Thread: Restoring Granddad's old straight with an ultramodern flourish

Hi all,


After inheriting a bunch of my Grandfather's old straight razors, unfortunately (or fortunately , depending on your point of view), the best of them was a nice Blue Wonder that had a broken scale.





I've decided to give it some new scales made out of carbon fiber. I love the look of CF but am a bit put off by the price of a new razor made out of one... besides, I reckon I can pull this off.


This is the first time I've worked with CF and the first scales I've made, its an ongoing project that I'll need to complete over a few weeks at least, since with my job and the family, spare time to make a mess is limited. Any hints on how to proceed are welcome - I've looked at some youtube vids, but because of the CF toughness and the dust, I'm planning on taking a slightly different approach.

I have a well equipped workshop, so outlay for powertools is limited to a good beltsander that can be locked into a vise, which I've been meaning to get for ages anyway.


First of all, I've dug around and found safety gear of large safety glasses, a good dust mask (meets a high international standard for dust), disposable gloves, boots, earmuffs and disposable overalls.


Acquired a


1. A4 sheet of 3mm CF from ebay, I'm amazed at how strong and light this stuff is... cost was around A$60 delivered from China via ebay (heaps cheaper than buying locally). I'll only use a small amount.


2. A diamond saw for a Sonicrafter (an oscillating tool). Cost ~A$30


4. A nice new 1/8 inch drill for enlarging the hole in the razor. Not expensive.


3. Ordered a number of 1/8 inch diameter pivots and associated tiny screws with a torx head, a bit of white lining and blue G10 and a few teflon washers from knifemakerusa to make the wedge blue with some white trim - a nod to the "Blue Wonder" blade. About US$54. Could have saved a bit of money by buying a smaller piece of CF from knifemakerusa as well, but didnt spot it until too late.


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Locked the CF sheet into a vise and cut it with the diamond saw by sweeping it from one side of the sheet to the other - rather than working from one end to the other (unlike the little cut at the end suggests in the photo below). This stuff makes nasty fine dust that needs to be carefully swept up, vacuumed and removed afterwards. If I'd thought of it, I would have rigged up a vacuum cleaner to immediately suck it up - or at least wetted down some paper on the ground. I guess enthusiasm got the best of me.












For a bit of a test, I glued them together with a piece of paper in the middle using water soluble white glue, in anticipation of later shaping, Holds very firm.





and the next day soaked for 15 minutes in a glass of water to ensure they came apart.





No problems there - came apart easily.


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Snipped off the pin from the Blue Wonder razor using some aviation shears and traced out the scales, the razor and the pivot hole. I really like the style of the scales, so not going to change the shape - even though the concave curve is going to be tricky. Felt like a vandal cutting an antique like that, but it was broken anyway. Kept the bits for keepsake.





Took a few photocopies of this tracing, for reasons that will become apparent.


To be continued...

Everything from knifemakerusa arrived and then I had to visit my dear old dad in Adelaide - took along the tiny screws and pivot, since he had some ideas about cutting them down to size. We locked the pivot into a metal lathe and used the dremel tool with a cutting wheel at high speed to cut them - given their small size, it was a bit tricky but got there in the end.

The screw was screwed into a short offcut of the pivot, locked between wood in the jaws of a vise and then filed down - unscrewing from the pivot straightened out any burrs nicely, so it can screw into the pivot again.


FYI - the pivot is hardened steel, but the screws are not.





Here's the cut down pivot and cut down screws, next to the original sizes.





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Next, I drilled out the hole in the razor using a drill press, a new 1/8 drill and a bit of drilling grease to wick away heat and get a nice cut. Clamped the razor to the drill table to ensure that the razor didn't slide around and more importantly, I didnt have to hold it.





Worked perfectly.The pivot now fits snugly into the hole in the razor and the screws roughly protrude the thickness of the CF - although I feel they may need to be shortened a teeny little bit - maybe.





Now the messy bit - I dont have photos because there was black dust sticking to my overalls and gloves, but basically I'm not going to shape both scales stuck to each other (like with wooden ones) until both have been crudely shaped.


I cut out the profile of a scale and stuck it onto the piece of CF using clear tape and then clamped in the vice and cut off the corners using the oscillating tool, then used the dremel cutting wheel to saw into the concave part (sawing little vertical slots as I went so the cut pieces just fell away as I sawed)




In retrospect, the cutting wheel could have done the corners just as well as the oscillating tool.


After done with the cutting wheel, switched to the little grinding wheel and took the CF down close to the line.


Then clamped the belt sander into the vise and did the convex part, which is much easier.


Ended up with this




Which is one roughly cut scale, shortly to have its pivot hole drilled.


Total grinding and shaping time for one scale was no more than 30 minutes. I'll head down to the shed now to do the other one, that way I have to clean up one less time :-)

Stay tuned for the next installment...

This is great. Are you going to use the inlay? I hope so.

I'm not sure yet - I was going to use the inlay (or liner) only at the end between the CF and the blue stuff, but I have thought in the past of running it right down the inside of the scales from end to end.

I'll think about it - I've got heaps left over so I might construct it one way and then another and see what looks best. Once its glued though, that will be it.

In fact, I was going to go crazy and buy glow-in-the-dark liner, but then remembered that after a few years it might not glow anymore.

Anyways... have roughly ground out the second scale, drilled the holes using a drill that was roughly the diameter of the screw thread and then screwed it together to ensure that the screws had enough room to grab the pivot.

I'm in luck



Once clamped to be glued, the CF has enough flex to bend pleasingly.



Next step is to dismantle and glue the two scales together with a bit of paper in the middle and then make them completely symmetrical with the Dremel grinder and belt sander.

That will have to wait until I'm free another day, cause I've cleaned up the CF dust for today and dont want to make more.

Looking good! I mean transfering the 'Blue Wonder' foil on the side.

Should come out nicely. The carbon fiber you are using is not woven so you may want to keep the rounding of the scales to a minimum or else you're going to replace the checkerd pattern witha a grey/ black stripes pattern. I suggest you look up the woven/non woven patterns on a google image search and see if you like it...also you can use a small piece of our cr to test round it an see how it looks.

If you are using 1/8 drill on the scale holes keep in mind that the pivot you cut should protude into the scales about 1mm each side with the washers in place for no blade play. If you drill 1/8 holes and the pivot does not protrude into the scales you are going to have blade play due to the fact that the screws are smaller in diameter then the 1/8hole.
You may also want to use anoter dremmel bit to sink the screw heads...i use a round stone bit to make a sink for the.screw heads.
Also take care on the wedge so it has the same angle on eatch side or you could get an off center blade.
I sugest after rough profiling the.scales to hand finish them up under water with 800grit or higher...i go up to 2k....no dust, faster.
Also you can use a drop of CA to set the liners to the wedge for a snug fit.
Can't wayt to se how this turns out. I use cf in a lot of my restores and i love it.
Best of luck!

Thanks all,

I've drilled the screw holes in the scales the diameter of the screw thread, which is less than than 1/8", not sure what diameter I used, just test drilled a bit of scrap wood to make sure that the screw fit snuggly.

Last night I glued the two scales together and it spent the night clamped hard into the vise with a nail through the screw holes to ensure that they stayed aligned.

Although I like the idea of countersinking the screws slightly, I think that I'd need to shorten the screws as well, since they theoretically have only 1mm (and probably less) between the ends inside of the pivot. Maybe later...

This morning the scales are securely locked together in preparation for final shaping (except for the wedge end, which I'll wait until after the wedge is glued in).



FWIW, I'm intending to decapitate a couple of screws and glue them to the scales at the wedge end, just for symmetry with the other end of the scales. I've thought of using no glue to secure the wedge and essentially screwing the scales, wedge and lining together with a pivot that wont pivot as the thread, but I dont think the result will be as secure (although I like the idea of being able to dismantle it all)

Can anyone give a tip on what glue to use for the wedge? I figure the options are basically superglue or epoxy resin.

ovidiucotiga, what is "CA"? A glue?

I use 1/8 pivots from usaknifemaker all the time...the1/2 inch size is perfect for cutting in half ... I use one half for the blade end and anoter half for the wedge end. After cutting the pivot i run a 2-56hss tap trough it to clean the burr left by the.cutting weel and fine sand the cut end. The pressure of the tightened screws is enough to secure the wedge in place. I never glue the wedge when i use pivots...I think anyone who uses pivots can confirm the grip is stronger then that of pins. Just get the wedge faces straight. And yes, it is nice to be able to dissasemble it... I often swap handles betwen some of my blades

CA glue...i wanted to say cianoacrilate...aka superglue...if you sandwitch the wedge...I suggest you go with a pivot on the wedgw end...i think it's the cleanest way, no glue and no need to cut screw heads for simerty...I doubt they will stay glued for a long time.

You seem to have the.propper tools and material for the job...do it right)
Best regards!

So got a lot further along that I expected to.

Smoothed the edges on the belt sander



And here is my first mistake.. holding it at too acute an angle for a few seconds on the sander has lead to a striping effect. Oh well... live and learn. Maybe I'll make another one later on.



Wet sanded for 30 minutes using 800 and then another 15 using 2000 - definitely not long enough.

Narrowed down the G10 on the sander, glued the liner to each side with superglue and then because I've irretrievably damaged a scale, just wanted to finish this version (version 1.0) as quickly as possible by gluing the wedge between the scales using superglue. The first gluing attempt popped off on one side soon after - reglued and if it happens again I'll use epoxy resin, which will stick until the end of time.

Turned out ok for a first attempt; I'm not all that happy with the wedge end of the scale, I think the sanding is a bit irregular, one side of the white liner on the inside of the blue part of the wedge is not seated flush (maybe it can be filed out) and of course, one of the scales is oversanded.







Needs finishing and shining up... If I keep at it with 2000 wet-n-dry sandpaper, will it start to shine, or do I need to coat with a clearcoat? I've got some automotive clearcoat in a spraycan somewhere - I used it on some speakers and it can be polished to a high shine.

Lhey look ok, The end part needs some more shaping, mabe a little rounding of the corners.The scratches you see are from the lower grit sandpaper (belt sander)800 and 2k is to fine to take them out, i go like this after rough profiling 400-600-800-1200-1500-2000 and then polishing paste the higher grit you go the less time you should spend if properly done. If you wet sand the scales, make sure to dry them up and look at them to see if the scratch pattern is consistent with the curent grit before you go up.After finishing grab s cloth and some polish...hand rub for like 10 minutes. It will shine. You can also use clearcoat,or epoxy coat but it's a tad messy imo.

Here is one i restored a couple of months ago:
http://straightrazorpalace.com/custo...4-steps-2.html
Not some of my best photography work but you can get an idea on the finish.

The carbon fiber is woven 1/8 from usa knifemaker, same as the pins and everything else involved in the scales. It's sanded as mentioned above and hand polished. That's about the best shine you can get from polishing, if you want more, go for clearcoat or epoxy coat.

Also after rough profiling the scales you should try a diamond coated file or a plain file for rounding the edges by hand...less risk of messing up...i prefere this metod...then sandpaper. For plain cf a 45 degree angle ~2mm works nice to preserve the pattern...it does dot look that great if you round it to much.