What's on your work bench right now?
- Thread starter Luecke2326
- Start date
Genco Henry’s X
First time ever making scales from scratch. Had a piece of red heartwood laying around so had a go, I think it came out pretty good. 5 coats of tung oil to finish off.
Looking forward to the next one (have some leopard wood)
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
I got a straight razor stand recently as a gift. Unfortunately the slots were too small for my brushes. It took a few sessions with my Dremel, but the brushes now fit!
I think you have done a fine job on the scales you made, especially for your first couple of sets. Acrylic can be a little finicky when polishing in my experience. Too slow and it takes a decade, to fast and you melt it and make divots.
Also pinning gets easy after just a few tries. At least it did for me. My first effort bombed, I watched a video, then my second effort came out well but took me a while. After that, it’s a 15-20 minute job. I do not dress the pins to make them pretty though, that would take a while.
seriously great job. I have a Dixie manufacturing Blue Steel blade that is a phenomenal razor that came with what I believe are blue acrylic scales. Not as pretty as yours though.
This Sheffield blade is my first straight razor, obtained through a swap with a friend a little over a year ago. One of the scales was cracked at the pivot pin when I got it (it was shown with full disclosure by my friend). I planned on making new scales for it anyway, though now I’m partial to original scales when possible. I cleaned it up a little and made some new scales for her today. The wood is Cumaru (aka Brazilian Teak), which is desirable for its strength, stability when subject to moisture, decay resistance, and a host of other reasons. It’s downfall is it’s typically a rather plain reddish wood. I had to dig through my pile to find a piece with a touch of figure, which showed up as fungal streaking likely from milling a tree felled for some time before the lumber was harvested.
I think I’ll take her for a spin tomorrow, before March, as I’m participating in the March one razor challenge with my Frederick Reynolds razor I recently cleaned up and honed.
I think I’ll take her for a spin tomorrow, before March, as I’m participating in the March one razor challenge with my Frederick Reynolds razor I recently cleaned up and honed.
Well I went with some different scales. Wanted a brass wedge to match pins so whittle 1 from a key. Should have paid more attention and got flat washer not these little dome shaped mushroom distorted looking things, but they worked.
Razor is a GD66. Polishing is not my thing I have found out, so that is less than perfect. I was impatient in searching for scale material so I just 3d printed some. That is a bit cheap looking. I left too much pin hanging out to swedge over and a pin end or 2 is not perfect straight. The dome collars were difficult to get to set flat on the curved scale surface. The pin was 1/16 and the hole in the GD was larger (did not measure) so I had to shim that hole. The blade does not center in the scales but it does not contact either. Tried to straighten some then decided to leave well enough alone.
At least I got my feet wet. I am not ready for the big leagues or jewelry razor making yet (nor ever will be LOL). My forte is more function than fit and finish in everything I do. I just lack the desire or patience or something to make things pretty. But I wanted to get some "real" scales on my daily driver GD and that I have done. But in the mean time I found I quite like my Union Cutlery so the GD may get bumped from daily driver haha
1st time. be gentle.
Razor is a GD66. Polishing is not my thing I have found out, so that is less than perfect. I was impatient in searching for scale material so I just 3d printed some. That is a bit cheap looking. I left too much pin hanging out to swedge over and a pin end or 2 is not perfect straight. The dome collars were difficult to get to set flat on the curved scale surface. The pin was 1/16 and the hole in the GD was larger (did not measure) so I had to shim that hole. The blade does not center in the scales but it does not contact either. Tried to straighten some then decided to leave well enough alone.
At least I got my feet wet. I am not ready for the big leagues or jewelry razor making yet (nor ever will be LOL). My forte is more function than fit and finish in everything I do. I just lack the desire or patience or something to make things pretty. But I wanted to get some "real" scales on my daily driver GD and that I have done. But in the mean time I found I quite like my Union Cutlery so the GD may get bumped from daily driver haha
1st time. be gentle.
Attachments
My first try I also had some issues with everything not quite lining up right. But the 2nd one turned out much better. When you are just starting you can expect each successive one to be noticeably better. But you took the first step, and if its usable its a success!
I am still not a good restorer by any means, but slowly I am making a little progress. I got this Tanifuji recently. No serious issues, but there was some pitting on the blade near the toe on both sides. A previous owner had probably knocked it down some, but had also left some noticeable scratches running parallel to the edge. The scales were also scratched up, my guess is that someone had tried to polish them without going higher than perhaps 2000 grit.
After a few hours work the blade and scales are looking a bit better. To my eye in person they look a lot better, but in the photos it still looks like there is a bunch of work today. Oh well, I’ll try to do better next time!
Before
And after
After a few hours work the blade and scales are looking a bit better. To my eye in person they look a lot better, but in the photos it still looks like there is a bunch of work today. Oh well, I’ll try to do better next time!
Before
And after
I'm getting deeper into my honing/restoration queue. Today, these four wild-caught SRs all got some (or a LOT of) corrosion removal with 1200 wet/dry. A little 'bevel' testing was done as well. I'm going to oil them up and let them rest while I put an edge on some razors that don't need as much work!
Wostenholm IXL ........................... Wade&Butcher wedge
VANADIUM (German made, ............ Robeson Shur-Edge
sold by Lewis-Stenger Barber ......... ("The Razor that fits
Supply, Portland, Oregon) .............. your face")
Wostenholm IXL ........................... Wade&Butcher wedge
VANADIUM (German made, ............ Robeson Shur-Edge
sold by Lewis-Stenger Barber ......... ("The Razor that fits
Supply, Portland, Oregon) .............. your face")
Some nice scales there, esp. the W&B!
The W&B horn scales are in excellent shape, and pinned tightly. But no wedge, just shaped horn to open up for the toe. Somehow, the horn appears to have protected the shielded part of the blade from corrosion.
It inspired me to get moving on the horn scales that I have been planning for the W&B rescale. The new scales are nearly done - 23g vs 50g for the antler horns that came with it. That should really help the balance.
This finally got off my bench today...
My 1st Sheffield was a W&B 7/8 near wedge with massive antler scales that made the razor want to twist in my hand during shaving.
So most of my effort in scale making the past few months had an end goal of getting something better on the W&B. Its finally done. Still have a lot to learn, working on this has made me really appreciate the craftsmanship of some of the scales being made by other members of the community
The new scales weigh in at 23g vs 50g for the antler, a much better match for the 45g blade. Looking forward to getting this back into my rotation next week!
My 1st Sheffield was a W&B 7/8 near wedge with massive antler scales that made the razor want to twist in my hand during shaving.
So most of my effort in scale making the past few months had an end goal of getting something better on the W&B. Its finally done. Still have a lot to learn, working on this has made me really appreciate the craftsmanship of some of the scales being made by other members of the community
The new scales weigh in at 23g vs 50g for the antler, a much better match for the 45g blade. Looking forward to getting this back into my rotation next week!
That looks way better than it did before, & well done on getting her up and running again on a fantastic blade. A fantastic job Sir!!!
Decided to just jump in head first and take a crack at restoring a razor. The lowest wet/dry grit I could find locally is 400 but I think the progress is going well so far. A little over an hour into it hand sanding using WD40. If time allows tomorrow I’ll take it up to 2000 and get some pinning material.
Made some new scales to replace the broken ones on a Blue Wonder.
Nice job, @DeepSea! Amazing what you can do with wet/dry sandpaper, right?
It's hard to tell from the photos, but it looks like there may be scratch marks on the face parallel to the edge. Can I ask which direction(s) you sanded the faces of the blade in? The general consensus is you should sand the faces perpendicular to the edge to match the factory grinding.
It's hard to tell from the photos, but it looks like there may be scratch marks on the face parallel to the edge. Can I ask which direction(s) you sanded the faces of the blade in? The general consensus is you should sand the faces perpendicular to the edge to match the factory grinding.
Similar threads
