Thread: My First Scales

Here is my first attempt at making scales. It’s really the first woodworking of any kind that I’ve done. Overall, I’m happy with the results for a first try. I learned a lot and the scales can be used. Reading the restoration forum and Bill’s CD helped a lot. These scales are thicker than the original scales the razor had, so the razor no longer fits in its box, but that’s not a big deal. In Spanish, in Costa Rica, the wood is called guayaquil. With some help from Ed that translates to Albizia guachapele (though this is not universally accepted yet) or chime tree, and is related to the Mimosa, aka silk tree. I got a bunch of blanks from my father-in-law and chose this one for my first project because it was my least favorite and figured I’d mess it up. In the end, I like how it looks. I finished it with several coats of Formby’s low gloss tung oil finish. I enjoyed doing this and have plenty of wood, so I’ll probably be looking to pick up some razors in need of new scales. Also, I have another blank of guayaquil that measures about 8.5" x 2" x 1/4". (My first step was to plane the wood to a reasonable thickness using a dremel planer.) If anyone is interested is using that blank for anything, send me a PM and it’s yours, no charge (but it would be great if you gave someone in need a little food).