Bone scales

So the first straight razor I bought was gold dollar. It shaved great and got me on the path to shave nirvana. But the scales sucked and cracked at the hing pin with in a week so I bought a Parker and a straight from whipped dog and put it in the drawer for awhile. Well figured it was time to do something with this razor so I thought hey how about bone scales! So off to the pet store to pick up some cow bones.
Attachment 175913

Here is me roughing out the blanks. I had to go through a few bones at the store to find ones with suitable flats. Once I cut those I layed out the shape and took them to the bench grinder.
Attachment 175914

Got them close and then temp glued them together with paper in between and elmers glue so I could match them up on the grinder
Attachment 175915Attachment 175916

Sorry didnt take a pic of me making the bone wedge. But after shaping I gently split them apart and supper glued the wedge into place useing a finishing nail as a temp hing pin.Attachment 175917

I need to clean up the wedge and get it pinned but I like how it has turned out so far.Attachment 175918Attachment 175919

Thanks for looking

looking good, cant wait to see the final product

Me neither lol

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Originally Posted by Substance

looking good, cant wait to see the final product

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Yeah, please show the finished project!

Well done. I really like result.

I was with the SWMBO at the Pet Store/Groomer picking up the dogs the other day.
SWMBO found me going through the horn bin, wanted to know what I thought I was doing...

FYI, if you fold a US dollar bill in half lengthwise you have a pretty good gauge on what you need for an average scale blank...just saying'...

Let us know how this turns out, and what are you thinking about for a finish?

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Originally Posted by MJC

Let us know how this turns out, and what are you thinking about for a finish?

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Following up on the above, I think you're going to need a finish of some kind to keep them from soaking up and holding moisture, thus messing up the blade over time. Please keep us posted with pics when all is done! Look great!!

I've done scales using dog bones from the pet store and it worked perfect. The bone I bought was bleached and sterilized. I used a good coating of Ren wax for the finish and it's done well.

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Originally Posted by HARRYWALLY

I've done scales using dog bones from the pet store and it worked perfect. The bone I bought was bleached and sterilized. I used a good coating of Ren wax for the finish and it's done well.

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And to think I use bleached white cow bone from eBay for my bone scales!!!!

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Originally Posted by HARRYWALLY

I've done scales using dog bones from the pet store and it worked perfect. The bone I bought was bleached and sterilized. I used a good coating of Ren wax for the finish and it's done well.

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Ren wax will have to look for some. Been trying to think of a finish thanks for the tip.
Still working on it folks. Been busy with back to school for the kids, work, and honey do list. I got the wedge profiled and did some reshaping of the blade ( slowly going thru the sanding). Still need to get to the store and pick up some brass rod to pin it up. Will try and snap a couple pics later today so you all can see the progress.

I get a lot of my scale materials from the pet store or the Co-op like bone, horn and antler. Looks good so far.

Haven't been to the store for rod yet hopefully this weekend. Here is where I am so far. Got the scales sanded and looking about what I want.
Attachment 176883
Need to seal them up and will be good to go.

Here are the blade mods I did.
Attachment 176884
I ground the stabilizers off squared up the toe and added a barber's notch. Still sanding the blade. I am up to 1000 grit on one side and 320 on the other. Looking forward to getting it together.

Lookin' good!

GOT IT PINNED! Sorry got excited lol. This is my first anything with a razor besides shaving with one. Now I need to get it honed.
Attachment 177132
Ended up coating the scales with polyurethane as I had it on hand.

Couldn't have done any of this without all the info found here.

Attachment 177133
One more. Sorry for the crapy cell phone pics

You did a great Job! I have made scales out of bone before but I did not coat them with anything. Here's a Wade & Butcher with a ship on the blade I finished close to a year ago. It also has a brass wedge.

Wow what a great job. You sir went thru alot of issues to produce such a wonderful result. The dust, the stench, the pure torture that bone does to tooling. I dig them alot.

I coated them because I was afraid of finger oils and such staining them. Yours looks great.

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Originally Posted by Tarkus

Wow what a great job. You sir went thru alot of issues to produce such a wonderful result. The dust, the stench, the pure torture that bone does to tooling. I dig them alot.

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Thank you. I wore a dust mask and worked out side. This stuff is nasty my neighbors did not appreciate my efforts lol.

Very impressive first time restore...
thanks for sharing

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Originally Posted by MJC

Very impressive first time restore...
thanks for sharing

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Not so much a restore as a remodel. But yes my first. Thank you

Nice save there the bone came out great

Not to hijack the thread, plus being a little late to the party, but you got those bones as thin as ivory. Couple of questions: what is going on at the pivot? It looks like a brass bead in there almost which of course it isn't. How did you pin the razor? And echoing others....grinding bone is like the smell of a dentist drilling a tooth with a 1" diameter bit in a 3" diameter tooth.

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Originally Posted by engine46

You did a great Job! I have made scales out of bone before but I did not coat them with anything. Here's a Wade & Butcher with a ship on the blade I finished close to a year ago. It also has a brass wedge.

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Disaster.
Attachment 177239
Dropped it in the garage on concrete. Blade is fine but need to get more bone now. [emoji35] [emoji24]

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Originally Posted by JReed

Disaster.
Attachment 177239
Dropped it in the garage on concrete. Blade is fine but need to get more bone now. [emoji35] [emoji24]

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Awww man, that sucks!!!! I did the same thing on some I was making awhile back. I broke one of the scales so I glues it back together to make a pattern & made a new one. I then made them much thinner like Ivory & the razor came out nice! It's the one in this thread in post #16. I had to edit this after typing it wrong the first time.

Ugh...you have our sympathies....
You do have a pattern and this one will go much faste...

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Originally Posted by MJC

Ugh...you have our sympathies....
You do have a pattern and this one will go much faste...

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All he needs to do is put it back together with some CA & draw a pattern from it to make a new one. I did the same thing on some bone scales I was making. I decided they were too thick so when i was driving the pin back out, it had expanded & i broke a scale. You can see the finished razor in post #16 on this thread.

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Originally Posted by Tarkus

Wow what a great job. You sir went thru alot of issues to produce such a wonderful result. The dust, the stench, the pure torture that bone does to tooling. I dig them alot.

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If you're talking about mine in post # 16, Thank you very much. If you are talking about the original posting, he did a great job from pet store bone.

Already working on the new side. Only the one scale broke so using the other as the pattern. Luckily I had a piece of bone with enough meat to it to make it work. Will update later.

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Originally Posted by JReed

Already working on the new side. Only the one scale broke so using the other as the pattern. Luckily I had a piece of bone with enough meat to it to make it work. Will update later.

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I see they loped pretty thick. Did you see my post #16? Try & get them as thin as you can & you'll feel so much better but make the other one first. Mine were thick at first but I wasn't happy with them which is how I broke one scale getting them apart but I got them as thin as 1.5 mm each & it came out really nice.

Yes I did see yours so went thinner on these.
Attachment 177255
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Even went with a wedge pin

All done
Attachment 177263

I like that very much. Great job!

Thanks. The pins aren't show quality but think they went well for my first time doing it.

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Originally Posted by JReed

Thanks. The pins aren't show quality but think they went well for my first time doing it.

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You did a good job, especially if it was your first time. i see you just became a senior member. I think your razor turned out very nicely done. There are plenty of resources here, especially in the Library & here if you haven't seen them yet:

Welcome to the Workshop: How do I / Where do I / What do I / answers are here

Just go to the workshop & scroll three topics down & you'll see that.

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Originally Posted by engine46

You did a good job, especially if it was your first time. i see you just became a senior member. I think your razor turned out very nicely done. There are plenty of resources here, especially in the Library & here if you haven't seen them yet:
Welcome to the Workshop: How do I / Where do I / What do I / answers are here

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Been reading on here for quite awhile just dont post much. Every thing I did on this I learned by reading all the great info found here on this great site. Thought I would show where all the awesome info got me [emoji1] Now I just need to get some hones lol

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Originally Posted by JReed

Been reading on here for quite awhile just dont post much. Every thing I did on this I learned by reading all the great info found here on this great site. Thought I would show where all the awesome info got me [emoji1] Now I just need to get some hones lol

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Straight Razor Designs has good prices on hones. I didn't buy mine there but after I bought mine I saw that they were pretty competitive. I have Norton 220, 1k,4k & 8k, Shapton 1k, 2k, 4k,8k & 16k & Naniwa 220, 1k, 5k, 10k & a Coticule I did buy from SRD. I also have another finisher Thuringian plus I have ordered a chinese 12k natural finishing hone. I have a decent selection of hones.

J, nice job on the scales and the blade, I like the blade.

You can smooth and polish the pins with a 3-4 inch piece of chopstick chucked in a drill press and some rubbing compound, polish and or abrasive, dabbed on the end of the stick and tapped onto the pin. They will smooth out round and shine right up. Use a slow speed.

A thinner wedge and scales rounded/tapered to the edges, makes the razor easier to hold during shaving and stropping.

Is there a reason for the extremely thin scales? I guess I could see it being nicer for stropping. Just curious as I'm doing some currently. Thanks. Also, great looking shine.