Thread: F. Reynolds in cigar bands

A friend wanted a razor scaled with cigar bands and asked me to help him out. I really didn't want to do the project and told him I had no cigar bands anyway. About a month later, he pressed a large envelope into my hand, inside about 2 ounces of cigar bands.

After a couple weeks playing with cigar bands and various glues, I was ready to start. First I disassembled the razor. I started with 1/8 inch aircraft plywood (birch) duplicating the original scale shape...Its going to have to be a fairly wide scale to get a selection of interesting bands on it.

I then sorted through the bands to find a variety of interesting labels and colors. I tried a few different strategies for placement and eventually settled on cutting the straight portion of bands off and using them as an underlayer between the "faces" of the selected bands. I sorted the "faces" for size and color distribution, unfortunately gold is a VERY common color on cigar bands. With the faces place on the scale blank, I marked where the "open" areas were with pencil and then glued the straight band sections over those areas with thin CA. Then the "face" pieces were glued into place with CA. The ends of the papers were left hanging straight down to be cut and sanded off later. The ends are difficult due to the compound curves. I used my thumb to press the paper into place a best possible. Wrinkles are visible but finished up smooth under the CA. The alternative of cutting gores was too much work for almost no gain in appearance.

After getting all the paper glued into place, I trimmed off the edges flush with the back and sanded it flat. Sealed it with a couple coats of CA. I proceeded to do a standard CA finish over the bands. It took MANY coats of CA to cover all the overlaps and wrinkles on the ends. Always in the back of my mind, never sand too much...if you go through the bands are ruined. The finish continued to move for weeks after this was finished and has some very slight roughness in areas but very hard to see unless under magnification.

Standard reassembly and honing. He like the result.

Lessons learned:

It is possible.
It takes a lot of CA.
CA is not a stable finish over time when very thick.

Beautiful job! One of a kind scales.

Wow! Those are awesome and unique scales!
GREAT JOB!!!

Quite unique . I think personalized razors can be fun to not only build but to own.

BRILLIANT!! Excellent job!

Hilarious!

I used to have a razor scaled in a cigar band. Had them removed, but still have the scales downstairs.

I've done a lot of cigar band scales and I know they are a PITA. After all the work going into it, I found myself more times than not, sanding thru the CA to
the paper bands and killing the scales. And I had used many, many coats of CA ( thin to start, then thick to save time). If you do not sand enough, the CA
doesn't finish smooth and it does not buff well. AND, the thicki scales do not go well with smaller blades.