Thread: Made some scales

Horn is an excellent scale material. Scales can be made very thin, which can make shaving and stropping easier. Thick scales can be awkward to handle.

The trick to finishing horn is removing the scratches at the low grits, 320. Scraping also reduces a lot of hand sanding, a good scraper can be made from a Putty Knife, Razor Knife blade or dollar store steak knife. A pair of scales can easily be scraped smooth.

Then sanded with 320, 400, 600 and 1000 or 2000. From 1 or 2k they will hand polish with any good metal polish, I use mothers then Maas or 3M Marine Metal Restorer and Polish. Pricy but a tub will last years.

Karlej, has an excellent Horn making, photo tutorial (How to make a tradition set of horn scales ... the way I do it.)

Also, study vintage scales for dementions and hole/ pin placement, you will find they are very consistent. There is a reason, it works.

Also, Lead wedges are traditional with horn, are easy to make and add balance to a horn scaled razor.

Nice work, for your first set, keep at it, it can be done completely with hand tools.

Great input. I'm definitely going to study some of the other threads and resources.

Thanks to the mentors and more experienced folks

Euclid beat me to it but he is correct, 2k sand paper and then mothers and they will shine great. I also use Mothers, I have tried a couple others and Mother seems to function the easiest and best for me anyway. Slap some of that Mothers on a micro fiber rag or another soft rag and get to buffing! Great job on the scales by the way, Dang that horn stinks though don't it?! Looks nice in the end though.

Originally Posted by ejmolitor37

Dang that horn stinks though don't it?! Looks nice in the end though.

Whoa Nelly, it sure does. I used my band saw on horn yesterday and got dust on me. Was exhausted and went to bed without a shower. Trust me, those sheets will be getting changed today!