Thread: My 1st re-scaling Wade and Butcher "Celebrated Hollow Ground"

Forgive my ropey photography. I bought this Wade and Butcher on EBay as a project, it arrived with a dreadful set of square edged blonde scales but the blade was in great shape, other than being polished to within an inch of its life. I found a set of horn scales that I thought would suit the blade from EBay and purchased shortly after.
I must admit I made many mistakes along the way, 1st I tried to drill the holes in the scales free hand and although one hole was perfect but the other was a little off and caused me some problems when polishing the wedge and I think has caused the blade to shut off centre. The second was I lost one of the small brass washers in my old work bench so had to revert to using 2 larger on at the pivot.
But nonetheless, I'm very happy with my results and despite all the mistakes it still looks better than when I received it. I'm open to criticism and advice, just be gentle

Really nice job! Looking good! Love that you put it back to a more original look.

Thanks for the kind words NewellVW. I'm really happy with results and looking forward to honing it up and using it

Looks good. You can make the holes a bit larger than the pins to give you a little wiggle room to straighten a blade. Look at the blade on a flat surface to check for warp so you know going in what to expect, mocking up with small bolts will tip you to problems.

You can chuck large washers in a hand drill, Dremel or drill press with nut and bolt and grind them smaller with a file or sandpaper glued to a paint stick or thin piece of wood, then polish at the same time. Brass cuts quickly. Doming also is a more finished look and provides a bit more tension at the pin.

Putting washers in a small plastic condiment container from fast food store, immediately after disassembly, helps prevent losing small parts. And working on a clean paper towel help me find small parts.

All that counts is that it is back in service and you are happy.

Good work, should be a shaver.

Thanks for the advice Euclid, ill bare that in mind on the next project

Looks great, I just did one and it is not as easy as one might think. But all we can do is learn and do it again, good job

Originally Posted by Euclid440

Looks good. You can make the holes a bit larger than the pins to give you a little wiggle room to straighten a blade. Look at the blade on a flat surface to check for warp so you know going in what to expect, mocking up with small bolts will tip you to problems.

You can chuck large washers in a hand drill, Dremel or drill press with nut and bolt and grind them smaller with a file or sandpaper glued to a paint stick or thin piece of wood, then polish at the same time. Brass cuts quickly. Doming also is a more finished look and provides a bit more tension at the pin.

Putting washers in a small plastic condiment container from fast food store, immediately after disassembly, helps prevent losing small parts. And working on a clean paper towel help me find small parts.

All that counts is that it is back in service and you are happy.

Good work, should be a shaver.

Yep. I have drilled a hole slightly off a little on scales so I'll enlarge it or I have also bought some slightly larger drill bits off eBay by typing in what size I'm looking for & I usually find what I need. I need to get me a better drill press. I also have the drill press attachment for my Dremel but it isn't exactly a perfect 90 degrees so I will tweak the adjustment a little on it. I'll find me a better drill press though. The one I have came from Harbor freight & although my belt sander from there works ok & my buffer on a pedestal works good, the drill press sucks plus it won't hold a small 1/16" drill bit or even the slightly larger ones I have. For thinner thrust washers, I use the ones I get from Micro Fasteners & I will hammer them flatter on my anvil until I'm happy with the much thinner results but it closes the ID up so I will hold the thrust washer with my smooth needle nose pliers & drill the ID back out to the right size & deburr it from the drilling.

Benjisco, you did a good job on your first set of scales.

Hats-off to those who make scales. Lord knows I don't!
Quite a journey to do it right! Got to begin with solid. These look quite solid!
Hone it up!

All honed up and ready to go, used the dilucot method and finished it on my welsh slate hone, by the time I finished it, it passed a hanging hair test. I love honing Sheffield steel! Looking forward to my Christmas day shave with it.