Preparing scales for a new forged razor

Hi there

I've been in the forge again. Swinging the hammer was nice and I felt alive and at peace.

The previous blade I made had a big welding flaw at the tail and I decided to disqualify it. It was the blade from my previous thread: http://straightrazorpalace.com/works...4th-razor.html

But I went for the same design, now using ball bering steel. I forged the contours quite rough and rough shaped it afterwards with my anglegrinder. The blade is about 15 mm high and 4.5 mm thick. I ground it with a 120 mm wheel. In inch: hight 0.59", thickness 0.18", wheel 4,7". I found out that the blade would have been nicer if it had been thicker... but I will do that next time. The thumb groove feels quite nice.:idea:

Here is the blade (at the bottom The other is the last one) and the scales drawn on paper. The antler piece is reindeer. I would like to try reindeer horn as scale material. I've never worked in that material before but I have a few antlers. A friend of me, a knifemaker, had been cleaning up his handle materials and had a huge box of wood and horn. He would give it to me or throw it out. :p He also just gave me a 20 pound vise :rock: Nice!

Please tell me what you think or recommend.
http://i613.photobucket.com/albums/t...g/IMG_5531.jpg
http://i613.photobucket.com/albums/t...g/IMG_5532.jpg
http://i613.photobucket.com/albums/t...g/IMG_5535.jpg



Best regards Kristian
I'm going to my grandmothers cottage for the rest of the week from tomorrow so I won't be able to answer before sunday night/monday.

I've used deer antler before and it hand polishes well. If you plan on using a buffer, use a light touch. You will find that it is pretty flexible. I sealed the inside of the scales where you will find the marrow with CA/superglue. They have a real nice "warm" feel to them when finished.

The razor looks like it's taking shape, only concern is that I would have a tougher time stropping it with the pointy thumb notch as I center my thumb on the tang and use my index and thumb to flip the razor while stropping.