Thread: First shot at making scales

Been working on my two most current resto's today. Finally tried some of my spalted tamarind in my surface planer and got it down to about 1/16", perfect for scales. I drew a few templates and finally decided on a square point style. Got them all shaped out and the ends glued together and wedges placed. As an afterthought do to a suggestion I decided to throw them in a makeshift stabilization vacuum tank with some minwax wood hardener. Here are some photos with the blades just held in place with some small screws.






They will dry a couple of days and then get sanded all the way up to 12,000 grit and then likely a CA finish for a nice high gloss shine and finally pinned. I am going to use brass rod with a chrome larger than normal chrome washer.

I like the unusual patterning on the Tamarind.
Great effort for your 1st set of scales.

An interesting figure on the tree, but it will be better if the patterns are on both sides of the handle.

Well, I ended up throwing em in the stabilization tank and sanding them down up to 12,000 grit. Then used a brass rod and oversized silver washers. I really like the way the two tone ended up looking. Blades close center and I got the wedges set with hardly any gap between blade and wedge. They are nowhere near perfect, but it will work for now.

Interesting pattern in the wood! It's a good thing you stabilized those- that type of wood is pretty delicate. Nice job on your first attempt!

I was never a big fan of spalted woods, but the more projects I see it used on the more I like it. It looks so much better as something rather than a block of wood. I like how those have the normal grain structure near the pivot and the smoother, tighter looking grain of the spalted section on the other half.

Nice scale design and love the spalted wood. I too would have used matching wood on both sides.

A thin collar would let the wood be the focal point. It’s a tough call took me a long time to warm up to Sheffield stacked washers, now I like the big European style ornate collars on some razors.

Nice, clean work. Spacer or Wedge?

Looking forward to your next project.