I'm amazed how well this worked, and I owe it all to you guys (specifically you, Brad [Undream])
Specs:
Scales are Butterscotch Waterfall Celluloid. Wedge is black Horn, pins are your average brass rod, there's really small washers on the outside, and minutely larger washers on either side of the blade between scales. The blade is my cherished Gold Dollar 208 going up for rescale. For some reason, I LOVE my Gold Dollar. It gives me a better shave than my Dovo best quality, or my TI. I don't know why, but this thing just WORKS for me :D
It will probably have one step left, and that is hitting a buffer with jeweler's rouge... But I kinda like the current look... I got it sanded up to 1k, so it looks and feels like a REALLY smooth wood...
So, the steps (Pictures will follow once I get them all off of my phone)
1. I took a piece of paper and traced my old GD scales out and edited them with what I wanted my scales to look like (Although, this was more than a beginner like me could handle... It ended up looking pretty standard as far as scales go, but I think it looks great!
2. Took this and cut it out with an exacto over a piece of cardboard so I now had a cardboard replica of my scales which I used to test sizing and whatnot.
3. Traced this cut-out onto my Celluloid (Compliments of the FANTASTIC Undream, Mr. Brad) and figured out where I could cut the scales in half -I'll explain why later
4. I took a Jig Saw to cut the slab of celluloid in half (diagonally) between the two scales... Fun thing about celluloid is that, unless you use the right tools, you cut it, and the friction melts the celluloid, which then just seals itself behind your saw... It threw me for a loop... I had to find a different way to cut it.
- For record, I had a coping saw recommended... My coping saw was DEAD-bladed, so I couldn't use it. Duller than a spoon :/
5. Once I got the two pieces apart, I figured my best bet for cutting out my scale shape was a dremel with a sanding bit, it actually worked quite well...
- Fun fact number two. Keep the setting on the dremel LOW and go slowly gradually grinding out material... If there's too much friction, celluloid does this awesome spontaneous combustion thing that HURTS. It's highly flammable.
6. Got piece A. cut out, the first half of my scales. Took some double-sided tape and stuck scale one onto the other half of the slab then used the dremel to carve around it very carefully, making both scales the same size.
7. Through a lot of effort, got that damn sticky doublesided tape off of it, and had two decent scales which I then held down nice and tight, then put a hole through the top, Blade area (after carefully measuring for the pivot)
8. Stuck some brass rod through that to hold it stable, and put some of the Black horn that Brad sent with the scales in the wedge spot, and measured it up... Once I figured out where I wanted it, I used a hack saw to roughly cut off the excess.
9. Next, I lined the wedge up, and drilled through it. So begins my first peening
10, I put the brass rod in a flat clamp (the table vise only has crosshatched clamps, no flat clamps, so I used a flat clamp held in the vice... Later on, I just turned to using a set of normal pliers over the edge of a table to hold the pin) And took a small hammer (unfortuantely not a peening hammer) and pounded a mushroom into the end of the pin.
11. Standard procedure here... Slid the washer over the pin, slid the pin through scale, wedge, scale, washer... Laid this assembly on the back of the vise (a convenient anvil) and tapped it down. Nice tight, fantastic!
12, Back to my dremel sanding bit, polished down the horn wedge until it was flush on all sides...
- Fun fact number three... When sanding/igniting celluloid, it smells oddly like pine.. REally nice :D. ...... When sanding/grinding horn, it smells like combusting dung... Not so enjoyable
13. Took the whole thing and, with the dremel, rounded all the edges to be more aesthetically/ergonomically pleasing
14. Grabbed my Mixed Pack of sandpaper from Auto Zone (great guys) and went to work sanding the whole thing inside and out... My celluloid went 220, 400, 800 and 1000. Made it SWEEEEET. Nice and smooth. Feels like well worn wood... Love it. Then I used some WD 40 on a dish rag to polish it... It looks nice... But I want to buff it on jeweler's rouge...
15 with the whole thing ready, I finally pinned in the blade.. Same scenario as before, only different pinned parts... Peened out a mushroom head with the pliers and a hammer, put on a small washer, through the scales, put on a larger washer, put in the blade, larger washer, scale, smaller washer... Cut the pin just a bit above the washer, and pound it on the anvil. A great fit with a wonderful pivot. Nice and sturdy, doesn't flop around like the old GD scales. IT's magnificent (strops like a dream, fantastic balance)
It's all gone so well! Thanks all of you, I never thought my first try (with minimal proper tools) would turn out so beautiful! You guys are amazing.
The picture doesn't really capture the material too well... It's a lovely layerd look... Now I need to hit a buffer :D
Overall fit and finish was ASTOUNDING for my first time. I'm soooo happy with this pup. I know I'm rambling by now, but I love this blade, and these scales just turned out PHENOMENAL. Great way to end the night... Or start my morning, considering it's 2am. Lastly, with a ton of interruptions, and a few driving errands, this thing took me about 5-6 hours. So, 3-5 hours of solid work
Pictures:
