Thread: Plum tree project

Hi all,

I wanted to share my first attempt at a restoration. With this post I want to thank all of you that showed your projects and pictures in this forum. Great inspiration and I'm grateful for all tips and tricks on honing, pinning, sanding, stropping etc.

It is a 4/8 Felix Wehner from Haan-Solingen. Found it at a flee market with boring and worn plastic scales. The blade was a little pitted but not rusty and was preserved in thick oil. I do not own a real camera, sorry for the quality of the first pics.

Sanded the blade by hand, from 400 up to 2000 grit paper, old wine corks make nice sanding blocks! Then polishing with some cheap metal polish from the local store. Still have to try the legendary Mothers polish..

The scales and the wedge are of plum wood. After flattening the inside, I glued the blanks together with paper in between and did the rough shaping with knife. Then a bit of correcting with a file and finally sand paper up to 1000k. Soaked the scales and the wedge in boiled linseed oil for about a week before letting the oil harden. The pins are standard nickel-silver. Finally I rubbed the scales with a little beeswax to seal the grain.















Honed it yesterday with a 1-3-8-12k progression. My skills are not there yet and the shave was doable but mostly rough. I'm going back to 3k now, giving it another shot. More restores are on the way and I'm looking forward to see your upcoming ones.

All the best,

Sedell

very clean natural looking
was there a problem with the original scales or just wanted the wood?

That looks great!

Thanks.

No, there was no problem. I just didn't like them, and since I wanted to polish up the blade I thought this would be a nice first project. Went to a carpenter around the corner and asked for some hardwood scrap pieces and ended up with this.

That being your first restore,can't wait to see what you come up with next ! Thanks for sharing ! Kudos

Very good restored you have done. I like the scales.

From someone currently traveling the same road, very nice work.

Originally Posted by stev

From someone currently traveling the same road, very nice work.

thanks, what are you up to? Looking forward to see the progress and result.

Beech scales for a 6/8 Kropp i just sanded and polished up, my first restoration. I am seeing your Carpentry skills are far superior to mine