Thread: The Butchered Blade

I think that a lot of the early inks were made from soot.

I heard the same things Mike. The work was done to pass the time quite often. Hooks and fishing barbs for the engraving, and whatever they had that would pass for ink. Very neat history to it all.

I kindof had a brain fart there.. lol yes that's true, soot and fat/oil would be considered ink.. Hehehe
Spent a few nights in jail for a bar fight in college (defending a friend getting hurt).. some guys were making tattoo ink from soot and a packet of mayo! Lol they used a staple for the needle! Ugh. Probably similar to bone, or bamboo..?
Quiet night tonight gentlemen...

Originally Posted by MikeT

I kindof had a brain fart there.. lol yes that's true, soot and fat/oil would be considered ink.. Hehehe
Spent a few nights in jail for a bar fight in college (defending a friend getting hurt).. some guys were making tattoo ink from soot and a packet of mayo! Lol they used a staple for the needle! Ugh. Probably similar to bone, or bamboo..?
Quiet night tonight gentlemen...

Are you really going to end that story without a picture of the tattoo you got that weekend?

Lol oh man, I was feeling the pull of social pressure... Hehehe but no tattoo for me. These guys were sleeved up with track marks mostly hidden by the ink.. I was scared, in the corner and all I could think about was when one of these guys would want to fight.. lol.
One of the guys, a massive brute came up to me, I thought "I'm gonna get hurt and violated" he pulls a pencil out of his pants, I thought "I'm gonna get shanked!" But he said "I need to write a letter to my wife. Can you write the letters that all connect together?"
I wrote a dozen letters for several guys of ranging from casual hellos to terrible jailhouse love poetry... Ugh
It went just fine, no fights. no tattoos!

Hi guys,
I've been busy with work but trying to squeeze an hour in here n there to fashion some scales. It didn't go as well as I would have liked , in fact I nearly threw the scales and wedge away at one point but it was a great learning curve for me.

My older brother bought a restored W&B off eBay . The person who restored it had done a really poor job. The edge of the spine (the one part you shouldn't mess with) was really sanded down and left with deep scratches on the spine edge, the scales were un salvageable because of the wonkey pin holes drilled through them.

I bought some Mexican Cocobolo wood and made the scales. I didn't want standard looking scales I wanted some thing different. The end result wasn't exactly what I wanted but near enough.

The wedge is made from Cocobolo and stainless steel . This is where I had the most problems. Even drilling a hole in the steel was a nightmare. Bare in mind I have no decent machinery and this was all done in my bedroom :/

I finished the scales with 3 coats of Tru-Oil and finally 3000 grit sanded.

The blade was bent so I used one washer (which I think spoils the look slightly) and I had to sand down the inside top end of the scale to get it centred.

Also i went with the nickel pins and steel washers.

Finally honing it. I spent an age on the 1k with 4 layers of tape and finally finished it on the Jnat with 6 layers of tape.

I then stropped it Linen/Cordovan Kanayama 90000 with the strop slackened off .

I had a week and a half of beard and it just fell through my hair like there was nothing there. ATG fools pass , effortless .
Truly amazing piece of metal .

My brother texed me today that I am an artist .... Who am I to argue haha ..

I have so many W&B to fix up and a chopper on the way. I cant wait

Great job on the scales and restore.

Looks damn good to me for your first Job15

Originally Posted by JOB15

Hi guys,
.... snip ....

That looks great Job15! That shape is unique, I like it. I'm gonna need to try out true oil, all you guys are having such success with it..
Stainless for the stacked wedge must have been a pain!
Yes your brother is right, you're an artist.

I like the curved scale shape quite a bit. Flows with the blade great. Nice finish on it as well.
As a suggestion, try to taper the wedge/spacer even more on future builds. Really helps create the bowed area the blade nestles in, and ensures minimum side contact on the blade when closed.
Thanks for sharing it. I haven't made cocobolo scales yet. Lots of pens out of it, but no razor scales.