Thread: Spalted ambrosia maple scales - fixing up a razor for a friend

A friend of mine gave me his grandfather's razor that was passed on to him in hopes of me making it pretty. When I got it, it was in pretty rough shape. I fashioned up some scales made from spalted ambrosia maple and used a black plexiglass spacer - it compliments the black lines nicely. I'm learning realllllly quickly that I loathe soft untreated/unstabilized wood. It's a real pain to work with. That being said, I love the colors. Suppose it's a give and take. Because it is an heirloom razor, I didn't sand it down. There is a ton of pitting and I would have to take off a lot of metal to make it shiny. Anyway, without further adieu -




Comments and criticisms are always welcome. Thanks for looking!

very nice .. anything spalted has always caught my eye !!

This is strictly my own, personal opinion. I love spalted wood. I love old heirloom razors with patina. I'm not sure I like the two together. I mean no offense, just an opinion.

Originally Posted by skipnord

This is strictly my own, personal opinion. I love spalted wood. I love old heirloom razors with patina. I'm not sure I like the two together. I mean no offense, just an opinion.

No offense taken. We each have our individual likes and preferences. I had originally planned on using some nice ziricote wood I got, but when I asked my bud if he likes lighter or darker colors, he said he liked lighter. I had the spalted ambrosia on hand and figured it would be a nice color exchange. One thing I do like about the combination is that there is enough of a mirror finish on the top of the blade that it does reflect the spalted lines. When you pull the whole blade out, you see that there is age and wear on the blade. I think it's a nice transition, personally. Thanks for your honest opinion!

Does your Zircote have narrow black and brown stripes? I got a piece of that stuff from a friend the other day that is about 3 1/2 x 3/4 x 12 - should be able to make a ton of scales with it. I may try cutting it at 45 degrees and see what turns up. I'm really looking forward to playing with it.

This is the ziricote

The first restore I did had ziricote scales on them -


It takes shellac really well. I love the dark browns in it.

I like the wood, and you've done a nice job of putting things together.

In my humble opinion, the scales could be a fair amount narrower. Part of the reason is personal taste - I prefer scales that are just big enough to fit the razor. Other people may like them bigger...
The other part of the reason is function - at least at the tang end, it's nice when the scales are approximately the same size as the blade to make for easier honing and stropping.

I hope you don't mind, I did a little messing with Photoshop to illustrate:

The scales are a fair amount wider than the tang:


There's quite a bit of extra room in here:


You could get away with chopping it down as much as this:


The tang would fit approximately like this:


The finished razor would look like this:

I think it will be more comfortable when stropping/honing if you thinned down the scales at the tang (pivot) side. General rule of thumb is the same width of the tang...

*edit - haha always someone swooping in before a comment is finished.

Originally Posted by HNSB

I hope you don't mind, I did a little messing with Photoshop to illustrate:

I'm quite fond of illustrations so thank you for putting that up. I thought a good deal about how to tackle the restoration of the razor. I mentioned it was pretty roughed up when I got it, and here is the before picture of the blade -
I don't know how well you can see the rust on your screen, but there was a nice blanket. When I removed the rust, I saw that the pitting goes all the way to the edge and it ran fairly deep. The guy may choose to get it honed or he may not. My bet is he won't. That being said, restoring it is more of an aesthetic purpose at this point. I figured since it will most likely be a show piece, might as well give it a little heft. I didn't want to make the scales too large, but I also didn't want them to be too small. The man I made this for also does car body work and he has bear paws for hands. A larger scale will (in my opinion) give him a little more to grab on to.

I had to think a lot about the purpose of the razor and the person they were being made for. I normally for my own tastes wouldn't make scales this big for a blade that didn't offer some size as well. I totally get what you're saying and agree with you on many counts. On a side not, it looks like there is a little face on the show side of the scale and I wanted to keep that there as well

I hugely appreciate the constructive criticism and ask that you guys keep it coming. I am so new to this and absolutely love it. It's comments like these that make me challenge my thoughts and it helps in my growth with this hobby

Love the spalted scales and had to scroll back up to see the little face which is cool once you focus on it. For me the narrower scales would look more balanced but I get your thinking with big hands need heft. Nice job.