Thread: Full Double Hollow dressed in unobtainium :<0)

So I had this razor for a looong time. You know how it is when you see a deal on the bay and you know you can just fix that thing right up and get rich quick.

Piece of cake right ?



The makers mark is gone with the tang cover of course so getting rich is out of the question but still I knew with the right material this thing could be sought after again. At least pleasing to the eye. I thought about horn, and bone, and acrylic but nothing I thought of made me want to pull it out of the pile and dress it up. So a couple of weeks ago I was shopping around for something totally unrelated and I see this material I had heard about but never seen used before. Here it was in almost scale thickness and on the clearance page. Now the sticker price would make a smart man click away without thinking twice but before I knew it, I got a confirmation e-mail and it was on it's way. Now I had forgot about it by the time it arrived and so this big box that felt like it had nothing in it had me stumped.
Well when I opened it I went right to town on this stuff. Got play with it and see if what I read is all true. Can't be because this stuff is only 0.050 thick. Hacksaw bounced right off it. Sawsall bi metal blade made it shake like a dog poopin' a peach pit, until the teeth rounded over. Hmmmmmm. Set it down and do some more reading, which I did without finding anything promising to try.

The title is a little misleading because it's not THAT hard to find. I think it should actually be called something like Unworkablulium or Don'teventrytanium.

Well today my buddy Wolfpack shows up and he wants to make some scales.

So we get him set up and goes at it.



Looks like fun so I grab the Unubtainium bound determined to do something with it.
I have been making some RSOs with a 4 1/2" grinder doing the cutting so I got the idea of using my rotary tool with a small fiber wheel on this stuff. Well it worked. Not the fastest way but it was cutting this stuff.


Now I learned a few things right off the bat.
1. The sparks are hot. I mean real hot, white hot. The keep burning until the flying material is all burnt up. Which means if they land on something they don't just burn they burn through.
2. Your going to go through a lot of fiber wheels to get where your going. 1 six inch cut used 2 wheels. I decided to cut the other scale the same and try some grinding at this point.
3. This stuff will fool you. I already mentioned the white hot sparks but the sheet itself really fooled me. Apparently it does not conduct heat that well. I other words you can hold it close to where your cutting it and not feel the sheet getting warm. Long after you think it's cooled it's NOT. The little burn mark on my pinky is from touching the slot I cut which normally should have been maybe to hot to hold for any length of time but not burning hot still.



2 more Dremmel wheels and I got another scale cut out. I am running out of wheels and I still have to cut out the tang cover pieces. So out comes the big gun. I put a thin 4" fiber wheel on my Hilti grinder and cut a square, then the 2 smaller pieces to within a 1/2" of the lines in the worst spots. Guess I will grind them to shape.

Drilling holes was uneventful except it went slow and took a lot of WD-40 to get through.
The next task was getting these rectangles attached to the tang so I could grind them in to match. My good friend Tom (sharptonn) had sent me some pin material for covered tangs but it was small enough I could almost get 2 in the same hole. Toothpicks did the trick for awhile but when I got closer guess what, smoked em'. SO I did the unthinkable to the unubtainium and the tang. I bolted and clamped them together and drilled the cover pins out to 1/16 ". Yes, I got real lucky and that was also uneventful.
I countersunk the cover pieces and pinned with brass rod to the tang and went to town on the 2 X 72. Here is where I learned another thing. You need good belts to grind this stuff. If you use an inexpensive belt you will get sparks for about 3 seconds. Nice white sparks and they will disappear as fast as they showed up. When you shut down the belt grinder to see what's up you will eventually notice all the grit is gone off your belt :<0) Yup ! This stuff is brutal. And if your going to be grinding a lot of it you better have some good safety glass and I would suggest something polarized. This white spark is almost as bright as welding arc. No kidding.



The pic above shows the counter sink and pin. After this I tapered the covers while they are on the tang. I am shooting for full shape and then I am going to have to drill that out again to put a finish on those covers.

Here it is test pinned. It got late so I polished 1 scales threw the thing together just to see what I have to do next. The wedge has been a real PITA so far and why I think using the same material is good , I do not know. I started this thinking 3 pin but I am trying to get away from that now. The wedge is the key. I do not want the cover rubbing on the scale even a little or it will ruin the finish of both.

3 pics for your viewing of my progress and to see some of it in different stages of work. The back side scale is pure raw as it comes Unubtainium :<0)

The balance point is back some. This little anvil has a seam it is sitting on and it was rocking back and forth when I took this pic. I don't think it's going to be that noticeable in the hand though. Taking that stainless steel screw and washers out and finishing the taper on the wedge will change that some I am sure. It will be interesting to see how much.




The edges of this material de burr with the buffer and white polishing compound believe it or not. And what ever you do don't even think greaseless compound. So far black polishing compound on a sisal wheel is about as course as you want to go. Sanding had some surprises too but some of that may be from the fact I had nothing to eat or drink all day (after coffee with Mike) and I will have to play with that more to confirm what I think I saw. The experimenting with the finish on this stuff will need some explaining and pics if I can get them to show what happens.

Now I know some may be thinking " why would he put metal on a covered tang ??? " This material has a secret property that will change all that soon enough. I will do a video on that process. It's going to be fun and who knows how it will turn out?

Thanks for looking , I'll be Back.

Great job, with soul !!!

Pups let me in on the secret properties..... can't wait to see it!

GREAT job on the scales. This stuff looks like a bear to work with though!

I have been eyeballing some titanium for liners on scales and have bee hesitant about what thickness would be ideal, so at 0.050 does it easily flex or would you recommend it to be a tad thinner for a liner?

Originally Posted by 10Pups

...snip...
Now I know some may be thinking " why would he put metal on a covered tang ??? " This material has a secret property that will change all that soon enough. I will do a video on that process. It's going to be fun and who knows how it will turn out?
Thanks for looking , I'll be Back.

I await your additional info. Titanium did you say?? Oooh pretty!
~Richard

I can't believe how much progress you've made Pups...when I left yesterday you had just finished the rough cut on the one scale. I won't give away the "secret"...

Great job my friend!

Makes me think of some heat treated aluminum sheets... Might not be as expensive, and if done right can be purdy darn tough...

I refuse to believe that the scales will not be lit up with color...somehow.

Awesome job on those scales and that razor!
Thank you showing the progress and the "heads up" on that material too......
The unknown and the gamble paid of using that material for those scales.
Magnificent job!

As the old saying goes "Nothing ventured, nothing gained."