Thread: Made my first set of scales

Hi Aaron1234, Being my first try I didn't attempt to inlay the badge. I just drilled out some half holes to fit the back tabs and glued it in.

Originally Posted by wayne394

Nice job. They look great. What's next?

I'm thinking horn maybe.

Originally Posted by Euclid440

Nice scales, the shield should be inlayed. It is a bit of work with a drill press and cleaned up by hand, with a parser drill or router, make sure it is centered.

Grind and Polish your pins with a 3-4 in piece of bamboo chopstick with a dab of diamond paste or rubbing compound and polish with good metal polish on the stick. Drill a small divot on the end of the stick to match the pin and keep it from dancing around go easy to not hit the scale or make a shield from a plastic water bottle.

Were you able to save the old double stacked collars? They are very cool and the old scales looked good and should clean up well. I like using original collars.

You can double stick tape your scales to a paint stick to save your fingers when thinning your scales on a belt sander, nice work.

I was not able to save the old scales. They were so dry and brittle that they broke while attempting to unpin them.
Thanks for the paint stick tip btw, that's a great idea!

If you soak in Neat’s-foot oil, submerge in a Ziploc bag for a couple days, before you unpin it will revive them and make less brittle.

Un-pin with a pin vice or Dremel with a tiny carbide ball bit. A drill press is hard to do but can be done using a center drill countersink, not a drill bit at least to get a good starter hole and go slow. If you take your time you can save the scales and original collars.

Nice scales.

Originally Posted by Euclid440

Nice scales, the shield should be inlayed. It is a bit of work with a drill press and cleaned up by hand, with a parser drill or router, make sure it is centered.

Grind and Polish your pins with a 3-4 in piece of bamboo chopstick with a dab of diamond paste or rubbing compound and polish with good metal polish on the stick. Drill a small divot on the end of the stick to match the pin and keep it from dancing around go easy to not hit the scale or make a shield from a plastic water bottle.

Were you able to save the old double stacked collars? They are very cool and the old scales looked good and should clean up well. I like using original collars.

You can double stick tape your scales to a paint stick to save your fingers when thinning your scales on a belt sander, nice work.

Good ideas Euclid. I've never tried bamboo, and never a plastic bottle as a shield.
I don't have a router, so my drill press with a router bit is a great idea. I read about it somewhere but it slipped my mind since and there's always inlay work to be done.
Thanks for the ideas and reminder!