Durability, water resistance, feel and other (dis)advantages of scale materials

I have found that plastic scales break the easiest .

Wooden scales are beautiful but its lack of flexibility has cause me many a lined wedge nightmare .

I always think that darker scales look better but ivory and honey horn disprove that .

that's my 2 cents :gl:

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Originally Posted by Euclid440

Horn is hard to beat, there are razors over a hundred years old sill kicking with original horn scales on them. And it polishes easily and nicely.

It only smells if you are cutting or sanding it, which you won’t be doing.

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Euclid440, I'm making some horn scales for a blade i got from Bruno. I have several razors with horn; I like them all and none have warped.

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Originally Posted by celticcrusader

Camel's bone is a very nice material for scales, I have one custom razor with Camel bone scales and I love the look and feel of them.

https://i.imgur.com/8kfs5QI.jpg

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Those are graceful, elegant scales. I will be looking for some camel horn material.

I think the only natural scale material that's still a realistic option here is horn. Wood can be gorgeous, but I simply don't trust it enough. I generally prefer darker scales like e.g. this black horn or this brown horn. Although I think my preference currently is Juma (either Golden Dragon or Blue Snake) followed by black G10.

Juma Golden Dragon
Juma Blue Snake

I have a lot of 200+ year old horn scales still going strong.

As long as you aren't soaking them in hot water, the only maintenance required for them is the same as the blade -- a good wipe down. I'd be a little careful with a hair drier. Basically, just hold the razor & scales in my hand, if the air is too hot to hold onto, it's too hot for the horn.

The only other proviso is that I'd keep them in a container where I knew that dermestid beetles would not be. So, if you work anywhere that organic defleshing of bones occurs, be careful, because those beetles will eat horn (and tortoiseshell, which is just fancy horn in the grand chemical scheme of things).

Also, bone can be dyed black.

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Originally Posted by FatboySlim

Since you're buying a Koraat, I would recommend their bone scales. I recently bought what looks to me to be an NOS Koraat with bone scales off eBay, and I've got to say that Koraat does some of the nicest bone scales I've ever seen, I was really impressed. If I had decent pictures of it I'd upload them, but I don't yet. I'll try to tomorrow. Very white with high polish, no big ugly brown pores at the ends. Not quite the glow of good ivory, but very nice indeed, and better than a lot of the dull-finish ivory I've seen sold as scales. The rave reviews of Koraats on this forum are no joke, he does very nice work, this was my first Koraat. Pretty much all of the same advantages as ivory in terms of tradition and beauty when they are done to Koraat's level, I see no downside.

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CobraX, here are a few pictures of the bone scales on the Koraat I was talking about, for your reference.

Full disclosure, I shaved with the razor the first time a few days ago and honestly found it awkward. It will take some getting used to. I bought the razor because I very much like a thumb notch, but this one has a very long tang with the notch close to the blade heel, and no jimping in the notch. So getting a solid grip on it and stropping it took some practice. The bone scales, steel, workmanship, and honing were all very well done for sure. But this is an unusual razor that requires a different grip than I'm used to. Worth the effort I hope!

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When brand new to SR shaving join on here my biggest and most important hope is they become lifelong users.. And #2 is when Alll of the AD's kick in they share pics of all the acquisitions and the question " I cant stop myself, how do I stop? I told myself no more.. But i couldnt let these 2 razors go look at the Cocobolo scales!.. That rabbit hole is bitch to get out of but damn those AD"s are exciting & expensive....