Thread: Joseph & Rodgers restore take 2

Originally Posted by karlej

I've been watching your progress in various posts. Each time you scales up a razor you will learn something new and improve. Here's a little stick and rudder.
1. Scales appear to be thick but it could just be the picture. They should be no thicker than .120 for a big blade. Preferably .110 to say .095. Look at some and measure some originals. Pay attention to tapering the scales evenly from the edge to the center of the scales. Yours appear fatter on the bottom edges.
2. The wedge looks thick at the edge of the scale. Is it a wedge or a spacer? A spacer will not allow the scales to function as they should. It also looks short. On a blade that size I would have made it about 9/16 long. They all vary some but it's a good ball park figure. Measure some originals.
3. Don't put the wedge pin so close to the end of the scales. Making the wedge short didn't help that. I measure back 1/8" from the inside edge and drill my hole. Again look at some originals.
4. Copy some original scales for your first few instead of trying your own designs. As Glen often says those old timers new what they were doing.
I usually say little in these forums regarding other folks work but you appear to be giving this a serious go. Stay with it. I think you'll find there is no shortage of encouragement here.

Originally Posted by MattCB

Looking pretty good! The only thing which seems a bit off to me would be the thickness of the wedge and the wedge pin placement as stated above. Great progress, keep up the good work.

I'll have to check the thickness of the scales, I honestly thought they were too thin lol

Now wedges I've been having the hardest time with hahaha I never thought out of all the things to catch me up and fumble around I didn't think it was going to be the wedge lmao but I totally agree with you about the wedge, I actually can out of bone and had to use the bone from the failed pair I had made a couple days prior... I would have waited but I decided that I will keep the razor for my personal... I've fallen in love this blade after honing it, probably sentimental reason...

Originally Posted by mycarver

The only thing I can add is ,,, nice job!

Hey thanks! I've been really been trying to catch up with everyone... I starting sharpening knives said "this thing can shave my hair" then the lightbulb went off and I thought straight razors... The rest is history, even though history was only July 30th according to me joining this forum at that point I was just trying to sharpen the damn thing. Never knew this was going to become a part of my daily life...

Originally Posted by karlej

I've been watching your progress in various posts. Each time you scales up a razor you will learn something new and improve. Here's a little stick and rudder.
1. Scales appear to be thick but it could just be the picture. They should be no thicker than .120 for a big blade. Preferably .110 to say .095. Look at some and measure some originals. Pay attention to tapering the scales evenly from the edge to the center of the scales. Yours appear fatter on the bottom edges.
2. The wedge looks thick at the edge of the scale. Is it a wedge or a spacer? A spacer will not allow the scales to function as they should. It also looks short. On a blade that size I would have made it about 9/16 long. They all vary some but it's a good ball park figure. Measure some originals.
3. Don't put the wedge pin so close to the end of the scales. Making the wedge short didn't help that. I measure back 1/8" from the inside edge and drill my hole. Again look at some originals.
4. Copy some original scales for your first few instead of trying your own designs. As Glen often says those old timers new what they were doing.
I usually say little in these forums regarding other folks work but you appear to be giving this a serious go. Stay with it. I think you'll find there is no shortage of encouragement here.

I'm actually taking wha put u said and changing things around on these scales, I'll have it done shortly, it's mainly going to be the wedge, since I ran out of the nine at the time I have more now so I'm going to fix these...

I actually really appreciate the info and honesty because it's what I need. The constructive feedback... To be honest I could t help myself and made another set that I drew up, i think what my problem is, is that I'm going 100 mph with all this new information about razors... In one sense it is making me move right along, but in another it's going to be easier to create some bad habits tnat are going to end just costing me in the end...

Good job, Fonz!

I've always hated making wedges too. I followed the steps of cutting out the rough shape, then drill the pin hole, then taper (the hardest part), pin into the razor and then do all the finish sanding.
But now to make the taper correct, you can go about it two different ways: First, rough cut the wedge and glue it to any object that is study and thin enough to give you some leverage.
Second, if you're really fancy, you can take your block of wedge material and cut out a tab that is still connected and use the block of material as the leverage to get the angle right. Then cut it away from the block and continue assembly and final sanding.

Nice work! Joseph and Rogers are among my favorite makers. I have three, and they are all near wedges that smile

The scale template is great, I printed mine to scale on A4 transparency sheets and I just lay my blade on the bench and slide the sheets over them until I find the best fit, or modify one to suit works too

Originally Posted by Substance

The scale template is great, I printed mine to scale on A4 transparency sheets and I just lay my blade on the bench and slide the sheets over them until I find the best fit, or modify one to suit works too

That's a great idea! You know I was cutting the scale shape out of the paper and then redrawing it on the material but i don't like it because there are changes that happen to it and usually I spend a lot of time on the blade drawing just because I'm not an artist what so every...

But I'm going to do what Charlie Lewis does and just use carbon paper from now on... On top of using the temps and then modifying from there...