Thread: What are you working on?

Originally Posted by DZEC

Mike, you are a magician with horn repairs.

Its got to stay all original, if I can. Making new scales is simple, but saving the originals is what I prefer to do.

Originally Posted by Euclid440

Just lap the bottom.

Nice find.

Thanks! Care to elaborate as to why i should only lap the bottom? I was going to do the same thing i have done with my other washy. The top side will be burnished and the bottom side ill hit every now and then with a diamond plate to refresh the surface. The No.1 washita cuts pretty fast on the refreshed side, the burnished side is very slow. I will occasionally refresh the burnished side with just a few circles with a 600k rubbing stone and water. Same plans for the Lily White.

Originally Posted by outback

Think you'll be surprised, Matt.
Try finishing with pure glycerin, instead of oil.

Ive never used oil on my stones. Only vegetable glycerin and water.. I believe i learned that from you.

“Care to elaborate as to why i should only lap the bottom?”

Because it is flatter already. Never burnished a Lilly White. From the White I go to a Translucent or Surgical Black, that has a 600 and a burnished side.

If you are going to use both sides, then you will have to flatten both sides. 60 grit loose Silicone Carbide on a steel cookie sheet will get you flat quickly.

Originally Posted by MW76

Thanks! Care to elaborate as to why i should only lap the bottom? I was going to do the same thing i have done with my other washy. The top side will be burnished and the bottom side ill hit every now and then with a diamond plate to refresh the surface. The No.1 washita cuts pretty fast on the refreshed side, the burnished side is very slow. I will occasionally refresh the burnished side with just a few circles with a 600k rubbing stone and water. Same plans for the Lily White.



Ive never used oil on my stones. Only vegetable glycerin and water.. I believe i learned that from you.

Har.! May have been. I don't care for oil on my Washita, either. At least, not the one I use for razor's.

Originally Posted by Euclid440

“Care to elaborate as to why i should only lap the bottom?”

Because it is flatter already. Never burnished a Lilly White. From the White I go to a Translucent or Surgical Black, that has a 600 and a burnished side.

If you are going to use both sides, then you will have to flatten both sides. 60 grit loose Silicone Carbide on a steel cookie sheet will get you flat quickly.

Gotcha. That makes sense. I do want to use both sides though. My other two arkie type stones have a burnished side (top) and a refurbished side (bottom).

I have SiC and float glass. Im also hoping the lapping will lighten up the surfaces a little. Under a scope i can see the usual quartz matrix and some small black inclusions which im assuming are left over swarf from previous use.

We shall see..

The starts aligned and the wife (yes by the way i got married) is at a class this evening so im fixing up this Washy.

Dirty dirty stone.


After about 45 minutes on 90 grit SiC on the bottom which was the 'Flat' side..



Dressed up the edges on the bottom.. still need to hit the top. To me it looks like a big white razor honing candy bar.



Comparing the color to the No.1 grade Washita.



Thanks for looking. I truly missed sharing this stuff with you guys, or anyone for that matter.

Feeling a little horse today.

Slicing up some horse hide into 2.5” wide strips for strops.
Proving a challenge one handed and also scary to start as until you do, you haven’t buggered anything up either hehe.
Cheers gents.

Originally Posted by outback

Take them apart, sand with 220, 400, 600, 000 steel wool, then soak for up to a week in 100% neatsfoot oil.



If you want them black again, put them in hair dye before the oil.

Attachment 315190
Attachment 315192

Once out of the oil, then polish/ buff.
Attachment 315193

Works for scales as far back as the late 1700s.
Attachment 315194
Attachment 315195
Attachment 315196
Attachment 315197

Impressive! What kind of oil do you use? How to use hair dye for this purpose?

Originally Posted by esveka

Impressive! What kind of oil do you use? How to use hair dye for this purpose?

100% neatsfoot oil.



Follow directions on box, but let them soak in solution for an hour or more.

I do mine in a zip lock bad, inside a plastic container.
You don't want this stuff to touch "anything" you don't want black. Especially your skin.

After u rinse, u can either polish the scales, or leave them a matte finish.

If your going to do any repairs using CA, you'll have to do them after dying the horn. Dye will not penetrate CA, but will epoxy.

Here's what happens if you do the CA, before dye.

Originally Posted by outback

...

If your going to do any repairs using CA, you'll have to do them after dying the horn. Dye will not penetrate CA, but will epoxy.

Here's what happens if you do the CA, before dye.

Just learned that the hard way! Not really a problem, because the scales I'm working on have nibbles out the edges, no big nibbles out of the visible sides.

I did have problems with the hair dye taking, it stained some parts of the scales and not others:



Part of the problem was some CA on the inside of the scales. I sanded this off, and tried again, and got a slight improvement, but not much. I did a bit of research and found one source which said that horn will not take dye if it is polished too highly (https://sharprazorpalace.com/attachm...pamphlet-1.pdf) I had got a pretty nice finish on the scales, so I roughed them up a bit again, and the dye took a little better, but still only in patches, though they are now darker:



Anyone else experienced this? Is this just life in the big city?