3 Attachment(s)
lead bushing, Bakelite, Lockwood Bros. Pampa
When I was in Edinburgh late last summer I picked up a few razors at a delightful little antique shop called Unicorn Antiques. One of them was this Lockwood Brothers Pampa:
Attachment 281411
The scales are Bakelite and you can see the toe end one has a crack. There's actually a bit of oxidation at the crack which gives it that lighter color. Because the crack seems stable and I have yet to find any adhesive that gives a strong bond on Bakelite, I figured I'd leave them alone. There's no wedge in there, oddly enough -- the toe ends of the scales stick out to form a wedge shape.
Incidentally, I'm no chemist but my search for a good Bakelite adhesive led me to this video:
https://youtu.be/GlCFBexBWGU
which tells me nothing about how to bond Bakelite but it was pretty fun anyway.
Anyway, there was some rust on the tang, and at the heel end the scales were weirdly misaligned also and I thought I knew why. So I drilled out the pivot pin and sure enough, the pin was all bent, probably at the factory during peening. As usual with older Sheffield blades there was a big pivot hole, and my personal theory is that these are not great because when you peen it if the pin is a little weaker in the middle, or someone gets a little too enthusiastic with the hammer you get a bent pin in there.
I originally put brass sleeves in these things. Because getting the brass to exactly the right length is a pain, I started putting in aluminum plugs and drilling them. But lately I have just been putting in lead plugs and drilling those, because it's so quick and easy. You just put a piece of lead in there and hammer it down, and slice off the excess with an old razor blade:
Attachment 281413
You can just cut off any excess lead with a razor blade.
So here's the end product, ready for my New Year's day shave:
Attachment 281414
Wishing you all a great New Year!