Unwanted Surprise...

[Gamma]

Took this one out to play today - haven't used it in many years. Rear scale was cracked through the pivot and about an inch past it. As an added bonus it was also split horizontally. Quasi-repaired now, wasn't feeling like cutting new scales so I refurbed the originals, didn't even bother to unpin the wedge...kinda lazy and a bit ticked off too. This is just a test razor so not needing showroom grade scales. They're solid but ugly. Worked out pretty well. Blade is a 7/8-ish W&B Celebrated, 1/4-1/2 hollow. Methinks it's a salvaged reground 8/8.

 

[Gamma]

Update - gave this a full honing and the repair proved solid. After tightening the pivot (always seem to have to do that after honing a newly scaled razor) I sat the pivot collars all the way down. Those domed collars have a little domed support washer underneath and sometimes (like this time) they need to be futzed with so they sit flush to the scale all around. Shave was excellent also. As ugly and rough as they are, I might leave the scales as-is unless they act up again.

 

[kcb5150]

That split gave a lot of meat for epoxy to hold onto so it should be ok. Sometimes the internal washer can have a jagged but that digs in and causes a split like this.

 

[Gamma]

Thrust washers were smooth as glass and flat as it gets. The crack was S shaped, which made the glue-up a possibility. I think there was probably in the material early on, then delam came along, add in a re-pin at some point (pivot collars were not original) and voila - moment arms and force vectors have a party that ends with a crack. Sometimes these fixes last, other times not. Time will tell.

 

[Rob72]

I love the old horn scales. I usually vacuum-treat mine in hardening compound, then use Super Glue to fill any residual openings, then sand to finish.

 

[Gamma]

Horn is an ok material, has it's merits. One of its best assets is how it feels, dunno if I'd like the feel of it 'hardened' or 'stabilized' though.
Honestly, I just hate making new scales so I try to salvage what I can and I try to be as minimally invasive to the material as possible. I didn't expect this repair to last through honing actually, sorta surprised at how solid the fix seems to be.