Thread: scale making material

Hello gents I am looking for ideas as to where and what thickness acrylic I can buy for scale making as well as a source for micro fasteners. And any ideas as to polishing these after they are cut. Thank you.

Fastners here: http://straightrazorpalace.com/works...s-pinning.html

Just ordered micro fasteners. Thanks.

If you have a local sign shop they should probably have some 3mm acrylic they might be able to give you. I usually thin it down a little from there.
Grant

Take it slow. Acrylic is brittle. I've broken too many acrylic parts at work to want to make any home projects out of it. But hey best of luck to you.

I just raid the scrap bin at the local Tap Plastics shop for materials. They have 6 inch square pieces for $.50 a piece in various thickness and materials.

Ok then Im on the wrong track then. What material would you suggest then? I have rescaled some with some pre made scales I have, but they don't fit on some brands and grinds. Wood I know I can use, but I was thinking acrylic as I assumed it was easy to work with.

People love g10 although I haven't used it yet. You can use regular wood or even horn. I just finished a ram sheep horn set of scales and it was fun.

I don't think acrylic is bad at all. Try it you'll like it !

Acrylic is an especially good choice for beginners. It's cheap and easy to shape, so it's not a huge investment in time and money if you wreck a couple. A broken scale can often be recycled as spacers, so it's not always a total loss.

As for polishing, I generally hand sand acrylic to 1000 or maybe 1200 (depending on my threshold of boredom that day), then take it to the buffer. Caswell sells a plastic-polishing compound that works wonders. I use a 6" sewn wheel for this. The keys here are to sand out any deep scratches, then buff the entire surface from several different orientations. It may take a couple of sand/buff cycles to get your desired result.

I too like working with acrylic and have never had issues of brittleness and breaking scales. Perhaps my acrylic is softer? I got mine locally at €6 for a small pile of pieces that were too small for the shop to sell otherwise.