Thread: J Allen & Sons near wedge in custom bone 'teeth'

A few months ago, I rescued a very sad looking J Allen & Sons near/wedge from an antiques store. The scales were shot, the blade looked near irretrievable, and I thought the least I could do was to try to help her out (always a sucker for a damsel in distress)... The blade required very many hours of hand sanding and polishing.




I have seen some very interesting shaped scales around here and I decided that I would come up with my own for this blade. It's hard to tell from the pictures, but the front tip comes forward slightly - I'm not sure a proper 'Spanish point', but something like it anyway. I have also been experimenting with various materials - various types of wood, horn, glass, and thought - why not bone. So, I sourced some bone in the country (NZ has a big beef industry - I won't say any more than that...), sun bleached it for several weeks, cut a rough shape with an angle grinder (I don't have an appropriate saw), and got to work on the band sander (one of my all-time favorite power tools). Soon, the 'tooth' took shape and I got to the hand filing and sanding to suit the blade.

I finished the bone scales with a black horn spacer (made from a broken old pair of horn scales), and brass microfasteners, sanded and polished to a nice shine. I wanted two pins at the front end, and one at the rear - along with an extra washer on the outside for a more intricate finish. I think it's a nice look and will do something similar again soon. Bone is wonderful to work with (apart from the initial smell of burning) and I will be making more. Comments and suggestions welcome, as always. The final step is to see how much steel I have to remove to have this lovely near/wedge shave ready...

Well Done! Great save and looks awesome.
Adam

I love the way the rust marks left on the blade match the spotty coloring of the bone...
one question though, is that a microfastener on the pivot?

Originally Posted by TwistedOak

I love the way the rust marks left on the blade match the spotty coloring of the bone...

Thanks, I thought it was a nice match, and was simply fortunate the bone colouring was so nice - I had no idea what it was going to do on the inside.

one question though, is that a microfastener on the pivot?

Yes, all three are microfasteners that I hand filed to finish.

You cleaned that one up nicely. As the razor originally had horn scales, choosing another natural material was a good fit for the razor. Plus, you put a nice curve into the bone. Great job!

That is one beautiful save. Thank you for sharing.

Yes, good show, Suavio, jolly good show...darn, I'm channeling movie dialogue again....excellent work on the razor!

Onya mate, well done. Let us know how it shaves.

Very nice! You brought that one back from the grave.

Very nice, you did a good job on her

One little tip: It's a good idea to make sure the blade takes an edge before putting hours of work into it.