Thread: Opinion- what to do about scales...

I would leave it as is and open and close it with care. IMO the value as a collectible would be compromised no matter how beautiful the scales might be that replaced the originals. Many collectors of Case Bros razors do not shave with straight razors and the utility of the razor wouldn't be an issue for them but the replaced scales would.

OTOH, thinking of my Puma with Kayser Ellison steel blade on which you fitted the beautiful micarta scales. I would never sell it and leaving it with the original scales made it useless as a shaver so being able to use it was more important to me then leaving it as it was.

Then again my Puma isn't the collector's item that the Case Bros is. The Springville, NY factory was only operational for a short time and it is more desirable to collectors then the Case Bros Little Valley razors. I would think long and hard before I took those off of it. I honed, stropped, and shaved with that and though the scales are not as tight as we might like the razor is usable as is.

Alex, You know my answer here.....
I might just might, try to straighten them, if I was on a roll with restores, and was really feeeling lucky, you know the feeling Alex, when every razor you have been working on, is basically building itself on the bench.....

This is a "no brainer!":

If I were as good as you are in regard to doing custom scales, I would remove the ones that are presently on the razor and custom build new scales - that would be beautiful, yet, an exotic appearance of the original scales. Of course, your interpretation of this representative of the original would be your creation, and I suspect it would be great, and totally original in it's self! - kind of ironic, because it would be fashioned after the original, making it incredibly unique!!!

Sounds exciting!

Regards,

Steve

I would make some spacers to fit between the scales to set the proper distance and heat the scales with a hot hair dryer using caution not to burn the scales. This may release the stress that is causing the warp and maintain the proper distance as the scales cool. I have has success with this method on several ebay finds. Good luck in what ever direction you take.

Originally Posted by Joed

I would make some spacers to fit between the scales to set the proper distance and heat the scales with a hot hair dryer using caution not to burn the scales. This may release the stress that is causing the warp and maintain the proper distance as the scales cool. I have has success with this method on several ebay finds. Good luck in what ever direction you take.

+1, I would try this first.

Philadelph,

I'm going to try the heat and wedge trick on a Puma that has some ugly warped scales to see if that approach may work. The plain black original scales rub the blade on one side, so if it doesn't work I have lost not much as I need to rescale to make the razor usable. The scales on your razor are nifty enough so that I think you ought to try what you can to reclaim them.

(and then, just for grins and giggles, you can keep your hand in the restoration business )

My thinking is, if your gonna shave with this, then make it the most beautiful, comfortable razor you can. Make new scales that represent perfection to you. If you ever decide to sell it, it won't have as much collector value anyway after you've used it. And the he new owner probably intends to shave with it anyway.

Make it beautiful and send us pics!!!

I know this one has been dead for a while, but I wanted to post this. I decided to leave the razor as-is despite the opposite thinking of this poll. For the time being at least. Then today I decided to see what I would be able to do in terms of recreating these scales close to the originals. So I make a set (NOT FINISHED OR POLISHED MIND YOU) just to see what it would be like. Surprisingly they turned out pretty well so far and I am again tempted to do something about it lol. Any thoughts? Regardless of what razor these scales go on, what kind of spacer would you give it? Something plain along the lines of the originals (I would probably use the same material for these scales which would keep it striped along the bottom) or something bright and different? Attention getting if you will. NOT saying I'm taking off the originals!

P.S. Sorry the photo colors are off. They were taken quickly.

They look great Alex as your scales always do. I think that I should send this one to you and "we" ought to put them on it.