Thread: First Restoratiion

A Genco Red cross that had a frown when I got it

I polished it up with MAAS and steel wool leaving some of the colour in the pitting. I like the “rustic” look, but after the buffing demonstration at the recent Melbourne meet I think I might convert one side of my bench grinder to a tapered spindle.
I made the scales from a 1-1/2"W x 5"L x 3/8" Dymondwood (Winewood/Black) knife scale, using a wooden paint stirrer as the wedge (as it was the only thing I had laying around that was about the right size.

I split the knife scale carefully with a copping saw and shaped by hand using sandpaper. I didn’t do anything to seal the wedge so I don’t think I will survive too long, which is fine as the scales are a bit thicker then I would like (they feel just a bit hefty for the little blade) so it will give me the opportunity to thin them out. The dymondwood is very stiff, so the wedge is more of a spacer at this stage, hopefully when I thin the scales out they will flex a bit and I can make the wedge more “wedgie” (and improve the finishing a little bit).

Honed without tape using Norton 1K, 4K and 8K followed by CrOx on a SRD modular hard felt pad. Finished with stropping on SRD modular scrub leather then premium I leather.