Thread: What are you working on?

M, I'd try to shave another 1/2 mm off them personally. I have made overly thick scales myself, early on, and find them harder to strop and use simply due to their cumbersome shape and lack of flexibility.
Not to say you must go thinner, need to see the final mock up to determine the whole effect.
Tang to scale transition etc. what's your wedge going to be?

Is that handle made from stabilized wood? It has burl and epoxy of some kind? I want some material like that.

Wildman1 I am uncertain who or what you are speaking of.

And I'm uncertain of the wedge, I would love to make one out of pearl would set it all off properly, but unfortunately lack the material left to make one. And they are fairly short so not alot of room to play with. The blade ends right where the curve of he but begins , had to work with the material I was given. But I talked to the owner and I think he's going to make up a small washer type wedge out of steel. He has metal lathes and a steel mill etc. So it'll b a snap for him, and he makes custom pins as well, so that will all be up to him when he gets them in his hands. I will take some more off of them tho, try to get them nice and thin. You guys are right, they are pretty thick.

And if anybody is looking for real pearl, I would recommend this sight. Shipping was a little slow, but reasonable prices and did get it through the borders and to my door no problem. Mother of Pearl Supplies

Originally Posted by Wightman

Wildman1 I am uncertain who or what you are speaking of.

And I'm uncertain of the wedge, I would love to make one out of pearl would set it all off properly, but unfortunately lack the material left to make one. And they are fairly short so not alot of room to play with. The blade ends right where the curve of he but begins , had to work with the material I was given. But I talked to the owner and I think he's going to make up a small washer type wedge out of steel. He has metal lathes and a steel mill etc. So it'll b a snap for him, and he makes custom pins as well, so that will all be up to him when he gets them in his hands. I will take some more off of them tho, try to get them nice and thin. You guys are right, they are pretty thick.

And if anybody is looking for real pearl, I would recommend this sight. Shipping was a little slow, but reasonable prices and did get it through the borders and to my door no problem. Mother of Pearl Supplies

+1 to the comments re thickness. Thinner would be better: not only for aesthetics, but also (and most importantly IMHO) for use. My early restores/repairs had wooden scales that I know know were WAAAY too thick, so I know the temptation well.

I do like the antler/MOP combination. Look forward to seeing the finished article.

Originally Posted by Wightman

I know they are relatively thick, They sit at approx. 2.5mm as they are now. The pearl cleans up nice, doesn't really take to staining so I should be able to just buff it right off there. I wanted to have a nice decent thickness though so they will be less likely to break during use, or accidental dropping or squeezing.

You guys think I should keep working it down from the inside tho eh? Still a bit too thick.

Balance and Flex make the difference

at 2.5mm (.098") they are pretty thin, do they flex ???

The Wedge and the Tang angle should match, and if they are thin enough they will flex when they open and close

How thin that has to be, depends on weight and flexibility, like any good tool they should balance to where you hold it (Tang) Natural materials tend to be a little more difficult to adjust because they are by their very nature not uniform to start

You have the right idea by thinning from the inside

Originally Posted by gssixgun

Balance and Flex make the difference

at 2.5mm (.098") they are pretty thin, do they flex ???

The Wedge and the Tang angle should match, and if they are thin enough they will flex when they open and close

How thin that has to be, depends on weight and flexibility, like any good tool they should balance to where you hold it (Tang) Natural materials tend to be a little more difficult to adjust because they are by their very nature not uniform to start

You have the right idea by thinning from the inside

No there's absolutely no flex to them yet, I'm thinking they'll be pretty darn thin for that. But we'll see. I'm goona shave it down some more on the belt sander. And yea they're fairly straight and uniformed, that's why I always worry of throwing them on the sander, it's not hard to put a little pressure in the wrong spot and have them crooked and no longer even.

Originally Posted by Wightman

No there's absolutely no flex to them yet, I'm thinking they'll be pretty darn thin for that. But we'll see. I'm goona shave it down some more on the belt sander. And yea they're fairly straight and uniformed, that's why I always worry of throwing them on the sander, it's not hard to put a little pressure in the wrong spot and have them crooked and no longer even.

Double stick tape is your friend! Use it on a flat piece that you can place the scales side by side then place on the belt sander. This allows you to apply pressure more evenly. However you do need to keep checking as you will apply pressure more to one end or side than the other.

If you think that you are taking off more at a time then you want, switch to a higher grit belt.

This will also help keep your finger prints intact.

Originally Posted by gssixgun

Balance and Flex make the difference

at 2.5mm (.098") they are pretty thin, do they flex ???

The Wedge and the Tang angle should match, and if they are thin enough they will flex when they open and close

How thin that has to be, depends on weight and flexibility, like any good tool they should balance to where you hold it (Tang) Natural materials tend to be a little more difficult to adjust because they are by their very nature not uniform to start

You have the right idea by thinning from the inside

Ahhh I know what you mean, the insides should infact not be straight, but bowed eh? And uniform from either end, as well as both scales batch each others bow. Is this what you mean? Would a straight inside still work tho? Or just be kind of giddy near the tang?

Found a Boker at the flea market this weekend and spent a little time watching football and cleaning it up & honing it.
As found...

Unpinned, notice 6 collars here. They were double stacked on the pivot end, we see this sometimes.

Cleaned and a bit of polish, took a great edge. Keep up the good work with the projects fellas. Keep those workshops working!!

Originally Posted by Wightman

Ahhh I know what you mean, the insides should infact not be straight, but bowed eh? And uniform from either end, as well as both scales batch each others bow. Is this what you mean? Would a straight inside still work tho? Or just be kind of giddy near the tang?

No! The scales are straight Inside and Out--It's the wedge that gives the scales the 'Bow" it also applies the needed pressure for the razor to sit properly inside of the scales.

Note: your scales are out of antler which is a very stiff material just like bone. So you should thin them down so that you can get that needed flex.

Sorry I didn't write about the material earlier

GSSIXGUN can probably explain better however those are my thoughts.