Hi everyone, thanks for the interest!

The scales are very hard; initially I thought they may be some sort of 'fibre board' or even asbestos. I haven't had them 'tested' or anything, but I have it on good authority that they are leather and they do look as if they are. You can certainly tell this my looking at the edge of the scales. I have thought about the softening problem, esp when I soaked the razor. If I soak it again, to force more patina, I won't include the whole razor.

The forcing of patina seems to stop as soon as the solution is rinsed off; though on the Jernbolaget it seemed to continue for an hour afterwards; maybe I didn't rinse enough on that one? I need to reiterate I'm no expert on this, which is why this isn't in the restoration thread :-)

Rolo, the scales work just like any other scales, they are hard like very stiff cardboard.

Looking again at the razors last night I decided I'm pretty happy with the Hellberg, though I'll sand a little more, but across the blade rather than along the blade. The Jernbolaget needs quite a bit more work to get that really nice, but I think I can do it.

BTW, as I think I may have said, using the citrus juice and vinegar (I forgot to mention it was warmed in the microwave) allowed me to see very very clearly that I hadn't sanded around the pivot enough; it really 'shows up' the rust. Again, I'm no expert, but basically I think the process oxidises the metal...