Thread: Prince Royal with custom scales (pic heavy)

This is my first attempt at scales and blade polishing!

Blade: hand sanded from 150-1500g paper; dremel polished with Dico as in the tutorial.
- round point, approximately 6/8, bellied hollow (I think), top and bottom jimping
Scales/wedge: purple heart; dremel + hand sanded with 220g paper; 3 coats of Formby's tung oil, hand gouged fish scale pattern
Pins and washer: plain brass

Tools: Dremel for blade polish and major scale shaping, cheap gouge from Michael's, coping saw, assortment of small files, cordless drill with 1/16 bit, and my mitts.

After disassemble, before cleaning:






Casualty of rusted pins and hamfistedness (oh well, they were warped anyway)


Carefully taped to help preserve the gold


After hand sanding progression


After dremel compound progression

Good job on the blade, The goldwash has to go sometimes! Lets get it into some scales!

Rough shaping from a 1"x1"x6" block of purpleheart:



Drilled holes before cutting in two. A drill press would have made this less stressful. However, if you aren't perfectly straight you can sand down the scales from the outside (leaving the two sections of the drill path closest to each other). This will lessen the delineation of your crooked pin hole.


I found that measuring and marking a bisecting line, then taping along it made a straight cut by hand easier with a coping saw.


Of course changing the angle helped make quick work of cutting, but left a bit of smoothing work to be done.

These handles are a big ol' fat set and you can feel the difference between your ring and middle finger when holding it. Whether that's a bad or good thing is up for review...

little side lighting to show relief:



I still haven't found out who's stamp this is:

Like the scales on the scales, nice treatment.

Inspires me of doing something like that, then coat with epoxy resin. Darn, another project, lol

Originally Posted by sharptonn

Good job on the blade, The goldwash has to go sometimes! Lets get it into some scales!

ask and you shall receive; 5 minutes after your post, and its in some scales, lol

Can anyone help me identify this blade? I have had no definite answers to who made it.

Very nice work. I'd love to shave with it and see how those wide scales feel. Great job.

I have already been thinking of taking it apart and making some modifications to them...

sanding them down to be a normal or even thinner width than normal scales, lining them with some gold/brass, and slimming down the wedge. But I have another scales project that needs to get finished before I attempt to redo these.

Really nice job on the blade & carving.
First attempts always have some challenges for us
It may be the pics but your wedge looks reverse tapered & too thick which is maybe why you needed to hollow out the scales near the pivot to clear the tang ? Thinner scales will also allow the flex needed for a good fit .