Trifecta! Introduction, Project Pics, and Questions!

[rvrboy17]

Hey SRP Workshoppers (Workshoppians?), This is my first day as a member and my first post outside of the introduction forum. I know this is a long post, but I felt it was inappropriate to just start asking questions without some pictures to look at first

I have been using all the information in this forum for my recent project. I inherited my great grandfather's straight razors from when he was stationed in Germany. On another social website, I was able to learn more about them and decided to restore one of them: an early 1900s FW Engels. Now bear in mind I havent even shaved with a SR, but I decided that restoring a SR would be a good place to start .

Here she is straight out of the box:






So I first busted out my Mothers Mag Polish and spent a good hour polishing the rust out of the blade. I apologize that I do not have good pictures yet of the blade. While cleaning the tang, I noticed there may be some active rust on the tang behind the scales. I looked it up and read how to remove the pins in order to get in there. I tried to remove the pin, but the 100+ year old plastic was having none of that; The scale broke. I found myself in a predicament. Long story short, I have history with woodworking, found the tutorials on this website, and went to work.

My local woodshop sells 1/8" x 3" x 24" and 1/8" x 1 1/2" x 24" hardwoods. Here I got Curly Maple for the scales and a nice piece of Paduak for the wedge.


I found a pattern, cut it out, and double backed the two scales together. I then cut and sanded them down to shape.



I made a few tweaks and started rounding the edges.





So after that nice long post, here are my questions:
1. Does everything look Kosher so far?
2. How wide should the scales be? They sit now just under 1/8"
3. What size should the wedge be? Is the angle all trial and error or is there an equation/method?

Thanks in advance!