Thread: What are you working on?

Originally Posted by ejmolitor37

Best wishes and prayers for our brothers in Texas. Stay safe Gentleman.
So where should bone scales be for thickness? I made a set a long while ago and I am finally getting back to them, they are just about .108" thick. My concern lies in, when pinned they held the blade open anything prior to 90 degrees and any thing after 180. But while stropping this blade it was loosey goosey. Made stropping almost impossible.
I took this apart, removed the thrust washers originally with this blade and lightened the brass wedge because it was super heavy. Before I go back together if they need thinned I'll do it. I guess I'm a bit confused, the horn scales I made seem just fine, tight all around. There seems to be so little flex in these bone scales. Any insight fellas? Thanks a million.

Thank you for your concern.
I made some bone scales very thin & they're strong on a Wade & Butcher close to 3 years ago & you can actually see the thickness. You can see the razor here:

http://straightrazorpalace.com/razor...ml#post1422154

I don't remember how thin they are but I would have to get it out & measure them but they're thin as ivory scales.

Bone is tough stuff. I make them typically no thinner than 0.080 and not thicker than 0.110. For me the sweet spot is at 0.100 and I prefer to buy raw unbleached bone and shape them and then carve them and then either stain them for the antique look or whiten them with peroxide and then scrimshaw them. I find the bleached stuff to be really brittle.
If your blade is tight closed and loose in the stropping position my mind goes to blaming the wedge taper. If your wedge has the correct taper the tension should be the same throughout the rotation.

I just found it. I should have bought a lottery ticket because it was the first one I opened in a box of W&B razors. One scale is 1.48mm or .058" & the other is 1.50mm or .059". I guess it depends on what kind of bone it is also.

Ok thanks, I did also put more of a taper to the wedge. These are camel bone.

On bone or wood scales which are stiff, sometimes the taper on the tang is a bit too much, FME.
I have sometimes relieved the inside of the scales in the tang area to make things better and also to control the blade as-closing center. Too much tang taper can make it too tight of a 'spring'. I have had some that when closed, it wants to pop open by it'self.

I did it on my Iwasaki as I put it in solid pearl scales (note pencil marks). A little Dremel drum on the insides fixed the problem.

These are mega stiff IMO, even at just over .100" there is little give. Your picture isn't loading for me right now but if I have to I may try your suggestion. I think I'm going to thin them a bit more to see if this helps first.

Got this one put together this morning. Still need to go the the stones. Griffon #67,New Black Horn Scales w/ one little streak. 5/8, Spike Point that closes center. First try to work with Hippo Ivory for the wedge. That stuff is hard! I had soaked the blade in Vinegar after the sanding/buffing to bring some older look to the steel then hand polished as I went to long with the vinegar. Nothing special but it was next on the list to get finished. I will need to work the stabilizer a bit still as its right at the edge of the blade. I had made the scales a little too short so pins are too close to the ends of the scales and this was my first real try on using the fancy washers with the pins. This type of pinning needs a lot more work. All-in-all, I think it turned out good enough. Can only get better from here!

Originally Posted by ejmolitor37

These are mega stiff IMO, even at just over .100" there is little give. Your picture isn't loading for me right now but if I have to I may try your suggestion. I think I'm going to thin them a bit more to see if this helps first.

Take off 10 thousandths of an inch on each scale. See how that goes.

I got a set of bone scales, that are quite thin. Yet very strong.

Wow! That is very thin.

Originally Posted by Gasman

Got this one put together this morning. Still need to go the the stones. Griffon #67,New Black Horn Scales w/ one little streak. 5/8, Spike Point that closes center. First try to work with Hippo Ivory for the wedge. That stuff is hard! I had soaked the blade in Vinegar after the sanding/buffing to bring some older look to the steel then hand polished as I went to long with the vinegar. Nothing special but it was next on the list to get finished. I will need to work the stabilizer a bit still as its right at the edge of the blade. I had made the scales a little too short so pins are too close to the ends of the scales and this was my first real try on using the fancy washers with the pins. This type of pinning needs a lot more work. All-in-all, I think it turned out good enough. Can only get better from here!

That is beautiful work, Jerry!