Thread: Two questions! Vintage razors off eBay and best way to tighten loose scales

I believe that is why I am having so mucb trouble with this one. It is the lock washer style

On the back side there should be a tiny bit more pin sticking out of the washer you can peen.

Yeah it still really is a pain

Originally Posted by mainaman

you should polish the head of the hammer to mirror, it will make the pinning job look nice.

I polished both the hammer head and the steel anvil/it was a lot of work, but they seem to work well and when I'm done tightening, they look nice!

My advice is don't get TOO obsessed about tightening scales, esp if this sort of thing is new to you. You can end up getting frustrated and bashing too hard and splitting the scales and then you get angry. Better possibly to learn how to re-pin or send the razor to someone who can do it for you...

I have never bought a new razor, all mine are vintage. Almost all were shave ready and most were bought from this site. Honing them is part of the fun, and while you DO need to read a lot and ask a lot of questions it's not ALL that difficult. With all due to respect to those who sell and buy new razors, I find them boring. I like old stuff in general, though...

The Video forum here on SRP has at least 4 Vids on pinning

The Workshop forum has at least 6 Illustrated step by step guides

The Library has all these also

At the top of the Workshop forum is a Thread stuck there in Red where all this can be found again

Off of SRP by just going to Google and typing in "Pinning a Straight Razor" brings up at least 20 vids also

The vids are probably the best way to learn it, but you need to watch and more importantly listen to the tricks that many here have taken the time to explain...


Warning: Even taking all that info into account, if you smack a pin wrong or miss a pin you are very likely to crack a scale

Originally Posted by gssixgun

Warning: Even taking all that info into account, if you smack a pin wrong or miss a pin you are very likely to crack a scale

Glen speaks the truth!! I know from personal experience!!

Re pinning isn't to hard. Glen did a good vid that explained it all and the tools and pretty sure even just tightening as maintenance. Just finished doing my first 2 pins and if you take your time it should go well. I did cheat a bit and polished them with the dremel once I finished. Unfortunately now I have a crap looking razor with amazing looking pins. Cheers for the vids Glen.

AS an FYI, I personally find the 4oz peening hammer a little too heavy for pinning. I instead bought a 2oz jewelers hammer at AC Moore, along with a tiny jewelers anvil. I put some divots in the anvil for peening, and drilled a hole straight through it for pin removal. Both the anvil and hammer came highly polished out of the package. Just go to the jewelry making section. It is a little more expensive than a 4oz hardware store hammer, but worth it to me.

Another thing that works for me is opening the razor so its straight out and tightening it with the blade there.