Thread: Custom Scales For Commercial/Refurbished Blade?

Originally Posted by Maximilian

Your best bet would be to have the wooden scales made by someone that's involved in straight razors and then send the finished wooden scales out to your wood carving specialist guy. When he's done carving them he can send them back to the original razor person who can then assemble everything. Unless you find someone that excels at both.

Personally I think maybe you should listen to what one of the real experts said,,

What you asking to be done is really rather easy,,I would give the exact same advice...
The only people that "MIGHT" posses both skill sets that I can think of are Robert Williams (he does scrimshaw work, don't know if he does relief carving) and John/Shutterbug (he does intricate silver engraving , don't know if he does relief carving)

Other then that you need to do what Max and I both are telling you is to have the scales made with the "Knowledge" that they are going to be carved so the the scale maker can thin them up for balance and flex them after he gets them back, by sanding from the inside...
But they do need to be shaped and drilled first...

This is an interesting thread, and since I have some relevant experience I'll chip in with a few personal thoughts.

This looks to me to be a three part process: 1) get the scale blanks made, 2) pass them on for carving, then 3) return them to a razor man for fitting. Part 3 isn't as trivial as it might appear - with some blades it will call for a good deal of lateral thinking.

The blanks should be made a little beefier than normal since material is going to be removed. That will affect how much they will flex.

The carving design shouldn't introduce any pronounced weak spots, not so much because they might break although that's a consideration of course, but because the bend will become uneven. I imagine a regular repeat design in shallow relief wouldn't cause undue trouble, though the scales might decide to bend into a series of facets if there's work all the way across the grain. Actually, that might be an interesting feature. A metal liner might be a way to get around that one. Here's a link to a carved razor: note that there are no obvious weaknesses across the line of the bend (also that they are plastic ...)
Klauberg, C. & Bros. "Damascene" 5/8 - Straight Razor Place Wiki

Material. The timbers favoured by woodcarvers tend to be bland in appearance with little figure. This is a good thing: fancy wood and fancy carving lead to visual confusion, especially on small objects. Probably most people here would agree that it's best to go for a hard dense material, which often means rosewoods of some sort, but I don't think that's a good option here because of the visuals, and the fact that most woods of that type are quite spiteful if you try to carve them - bits fall off. I'd be tempted to try African blackwood which supports fine detail well (what does it look like? very black), hard maple (pinkish white), or hornbeam (not far off white). Ivory or bone would be preferable to wood for this project - stronger, will support the detail well, and fairly plain in appearance. Sadly it will also be a good deal harder to work, though.

All the above, needless to say, is just my tuppence worth.

I think this sounds like a really interesting and worthwhile project. The trick will be to find the right people to bring it together.

Sound advice, squire.

Regarding the classified ads, is there some system for feedback / ratings?

This is also a possibility.
http://straightrazorpalace.com/works...e-project.html

Just an idea.
Thanks
Tim

Yeah, I definitely like where that is going! Smart work, I will definitely keep it in mind.

Originally Posted by Arrowhead

This is an interesting thread,
.....
This looks to me to be a three part process: 1) get the scale blanks made, 2) pass them on for carving, then 3) return them to a razor man for fitting. Part 3 isn't as trivial as it might appear - with some blades it will call for a good deal of lateral thinking.
.......
I think this sounds like a really interesting and worthwhile project. The trick will be to find the right people to bring it together.

One important detail is that the pivot and rivet locations are best
known in advance so the carver can include them in the design.
This adds a sub-step to prefit the pins into the scale design. Clearly
you do not want to drill the scales and dig a hole into the design.

What you have stated as a goal is way harder than it might
appear to be. Knowledgeable folks like gssixgun -- are being
oh so polite in this thread.

You need an expert or a plan and budget that permits
experimentation. A set of scales with a hundred
hours of carving by someone unaware of the stresses,
tensions and use as razor scales could split or crack in a
sad bad way while being installed or a year later in use.

And you will need a fine matching carved storage box for the razor
and its friends.