow morning I am going to shave with this mini Bengall.
 
Well done - I’m hoping to do my first set of scales in the coming days and this has been valuable. I’m also intrigued by the lead weight - you said earlier you would cold forge it. Do you just hammer and cut into shape- or is it heated and hammered? Sorry if it’s a stupid question but I thought of using acrylic which is also very light and thus a readily available fishing weight could be handy
 

rbscebu

Girls call me Makaluod
@Frank Shaves and @lloydw, I purchased a round lead ball fishing sinker from my local reject shop for about USD 1. It was about 8mm or 10mm diameter. With a piece of heavy flat steel as an anvil, I used a standard claw hammer to beat the ball of lead into a flat round disc. This was done cold (room temperature). Lead is very soft.

The slight difficulty was with the first 2 or 3 blows. I had to reposition the ball after each blow until a reasonably flat surface developed on the lead ball so that it didn't roll around after a blow.

Remember not to over-flatten the lead. You can always beat it thinner but you cannot make it thicker. Prior to starting my cold forging, I decided that my wedge needed to be about 2mm thick max so I initially forged mine to about 2.5mm to 3mm thick.

Once I had my initial forging done, I cut a piece of the lead to greater than the size required. With more cold forging, I beat the lead into the wedge angle that I wanted but still a little thicker than required. Sanding the lead finished the required lead thickness.

Lead is also easy to sand, easier than the silver ash timber. At the thickness I was using, the lead could also be cut with scissors.
 

Legion

Staff member
Probably wouldn't be so hard to make a wedge out of acrylic or something, then mould it. Then you could cast as many as you want in no time.

You might even be able to do lost wax with plaster, which would be even easier. I've never done it, but its probably worth researching if you wanted down that path. Beats hammering sinkers.
 

rbscebu

Girls call me Makaluod
Probably wouldn't be so hard to make a wedge out of acrylic or something, then mould it. Then you could cast as many as you want in no time.

You might even be able to do lost wax with plaster, which would be even easier. I've never done it, but its probably worth researching if you wanted down that path. Beats hammering sinkers.
The only problem is that each SR requires a different wedge angle. Hammering lead is just a little harder than hammering plasticine. Yes, that may be too difficult for some.
 

Legion

Staff member
The only problem is that each SR requires a different wedge angle. Hammering lead is just a little harder than hammering plasticine. Yes, that may be too difficult for some.
Yeah, lead is soft enough, but I guess I am just trying to think of the most efficient way to do it as a thought exercise.

Now I am thinking you could get two flat surfaces of steel and put them into a V (at any angle you want), pour in an inch of lead and let it set. Now you have a strip of lead with the given angle, and each time you need a wedge you just cut a little length off it.
 
I bough a box of old wheel weights from eBay. They are stick on lead weights, (WD40 removes the glue) about 1x1 inch and thickness varies depending on weight, for a few dollars. I suppose you could also buy them new or get them from most any tire shop.

I flatten and rough shape with a large face hammer and sand to taper on 80 grit sandpaper, double stick taped to your finger. The trick is to get the taper flat, so you don’t have any gaps between the wedge and scales.

Flat lead tape is also sold in hobby stores for Balsa Airplanes for trimming.

For a gap free led wedge, cut the wedge extra large and pin the tapered wedge side first, do not trim the wedge until the pin side is tight. Trim with a knife and file or sand to a gap free finish.
 
Now all honed up and polished with Renaissance wax. Decided to finish on diamond pasted balsa as the black Ark was more work and would not have produced such a keen edge.

Learning the black Arkansas can wait. Tomorrow morning I am going to shave with this mini Bengall.


Serious stuff R. Very impressive. :)

I'll certainly be consulting this thread when I finally get round to trying it myself. Though I can guarantee you now the results won't be anything like as accomplished!
 
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