Thread: These scales cannot be original... right?

Originally Posted by PaulFLUS

Unless you lost your sense of smell to Zicam like I did.

Call in a favor from a friend or family member who has a good sense of smell.

It's starting to come back now (after 8 years) but I have a hard time distinguishing between smells. I guess it's like Robinson Crusoe forgetting how to speak the language after so long of not using it.

Originally Posted by cudarunner

If in doubt--do the hot pin test, it only takes a couple of minutes and the smell between burnt hair and burnt plastic is very easy to distinguish.

Yes, one way or another I need to test. I'm not nearly as sure that the scales are not horn now.

Originally Posted by Montgomery

Yes, one way or another I need to test. I'm not nearly as sure that the scales are not horn now.

I'm by no means an expert and sometimes it can be hard to tell from pictures but that looks like buffalo horn to me.

Originally Posted by PaulFLUS

I'm by no means an expert and sometimes it can be hard to tell from pictures but that looks like buffalo horn to me.

I don't have any horn-scaled razors, but I've seen plenty of other things that are made of horn, and originally I would have been very surprised if these were also horn, but now I'm open minded, and very curious to find out for sure. If they are horn, they are really nice quality and in very nice condition.

One of my father's favorite sayings was "Talks cheap, it takes money to buy whisky"

In this case it translate to:

"Hot Pin Test the Damn Scales and find out what they 'ARE' and stop talking about 'what' they 'Might' be"

Originally Posted by cudarunner

One of my father's favorite sayings was "Talks cheap, it takes money to buy whisky"

In this case it translate to:

"Hot Pin Test the Damn Scales and find out what they 'ARE' and stop talking about 'what' they 'Might' be"

The test won't happen until tomorrow at the earliest! But be assured, the assembled folk on this thread will be the first to know the answer

The curved lead wedges that were longer on the bottom had a purpose. With a frameback, the scales would have to be wider than the blade otherwise the blade would stick out the bottom of the scales - this is considered a bad thing with straight razors lol.

So to keep the scales reasonably sized, they used a curved wedge and the nose above the edge hit the wedge and stopped the blade before it came out the bottom. So yes, after time the hard blade would usually make a mark or groove in the soft lead wedge. I have a couple like this, a C. H. Guerre, and a Gauthier both of which are actually rattlers. Here’s the Gauthier, which has been re-scaled because the originals were shot. It no longer has the curved lead wedge, so what stops the thin blade from sticking out the bottom? The third pin hits the tang and stops it. Otherwise, the blade wouldn’t stop until the spine hits the scales.

Cheers, Steve

Originally Posted by Steve56

The curved lead wedges that were longer on the bottom had a purpose. With a frameback, the scales would have to be wider than the blade otherwise the blade would stick out the bottom of the scales - this is considered a bad thing with straight razors lol.

So to keep the scales reasonably sized, they used a curved wedge and the nose above the edge hit the wedge and stopped the blade before it came out the bottom. So yes, after time the hard blade would usually make a mark or groove in the soft lead wedge. I have a couple like this, a C. H. Guerre, and a Gauthier both of which are actually rattlers. Here’s the Gauthier, which has been re-scaled because the originals were shot. It no longer has the curved lead wedge, so what stops the thin blade from sticking out the bottom? The third pin hits the tang and stops it. Otherwise, the blade wouldn’t stop until the spine hits the scales.

Cheers, Steve

Very interesting to know that the blade resting against the wedge is possibly intentional. This is quite a big blade for the scales, so maybe there is something in that. Was this technique ever used on razors which weren't framebacks?

However, I have now filed the wedge back a fraction, the blade no longer rests against the wedge, it is sitting comfortably in the scales, and there is no danger of the blade protruding from the underneath of the scales.

After testing, the scales are horn, so the next question is, does horn shrink?

Typically... No. But they do have a tendency to warp, over time.