Thread: First Restoration Attempt...

...complete! (And semi-successful)

Found an old Boker Puritan about a month ago. Heavy pitting, some rust, garbage scales. Had some fun and learned a freakin TON!

Not the best work - nothing anyone would ever pay for! Haha. But I love it.

Brazilian Cherry scales. Wedge is two guitar pics glued and sanded down. Etching on the blade had little chance regardless of this being my first attempt, and my newbie stripes came out when I basically sanded off the tang stamps on each side before I discovered the wonders of a wire brush.

Did nearly everything by hand. I had someone cut me 1/8" blanks. Then all sanding (blade too) was done with elbow grease. Only power tools I used were a power drill to make way for the pins, and a dremel to shape the scales.

CA Glue for the finish. Sanded down to 12000 with the micromesh. Shiny!

Two biggest issues that I came across - 1. The holes for the pins weren't perfectly aligned, so I ended up popping a small sliver of the scale out when I tried to "assist" the rod through with my ball peen. 2. Gaps where the inner edge of the scales meet the outer edges of the wedge - due to tapering when sanding. Live and learn.

Things I learned:

*Shape BOTH scales at the same time (DUH! Stupid newbie)
*Make sure there is absolutely NO taper/rounding on the inside edge of the scales - makes for a sloppy fitting wedge
*Drill the holes for the pins with both scales together. Yeah - another brilliant newbie maneuver to do those separately.
*Get some power tools!

All in all - great fun. A HUGE learning experience. And I can't wait to do it all again!

Oh - I honed the dang thing myself too! Thanks Glen for the videos!

OK - Finally some pics. Sorry for no "before" pics. Was a ding-dong and forgot to take them.


In this pic you can see the area where the sliver popped out by the pivot pin, and that I slapped some CA in there to seal the wood and I have yet to sand again. I was too eager to shave with my project.




Pic 2 - with the flash - shows the grain a little better I feel.




Pic 3 - my shave of the day!




I know that there are plenty of issues with my finished product, but I'm proud of my first attempt. I plan to fix this one up again, but I'll enjoy the shaves in the meantime. Just wanted to share my experiences. Thanks for taking a look.