Dovo 140 in Olivewood

My friend and straight razor mentor, AFDavis11, asked me to rescale one of his razors. The razor didn’t balance to Alan’s liking and he sought a set of lighter and thinner scales.

Alan gave me free rein on choice of materials, but he did disclose at one point that he liked the look of light colored wood. He originally eyed a piece of ironwood with several large sapwood areas that would have made a handsome set of scales had I not discovered several cracks that rendered the piece unworkable. Bummer. In the end I elected to proceed with olivewood. I decided that a metallic wedge would suit the combination well, and I opted for aluminum to keep the scales as light as possible. To match the aluminum, I used nickel silver pins with domed stainless steel washers. The scales were finished with approximately a dozen coats of Tru-oil.

According to my digital kitchen scale, the new scales weighed in at roughly half of the old pair. The new scales are noticeably thinner as well. I did recycle the original bearing washers, but I hammered them flat and sanded them down as thin as I could first.

I really enjoyed the project - I welcome all pursuits that lead to relaxing alone time in the garage. :)

Thanks, Alan, for trusting me with your gorgeous razor (the gold plated spine work is stunning!).

Brian

Nice work! Very smooth, clean look to it :)

Well done, beautiful scales

Wow, great work! Love those scales.

That is a very beautiful set of scales. Very well done indeed. I hope Mr. Davis enjoys his properly balanced razor.

The color of the wood picks up the gold in the glade very nicely. How was the olive wood to work with? I have never used it on anything before. What would you compare it to in how it works; tropical hardwood, maple, walnut,...?

Brian! Wow!! That is nice!!! I'm excited about that blade once again!!!!

That is a wonderful transformation Brian! It looks as though it came from the factory like that.

SHHHHHWEEEETETTTNESS !!! Gotta love Olivewood :tu

This is a beautiful, classy set of scales, and cutting down on the thickness has truly done it justice, so much more than the original scales. Excellent work and hope to see many more like it!

Nice. Beautiful blade and a very tidy job with the scales. Really well done.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by RayCover

I have never used it on anything before. What would you compare it to in how it works; tropical hardwood, maple, walnut,...?

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Thanks for all the kind words, guys. Not sure they are warranted, but I’ll take them. :-)

As for working with olivewood, I haven’t worked with enough wood types to give you a comprehensive comparison. What I can say is that working with olivewood is relatively straightforward. The wood cuts and sands well and takes a great polish – you might be surprised how beautifully it buffs up even without any finish. The wood is hard, dense, and abrasion resistant. Yet it’s not too dense that it’s difficult to work. Comparing the olivewood to, say, the ironwood I originally contemplated, the ironwood is much harder IMO and takes significantly more effort to sand to the proper thickness. As a bonus, olivewood smells good.

My only difficulty was keeping the light wood from getting discolored by metal shavings when shaping the wedge. But I don’t think olivewood performs any different in this regard compared to other light colored woods.

Overall, I enjoyed working with olivewood. Give it a try.

Top notch! Those are sweet scales!

Beautiful razor and scales. Nicely done!

I have this exact same razor but still in the blue horn scales. ( It was actually a contest prize, given generously by SRD, thank you again!) Seeing this razor in those scales is really remarkable. The gold plating is complimented so well by the color of the olive wood. Excellent work!

It does look better now :) Enjoy, Alan!
My favorite part of olivewood is the smell, I always want to lick my livi.

This is a wonderful example of patient craftsmanship. Well done and let's see more.

Diyguy
By the way, your photography is very impressive as well. I am envious.....

Jerry
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Thanks for the replies everyone.

I particularly appreciate MrSell63’s photography comment. I have no photography background at all and taking pictures is one area that’s a huge challenge for me. There is definitely a learning curve associated with photographing razors!! Getting quality pictures can be quite frustrating.

I was lamenting recently that I might have to break down and buy a more advanced camera, but Jerry’s comment makes me think that perhaps my current setup is working OK?? I’m currently using a cheapie point and shoot camera, but I do the following:

1. A light box helps tremendously. I originally built my own DIY version, but it didn’t work as well as I desired. I ultimately bought an inexpensive light box off of eBay. It works better, but it still was not perfect. It came with two high lumen lamps, but I ultimately found that I needed to add three more (five spotlights in total: one directed through each side, one from the top, and two in front bouncing indirect light off of the inside top and sides of the box). The collection of cords and lamps is pretty comical looking and takes forever to setup and take down!

2. I also changed three settings on my camera: a) turned on the macro setting (to improve close-up focusing), b) turned off the flash (to reduce glare), and c) added a two second delay (to keep the camera perfectly still).

3. Lastly, I use a small tripod. With the tripod and the two second delay, the camera can be held perfectly motionless for each picture.

The above setup has been working reasonably OK for me so far, but in full disclosure I still have to take about 50 pictures to yield five quality shots. 90% of the pictures still contain glare spots or are out of focus or focused on the wrong area (for example, focused on the blade when I was trying to focus on the wedge).

If there are any professional photographers reading this, I’d welcome feedback on how to improve my setup. :)

Thanks again for the kind words everyone!

Ultimately, what is important is results, and yours are excellent! I particularly like how your method represents your DIY handle. You figured out what you needed, and built your own light box setup. My kind of guy! And, the razor is lovely. Olivewood is one of my favorites.

Nice Olivewood scales

Sam

the wood and the gold on the spine and logo match real well...that's outstanding work...clean and classy...well done indeed

Nice job on those scales, that is one damn fine razor, sir. :)