Originally Posted by
Euclid440
You can make thrust washer from brass sheet, cuts easy with a punch, or just smash a brass washer with a hammer and re-drill the hole. I don’t oil plastic washers I just put some Frog Lube on the whole blade before assembly and some on the inside of the scales at the pivot. PETE is very slippery, by itself. I have been using PETE on horn with good results.
Been using Frog Lube paste, for a while as a lubricant and as a metal protectant. Put it on a warm blade, (hot water or heat gun to heat) with a small paint brush and wipe off excess. Works great on guns and protects knife blades from, (reduces) fingerprints. Also, if you remove the pins on your doors lube and replace, it is as if they are on ball bearings and silent.
The test of good fitting scales is how they strop, flip and shave. The other day, I honed a razor for a guy with big thick clunky scales and while it looked ok, it felt very uncomfortable, as if I would drop it at the flip. Those are the razors that cut strops.
As you continue to rescale razors you will pay more attention to vintage scales and find the similarities in the comfortable ones and copy them.
I keep a book with a tracing of each of the blades and scales of every razor I disassemble. With the brand name and any stamping, for reference. I have used it multiple times, but usually make scales very similar in size to the scales that came off, unless I feel it was rescaled, then I refer to my book.