Thread: Hellberg in Horn

Hi all, just thought I'd start posting some pics of my hellberg restoration, my first attempt at a rescale.

I have JUST finished installing the blade into the blonde horn scales I made, really happy with how everything's gone so far - though the scales WOULD NOT stay flat despite boiling them and clamping them a few times during construction, I'll have a go again with spacers between them now its together.

The horn is very thin, in keeping with the plastic scales that were broken when I got the razor. Around 2mm. This made getting them even quite problematic. A bit concerned they will split along their length as a result since the horn kept delamintating during shaping, but we'll wait and see.

The blade was in good shape when i got it, just some rust on the tang and some at the toe, none on the etch luckily.

Most proud of the peen's - I domed the brass washers with a hammer and the head of a rivet, as it had a decent ball end to transfer the shape to the washer. The peen merges into the washer and is almost invisible. Stoked.

its oiled up in these pics, so thats the souce of some of the "ripply" looking areas.

still lots of polishing, sharpening and of course scale straightening to do, will add more pics soon.

Cheers!

Thats beautiful! Great work!

Those scales are just awesome!

Another pic from above

Very nice! Thank you for sharing.

Regards,
Robin

simply amazing for a first restore. I love the washer-less pins. I love the thinness of the scales (something not common on someones first restore!) and the excellent rounding you did to the shape. Beautiful!

Edit: oops, I re-read your post, i was so excited about the razor that I must have skipped over your description of the washers you used!

Excellent restore! Great work all around. Scales and pinning look great!

I love it, very nice razor

Very nice job!!! I tried boiling and clamping my horn blanks to flatten them. It didnt work for me either.

UPDATE:

Since the horn is so thin the more I try to straighten it the worse it gets! - going to leave well enough alone now. It's 90% there, pulling the warp out just throws the toe out of line anyway.

Honing this evening - shave report on the way!

Thanks for the comments - your vids were a big help too Brad, cheers.

That is awesome, I am glad they were helpful!!!!

Try dry heat next time, as opposed to boiling.

I bake @ 240 degrees for about 15 minutes, in a clamped contraption that bends the horn ever so slightly in the opposite direction of the warp, the contraption has to allow for some expanding too, so, be careful.

When I pull it from the oven, I toss it straight into the freezer. Odd, I know, but, it seems to work. It stays there for at least 30 minutes, and then I pull it out, still in the clamps, and let it air dry overnight usually.