I'm reallllly new to SRP and it's only been about a week or so that I've been in the DE-Straight transition. After some nicks, cuts, quite a bit of blood loss, and some wicked close shaves, it is going well. I'm confident that my technique will get better, and I'm really enjoying using a straight.

This post might look familiar to some of you since it's also posted on another forum...anyway.

OK.. I've picked up far too many straights (eight) in the last week or two offa the `Bay and I've assigned myself the task of cleaning up the blades and/or rescaling a few.

Let me say this.. I am a total newbie at woodworking. Armed with sandpaper, sanding blocks, and my trusty Dremel, this is what I did.

First, a Herm Konejung (Solingen) that I rescaled.. I bought this a while back and I decided to give it some new scales. I purchased some .25" thick Amboyna Burl and sanded, sanded, sanded and shaped it up. A few coats of Tung oil and some brass microfasteners, and...

Second, I got some Double Arrows from our friend stamps and thought I'd see what I could do with one. I ground down the tail of the blade to a sharp, pointy horn. Then the wood. After a couple near-disasters with the Burl, I decided to go cheap. Dirt cheap. Basswood cheap. Went down to Hobby Lobby, grabbed some 1/8" basswood for two bucks, drew a funky scale design, and cut and sanded away until I had some quick-n-dirty-n-cheap basswood scales. Again, brass microfasteners and a nasty crazy-glue spacer (yah yah yah I know...) due to impatience and the experimental nature of the project...mostly impatience.

Anyway, here you go, guys. They may not be especially purty but they'll do for now, and they're a hell of a lot easier to use than a scale-less blade.

Enjoy. Or wretch...vomit, perhaps.