Thread: What are you working on?

Wow. Never seen that before. Ive died 3 sets in the past and didnt have this issue. Mike is the pro. Maybe he will have a clue. Like maybe its not horn?

It may have been repaired, once before, or there's wax or something ,in the scales.

If I'm dying them black, my patch is black. Its big oak dust and T-88 structural epoxy. So I really don't know how deep it penetrates the epoxy, by itself.

You can make your own black filler, by burning wooden matches, remove the heads, and crush to a fine powder.
Add to the epoxy to form a thick paste.

Tip: clean the scales with denatured alcohol, before doing repairs, and before going in dye.

Repairing a bunch of scales for Gasman's, giveaways.

Almost ready for dye.!

Originally Posted by outback

It may have been repaired, once before, or there's wax or something ,in the scales.

If I'm dying them black, my patch is black. Its big oak dust and T-88 structural epoxy. So I really don't know how deep it penetrates the epoxy, by itself.

You can make your own black filler, by burning wooden matches, remove the heads, and crush to a fine powder.
Add to the epoxy to form a thick paste.

Tip: clean the scales with denatured alcohol, before doing repairs, and before going in dye.

Many thanks. With respect to these scales, I would think it unlikely that the scales have been touched for a long time, and this scale was quite heavily sanded. Were horn scales commonly waxed? I did clean with alcohol before both gluing and dyeing. Perhaps it was a peculiarity with the dye? It might have been a bit old. Anyway, we will see if the problem repeats with other scales in future. This is the first set I've dyed.

Originally Posted by Gasman

Wow. Never seen that before. Ive died 3 sets in the past and didnt have this issue. Mike is the pro. Maybe he will have a clue. Like maybe its not horn?

If it isn't horn, not sure what it could be! The razor is a John Heiffor 'FOR THE ARMY' razor, and looks exactly like all other examples of this model. Pretty sure it is horn.

Maybe just sand them down. Give um a soak in oil.

Might like the way they look, as is.!

Worse comes to worse, color the inside of the scales with a black sharpie, then lightly sand with steel wool to dull the blue hue, from the sharpie. May give you the desired look, once pinned. Being somewhat, transparent.

Just a thought.

I'm thinking they might be honey horn, like the set I posted earlier.

Originally Posted by outback

Maybe just sand them down. Give um a soak in oil.

Might like the way they look, as is.!

Worse comes to worse, color the inside of the scales with a black sharpie, then lightly sand with steel wool to dull the blue hue, from the sharpie. May give you the desired look, once pinned. Being somewhat, transparent.

Just a thought.

I'm thinking they might be honey horn, like the set I posted earlier.

Sorry, these are the before pictures of the scales we have been discussing! They have already been sanded and dyed, and are the ones which came out patchy. They are honey horn, but there were a lot of cracks, small bites and patchy colour, so I decided to dye them again.

I like the sharpie idea, and have experimented with this on other sets of scales, including celluloid, colouring the inside of sections filled with CA. Works very well, especially with CA repairs, because the CA is so transparent.

Horn is such satisfying stuff to work with!

Originally Posted by outback

Maybe just sand them down. Give um a soak in oil.

Might like the way they look, as is.!

Worse comes to worse, color the inside of the scales with a black sharpie, then lightly sand with steel wool to dull the blue hue, from the sharpie. May give you the desired look, once pinned. Being somewhat, transparent.

Just a thought.

I'm thinking they might be honey horn, like the set I posted earlier.

...

Sorry, the last pictures I posted are the before pictures of the scales we have been discussing! They have already been sanded and dyed, and are the ones which came out patchy. They are honey horn, but there were a lot of cracks, small bites and patchy colour, so I decided to dye them again.

I like the sharpie idea, and have experimented with this on other sets of scales, including celluloid, colouring the inside of sections filled with CA. Works very well, especially with CA repairs, because the CA is so transparent.

Horn is such satisfying stuff to work with!

Originally Posted by outback

Maybe just sand them down. Give um a soak in oil.

Might like the way they look, as is.!

Worse comes to worse, color the inside of the scales with a black sharpie, then lightly sand with steel wool to dull the blue hue, from the sharpie. May give you the desired look, once pinned. Being somewhat, transparent.

Just a thought.

I'm thinking they might be honey horn, like the set I posted earlier.

I like the scraper . . .not fancy but does wondrous work, leaving a nice surface for final sanding.
JMHO
Richard

That's the cool part about the T-88 epoxy, it yellows over time, and makes a perfect filler for honey horn, by making the repairs from the inside of the scales. The hard part is making sure no bubbles are stuck in the epoxy when its cured. Screws the whole, effect. Back to the starting line.! Grind out, do again...