Thread: What are you working on?

Sanding up some dust from old, broken hard-rubber and Bakelite scales makes some good black with CA and epoxy.
It won't rub off, takes a buffing nicely. Works good with horn. Final sand it with the horn grain using the right grit and can do a seamless job. Sometimes!

Spent some time at the bench making scales. I forgot to take pictures of my little fixture for shaping the scales, I’ll set it back up and take some pictures. I needed to modify the design with a rubber band because the scales kept popping off when I turned it over to shape the other side. Hi-tek baby.

Rez, I ended up doing everything with files and that is the condition they’re in in the pics. Hoping to get some time on Saturday but it’s low priority unfortunately.

I want to pin these collarless. Any of you done that successfully with bone and not have it eventually crack? Some bullseye collars may look nice though too.

Those look really good. Looking forward to seeing what you jig looks like.

I’m going to try some bone scales, but chickened out and bought some pre-shaped bone scales to start with. All I’ll have to do is drill the pin holes and put a final finish on them. Next step for me will be to shape some from blanks.

Nice scales. I don't think I've pinned bone, collarless. But I have done ivory that way.

I'll say this, though....taper you pin hole's.

Tapered holes is a must for collarless pinning. Tom has a good write up on it around here. https://sharprazorpalace.com/worksho...le-halves.html
Tom is really good at pinning. I use a drill chuck and shape one side before I put it in the scales. You can also use a really tiny under washer and the dome of the pin will hide the tiny washer. The scales are looking good. I have finish nails with the heads cut off to hold my scales.

Here’s the jig in use:







It’s just a piece of scrap I had laying around. I drilled an arbitrary hole to start, stuck a piece of ss pin stock in there, just shorter than a pair of scales is thick, stuck the profiled blanks on there, registering the pivot hole on the one pin, then laid out the other side and set another pin to hold it in place. I then outlined the scales and used a coping saw to cut away the wood that would be in the way of shaping the scale faces. I just flip the scales end for end when doing the shaping. Through out the process I made little tweaks to make it all work. The rubberband became necessary as soon as I turned the scales over to shape the remaining side. It doesn’t take much to keep the end you’re not working on on the jig from lifting off the pin. I thought it would get in the way but it wasn’t even bothersome moving it end for end depending on where I was filing on the scales.

I currently have them as symmetrical as I can manage. Next is a little clean up, most likely starting with 220. I’ll finish shaping them and getting rid of any errant file marks. I like to split my scales at this point, mock up the blade, make sure they flex correctly or if I need to thin more. I started at .96” after gauging, probably still pretty close to that since I worked to the center line. My idea for a target thickness was .90” but having never used bone before I left things thicker than I’ve been told I could. Right now they look a touch thick to my eye. I’ll take some pics when I mock it up and test operation.

Shaun, thanks for the link, Roy and I were pm’ing about that thread. I hadn’t had a chance to search for it yet.

I can’t remember if that was the thread that Tom flared a small section of tube to fit in a flared pin hole then pinned, or not. I’ll read that as soon as I post this.

I use the same method for shaping scales though i use rubber cement to hold the blank onto the wood.(put a layer of glue on both the stick and the scale and let it dry till it's just tacky)

How is it getting it off the back of the scale?

Sanded out to 320 all the way around. Still a little stiff in my opinion. They don’t balance well either. I’ll thin them a bit more. After some more consideration I think collars are more appropriate for the material. Strops well in spite of the current balance issue. They flex appropriately but could flex a little more.

Considering finishes, is just a wax ok? Will I experience any notable shrinking? The bone is raw currently. I was thinking of some epoxy or ca to fill some small voids in the bone but wanted to make sure whatever I end up using to fill the voids sticks well.

You don’t need anything other than wax to cover it. Most of mine I use mineral oil. They will not shrink, well not anytime soon. I have seen old sets of bone and ivory where the wedge is a little proud of the scales, but that took a really long time. I also think it doesn’t usually happen. Bone is incredibly strong when it comes to flexing. If you want them white, just soak them in peroxide. How thick is that set? I often go anywhere from 0.075 to 0.100. I just did so,e pick bone that started at 0.100 and then I shaped them and did the pick bone carving. I have not put a razor in them and used it. I tend to go thinner than that but with the material removed for the carving that they would be ok. I’ve seen some pretty hefty vintage bone scales, but they are more the exception than the standard.