A few years ago when I first got really into doing work on knives I bought a 3 foot by 2 X 2 board of curly maple. For my first have made razor scales I could think of nothing else I'd rather work with. I don't have much of it left. The piece I used for the scales is actually a 3.5 mm sliver that I sliced off of the original block when I was making the handle for the mallet you'll see below.
It was a beautiful piece of wood. All of these knives have been gifted on to other people. The long handled oyster shucker has shucked literally thousands of oysters and will reside permanently in my work knife roll. The chisels and mallet and the vise are all essential tools in my home workshop that get used all of the time.
I look forward to putting one of the few remaining scraps onto this 180 year old razor. Hopefully I didn't sand them too thin. But I wanted to match the original scales as close as possible. Right now they are getting the tung oil treatment. Over the next few days they will get a bunch of shellac coatings and then wax. The way I figure it, if the oyster knife has held up for 3 years with nothing but a mineral oil bath every one in awhile then the scales stand a fighting chance.
It was a beautiful piece of wood. All of these knives have been gifted on to other people. The long handled oyster shucker has shucked literally thousands of oysters and will reside permanently in my work knife roll. The chisels and mallet and the vise are all essential tools in my home workshop that get used all of the time.
I look forward to putting one of the few remaining scraps onto this 180 year old razor. Hopefully I didn't sand them too thin. But I wanted to match the original scales as close as possible. Right now they are getting the tung oil treatment. Over the next few days they will get a bunch of shellac coatings and then wax. The way I figure it, if the oyster knife has held up for 3 years with nothing but a mineral oil bath every one in awhile then the scales stand a fighting chance.
