Marsden Magnum Bonum in Shagreen

This was my first time working with this material. I've seen some cases made from it, and one pair of razors that served as inspiration:

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(Credit Renzo Jardella)

I had originally intended for pique-pinned bone scales but gave up when I shattered one scale inlaying the pins, so I wanted to try to replicate the Shagreen (ray skin) scales here. I started by cutting out brass backing and pieces of the shagreen. Here, you can see it natural (right), sanded (middle), and polished (left).

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Glued onto the brass:

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The scales are pinned with a wedge and the thin brass backer. For the pivot end I drilled holes in the shagreen and used (almost) period collars. I had intended an endcap and toyed with MOP and ivory before settling on formed silver. I didn't actually have silver, but aluminum looks fairly decent.

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I had intended to solder the halves together, but the only thing I got out of our aluminum soldering kit was burns. So I just used some epoxy paste that seems to be holding well. The final result:

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Now you must shave with it!

Well done for thinking outside the box. Maybe not original, but certainly rare to see scales like that. Kudos.
Adam

Neat! Kinda cool to use the old-time materials and see how they did it. With no epoxy, nor super-glue, those guys were craftsmen! Nice job! :tu

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Originally Posted by sharptonn

Neat! Kinda cool to use the old-time materials and see how they did it. With no epoxy, nor super-glue, those guys were craftsmen! Nice job! :tu

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I have utmost respect for those who produced the silver pinned bone scales. That was what I tried to do first, and turns out it explosively shatters if you don't peen the pins in right. Wish I'd known it would be that touchy before I went and hand drilled 200 micro holes...

Darn, you beat me to it! Nice work and a lot of trials! Keep em coming!
~Richard
PS One of my favorite books!

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Originally Posted by Geezer

Darn, you beat me to it! Nice work and a lot of trials! Keep em coming!
~Richard
PS One of my favorite books!

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Getting that book was one of the worst things I have done. It really opened up an unseen world to my interest! I love my collection, but it is humble compared to 2 pages of his. Were you thinking of doing something in shagreen?

That is really great stuff,god gave us some wonderfull materials to work with

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Originally Posted by ScienceGuy

Getting that book was one of the worst things I have done. It really opened up an unseen world to my interest! I love my collection, but it is humble compared to 2 pages of his. Were you thinking of doing something in shagreen?

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Similar but not quite like yours! I've had the materials for a while but other things seem to show up about the time I get to the project. Like different tools and shop arrangements.
Keep em coming!
More fun in the future!
Bye the way, there was a post thread long ago about making shagreen scales. I can't find it now...drat!

~Richard

WOWW, ray skin on brass ... from the past to the future ... and beyond !! :beer1:

Ok, so please excuse my ignorance, but what book is that? I certainly want that! Thanks

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Originally Posted by CastSteel

Ok, so please excuse my ignorance, but what book is that? I certainly want that! Thanks

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Straight Razors: 900 years of razor and case excellence, by Renzo Jardella (based in the UK). A bit hard to find but a great source of pictures of top-notch items.

Also, obligatory better pics now that I'm on the good camera. And thanks to Zak (Voidmonster) for regrinding and sanding the blade, failed to mention that earlier.

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Looks incredible. The updated pics defiantly show it off.

Very Cool. I love seeing guys try Different Stuff. Well done, and thanks for the detailed post.