First Ever Restore

Hello All,

i posted this yesterday on the "Butcher Shop" but I am reposting it here. I apologize if you read it twice.


"I'm just working on my first ever restore at the moment and it's a wade and butcher I bought on ebay a couple months ago. I made some sweet custom scales out of a mix of maple and walnut, sanded down the blade and got it pretty shiny (especially considering the shape it was in when I got it) and then rounded up a brass rod and washers....

That's when things started to go wrong. I realized I'd not cut the scales to 1/8 of an inch but rather to a 1/4 of an inch. So here I had some sweet scales that were way to thick. I sanded them down on a belt sander but I really screwed up one side and made it too thin. When I tried to put it all together I split the thin scale. I then removed the razor, made a shim from some maple and attached it to the cracked scale (it made sense because I was having to use several washers to get a clean close). I re drilled. it didn't look too bad and the razor was closing straight so i figured what the heck. I'll pin it and after some TLC it will still look good and be a memory of good times. So I went ahead. This time the other scale cracked!! Sadly, it was on the last hammer tap!

It's all together and would definitely be functional. i'm in the process of making a new set of scales that will not suffer from the same mistakes as this first set."

Have a nice day,

Stultsy

Nice job! I like the laminated woods a lot. Reminds me of those cool cutting boards that are varying in light and dark strips... haha.

I think I can make some suggestions to help you from splitting scales in the future, as I had the same problem on my first attempt at restoration. First, make sure your pins fit in your pin holes snuggly. I borrowed my father's drill press attachment for a normal 3/8" drill and it really helps getting the holes in there perpendicular. Which also might be why you had to shim to much to get the blade to center ( pins weren't perpendicular to the scales).

The other major tip I figured out pertains to the use of the ball peen hammer. Make sure when you are peening to tap around the circumference of the brass rod, hitting the rod with the angled portion of the hammer, coupled with hits in the middle of the rod with the middle of the hammer to start to spread out the rod.

Hope this helps, and there are some excellent videos on restoration to be found in the sticky in the workshop section: http://straightrazorpalace.com/works...wers-here.html