Thread: What are you working on?

Here are the 3 sets of scales I said I was going to get cut out tonight. Not shaped or sanded yet and one wedge not made but at least i got started.

Originally Posted by Gasman

Here are the 3 sets of scales I said I was going to get cut out tonight. Not shaped or sanded yet and one wedge not made but at least i got started.

--those last set of scales look vaguely familiarly--

Originally Posted by Gasman

Here are the 3 sets of scales I said I was going to get cut out tonight. Not shaped or sanded yet and one wedge not made but at least i got started.

Impressive Jerry, I hope mine turn out nearly that good.

With some practice, it goes pretty quickly. I think I have 1.5 hours in these so far. They still need to be thinned as I was out of the tape I like to use. I made a post on your Scales thread on Thinning.

Yes, Roy. Those are from some of the blanks you sent me. I believe you said they were Sycamore?

So these are Sycamore, Rosewood, and Oak.

BTW, Steve.
Leave your scales glued together as Mike suggested until after you have drilled. This way your holes are exact. Then separate them to thin.

I spend a lot more time getting wedges tuned into final thickness, sanding scales, sealing the insides with CA (2 coats), Sanding the insides flat again after the CA, Cleaning them up, and getting the first to coats of Tru-oil on them. My Tru-oil is old and about empty so I think I need to pick up a new bottle. But here they are at this point.

Nice work Jerry.

Looks good Jerry. I have one quest though. Why finish with Tru-Oil and not just do CA all the way through?

Bob

Thanks for the question, Bob.
I've done the CA finishes and they are such a pain to do. It takes many more coats and I'm always gluing my fingers. LOL. Sanding all the imperfections takes about all the coating off. I know there must be an easier way to do the CA finish but I haven't found one yet. I should contact Alfred and see how he does it.
The CA that I put on these was just to seal the insides of the scales. I found out the hard way that it needs to be done. The wood soaks up the lather and water and began to smell on one of my first sets. I didn't let it get any worse as I took those apart and made new ones.

Here are the blades ready for pinning when the time comes. The Little one (Hashimotoki, Sculpture Harthy King) Had some ugly pitty on the backside. So I went with a more satin finish. Luckily the stamp in the face of the blade was deep so I had no problem with saving it. The Imperial and the Simmons came out clean and shiny. I'd try to fill the stamps with black but... I suck at that too. Tang stamps I can do. It's the blade stamps that never look good when I do them.

How do you get a satin finish rather than a shiny one Jerry?

Very carefully. lol.
Marty did a write-up on it and I know Mike has also. What I do is finish out the blade face as good as it can get without spending a lot of time on it as you are going to mess it up. Then start working backward down the grits with sandpaper. Going only one direction. Spine to edge, as straight as you can. I start at 600 and work back to 220. Then clean really good. I then polish the blade face by hand and that blends the scratches a bit.

Someone a year or so ago posted that he used some type of wheel on a Dremel but I don't remember who it was or what wheels he used. His looked really nice and was much faster than doing it by hand. I should have written it down.

Just got back from the store and got a new bottle of Tru-oil. I will get the third coat on this afternoon sometime. Then maybe the fourth tomorrow.