Thread: First "Restoration" attempt pictures: Cadman Bengall

Ok, so I've had a battered old Bengall in my toolbox for a while, and I've finally got around to trying to fit new scales to it. I managed to get rid of most of the pitting and maks, but I don't have any mops or anything, so it was all done by hand. This is the reason that the finish isn't too hot on the blade.
The scales are made from some glass fibre insulation board from a dismantled 33KV transformer that was ripped out at work. I'm short on cash, and needs must! While Micarta has the nice constant "grain" effect, I quite like the randomness of the fibres in this.
The scales are a copy of the original horn, with a pattern taken from the remaining one that came with the razor, while the wedge is also the original lead. I plan on getting a polishing mop at some point and I wouldn't mind seeing how the scales take to a bit of buffing!

I'm also quite impressed that the blade sits pretty much central. Not sure how that happened...

Pinning isn't as bad as I would have thought, either. Not great, by any stretch, but not as bad as it could be!

Looks fine to me, the scale material is different and interesting, great work Enjoy!

Pinning is my biggest problem. I seem to get better with every try at everything but pinning. So I took the cheaters way out and bought alot of Micro Fasteners.

Not bad at all for your first. Pinning looks ok & fit is obviously good. Quite tedious doing it all by hand.
Do you have a grinder ? 2-4" mops are my preference on a tapered extension spindle & they will work ok even on the higher speed grinder but always watch for heat.

I quite like the scale material. Recycling is cool, and that will be a fine material for this purpose...I would bet that it is quite similar to G-11 if it came from a transformer.

However to be honest, I would have rounded the scales off to reduce the sharp edges. It is just a preference thing, and if you wanted to, it would be easy to do after the fact with some strips of sandpaper.

Great work, BTW.

Quite tedious doing it all by hand.
Do you have a grinder ?

I don't mind doing it by hand time-wise, it's just really fiddly trying to clean in the shoulder (correct term?!) where the blade meets the tang. And as for a grinder, I don't even have a shed... this was all done at the desk in work while the gaffer's away!

Thanks for the input though, Im always keen to hear other's opinions, good or bad.

I wasa considering rounding off the corners, but right now I like the crispness of the corners. Like you said, if i change my mind, it's easy enough to do! Thanks for the comments!

I like those scales. I might have to do some "recycling" now.

I think there's some green stuff in there too. I'm off to have a dig around...

Those scales look nice.
You might want to get a larger amount of that material because it's free and looks really nice.