Thread: smooth sailing on first custom scales then CRACK!

It happens.
I learned to pin on strips of 1/16" thick plexiglass with a steel washer between two strips. I don't know even know how many of them I cracked from mishits and trying to get the pins just a little bit tighter. Eventually I got it, but I still crack one every now and then.

Can they be saved? I have not worked with acrylic. I bet harrywally would be able to point you in the right direction, whenever he has a mistake he always seems to able to save it and in most cases it ends up better than his original idea.

Thanks for the tips everyone! I was hitting it hard in retrospect so it was my fault, I also heard that this material cracks easier than others... Thats actually good to know about it affecting the stropping process, I liked this mistake so much I was about to make another with the same shape. So u saved me some trail and error there, I cannot wait to get back on the gear, I will be updating as much as I can....

Originally Posted by jfk742

Can they be saved? I have not worked with acrylic. I bet harryworld would be able to point you in the right direction, whenever he has a mistake he always seems to able to save it and in most cases it ends up better than his original idea.

That would be awesome if I could salvage them, I tried this crazy super glue and got it all over it since it could be buffed and it still cracked in the pinning process

It combines colors on the handle. If you put the handle on the razor will be very beautiful.

I pin with a ball-peen hammer, I almost hit the pin horizontally. Quite hard, too, but once you get the hang of it the pins mushroom nicely and you get the feeling how to hit so the hammer "bounces off" the pin, so to say. TC (an Israël knife and razor maker) once explained, convincingly, why he did so as well. His theory was that lots of light taps pretty much flat on top of the pin did more internal damage to the structure of the pin than good. So far, it has worked nicely, on the whole.

With thin ivory (all vintage, of course), horn and bone I tend to hit less hard, but still in no way do I carefully tap the pin. I have broken my fair share of scales as well, though, but nowadays hardly ever. Just when I get frustrated with lacking tightness and know that I really should re-pin instead of pushing it. Crack, snap, bullocks.

Originally Posted by Dafonz6987

That would be awesome if I could salvage them, I tried this crazy super glue and got it all over it since it could be buffed and it still cracked in the pinning process

Save them for a shorter razor one day?

Lots of good points in this thread. I've cracked one set of scales in pinning, and I was bent for two days lol. I actually glued them back together though and may use them on something for myself eventually. Very pretty burl wood.

Too bad, the kirinite in that color was going to look great. I like the look of kirinite, but haven't tried it with any of my blades yet. I'm not sure it would look very good with most of my blades either. The bold colors would probably clash with blades that have the deep black rust and pitting on them.

Are you going to make adjustments to the good scale and just make another mate for it?

I'm working on some custom scales as well. I've tried working with spalted/burl, but it was a PAIN! The horn I worked with warped really easily as well. I'm trying to make some scales with G-10 right now.

Keep us updated. Hopefully things will go more smoothly next time.

Originally Posted by JP5

Too bad, the kirinite in that color was going to look great. I like the look of kirinite, but haven't tried it with any of my blades yet. I'm not sure it would look very good with most of my blades either. The bold colors would probably clash with blades that have the deep black rust and pitting on them.

Are you going to make adjustments to the good scale and just make another mate for it?

I'm working on some custom scales as well. I've tried working with spalted/burl, but it was a PAIN! The horn I worked with warped really easily as well. I'm trying to make some scales with G-10 right now.

Keep us updated. Hopefully things will go more smoothly next time.

I've actually to this point only ever used spalted/burl wood. It can definitely be finicky though. I have horn...but I hate working it lol. Up to this point I've only ever used it for kitchen knife ferrules/spacers...and that tells me I DEFINITELY don't want to use it for razor scales. I have some resin scales epoxied up that I'm going outside to work right now though. Should be interesting.

Originally Posted by JP5

Too bad, the kirinite in that color was going to look great. I like the look of kirinite, but haven't tried it with any of my blades yet. I'm not sure it would look very good with most of my blades either. The bold colors would probably clash with blades that have the deep black rust and pitting on them.

Are you going to make adjustments to the good scale and just make another mate for it?

I'm working on some custom scales as well. I've tried working with spalted/burl, but it was a PAIN! The horn I worked with warped really easily as well. I'm trying to make some scales with G-10 right now.

Keep us updated. Hopefully things will go more smoothly next time.

An I'm just keeping them and calling it quits on them, haven't had the chance to make new ones because I don't have the bench grinder going right now... Horn I use a lot for some g10 in the mail... I'm scared to use woods haven't used any yet but thought just scares me