Thread: Metal Wedges

I learned long ago never to throw out anything,I save everything because down the road if I toss it I will need it.
Hell I have pint jars of Ivory dust,works for repair work on non-razor stuff,I also have jars of ebony dust

I would be tempted to try good old mild steel. It is easy to work with, readily available, inexpensive, and is relatively heavy. I know that it can rust, but so can the blade itself. With the proper care that any good razor should receive, I think that it would work quite well. I was actually thinking of making a brush with mild steel fittings. You can also "blue" it, color it with a mild acid like lemon juice or heat color it.

When I worked on HH-53 helicopters we used depleted uranium for blade weights when balancing the head of the copter. See if you can find some of that, massive weight to mass ratio just don't put it in your mouth or breath it when sanding it.

Here's how I make accurate wedges using a drum sander and material taped to a door wedge. The wedge slides along the 'gate' at the right and this generates a wedge of the same angle in whatever material is used - Ox horn here. This works great on wood, bone, horn, acrylic etc., but when I tried the method for brass, aluminium or nickel silver I have problems keeping the material in place due to heat build up.

If anyone has any tips I'd be grateful.

No help with the heat problem,are you using a luthiers friend made by stew mac? Great tool for scale making.

Originally Posted by pixelfixed

No help with the heat problem,are you using a luthiers friend made by stew mac? Great tool for scale making.

Yes, exactly right. It was quite expensive getting it shipped to the UK but probably the best investment I've made - really good quality which means you can thickness blanks very accurately and with minimum fuss. The only slight problem is that I had to take the drum down a little as the 50mm drums over here are just too tight compared to the 2" in USA.

I just experimented with a wooden doorstop until I found the correct angle - then by chance this rubber one had about the same. There's no longer ang guess work or sanded fingers now.