Thread: My first Rescale!

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

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 . ...... 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

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:

And some more pictures... The last three are the completed product... I'm just thrilled with it!

Congrats on your first
Brave man using celluloid. I'm a big baby with stuff that smokes up like that on my sander but it will buff up nicely if you're careful to avoid excess heat. The Novus 1,2,3 polishing system is also celluloid & bakelite safe & will add the icing on the cake.

Mmmmmm butterscotch

Turned out well.

Congrats!

Very nice for your first go round.
Congrats Jeremy!

Now, what's next on your bench????

Originally Posted by shutterbug

Very nice for your first go round.
Congrats Jeremy!

Now, what's next on your bench????

HEY!!! That's MY line!

Originally Posted by shutterbug

Very nice for your first go round.
Congrats Jeremy!

Now, what's next on your bench????

What's next on my bench? Well, I have enough acrylic (Red) for one more set of scales (again, thanks to Undream) although I don't have enough brass rod/washer for that... So I may end up just working on a scale design I like... I also have had some mental musing over using the engraving bit on my dremel to try putting my name in a piece of scrap material, work on my name/patterns to embelish any future scales I may make... Also, I'm going to be playing with a new Lyn Abrams modular paddle, trying out different stropping rotations on that...

I think I'll be working on the Paddle mostly, but I'll be whimsically drawing scales, and trying my hand at acrylic/celluloid engraving, and with wood too... Maybe do some simple patterns just to make things look pretty...

As of now I'm just poking around.. Hell, I may even -now that I've found a carving/cutting bit for the dremel- try making a rough brush handle...

I'm on spring break, so time not spent with my girlfriend will be spent winging it and trying to make things...


In a more present response, making dinner (Baked Potato skins loaded with cheese, bacon, carmelized onion and creamcheese) and then finding a paint stirring stick to try Dremel engraving with

ShavedZombie,

Nice job...A very nice job indeed. Congratulations.

ShavedZombie,

Very well done, you give me something to strive for, I just recieved my 1st razor this weekend in the mail....a GD 208. After a get a few shaves under me and another razor or two. I think I will try my hand at a rescale of my GD as well.


-Jeremy