Thread: How to make a traditional set of horn scales ... the way I do it.

Great tute, karlej! You have made it seem quite doable using simple tools and materials.
Quite good craftsmanship!

Originally Posted by Euclid440

What do you make your scraper from?

Cabinet scrapers are not that expensive, but I have had good luck just filing straight the end of a putty knife and rolling a burr on one edge, you don’t need much. Putty knives are not that hard but will hold and edge long enough to scrape a pair of horn scales smooth.

You can even file to a curved shape and roll a burr, but not really needed, sandpaper will smooth out transitions easily. Nice tip, great post.

I got this one from Brownell's. It's made by Jerry Fisher, a well known stock maker. I've been through a number of them over the years. This one is about worn out.

What a wonderful tutorial!
Thank you for sharing this info.
I am bookmarking this to refer to when I do my own scales.

Again thank you!

Thank you to the moderator who joined this thread together.

Nice read and walk through!

That scraper is a neat idea I will have to try.
Thanks Karlej.

Yea, scrapers are a huge time saver for wood or soft materials like horn or plastics, just put a sharp hook on a corner, pressure will determine the depth of cut. You can put a very nice finish on wood in a short amount of time.

Nice finish will have to get some of the Jantz compounds, was just looking at them.

Thanks for taking the time to photograph each step. Great write up and read.

An excellent job on those horn scales. They came out really well.

Originally Posted by Thug

Thanks for taking the time to photograph each step. Great write up and read.

An excellent job on those horn scales. They came out really well.

Thank you. It was fun to put together. I actually had over 80 photos and I think I edited down to 50. I'd have liked to put in more but I didn't want this to go on like the novel ' War and Peace'.

Fantastic, well done, very informative pictorial.
Thanks for taking the time to put it together and for sharing your skills.

Pete <:-}

Thanks much for this...even though I'm only a "user" not a "builder", it really makes me appreciate the work that went into all the nicely scaled vintage razors, as well as the re-works that are being done by the members here. I love seeing work in progress!