Thread: Early razor scales?

I looked at a bunch in the SRlibrary, but mostly they use power tools I don't have. I don't even have a shop. I have a shed with no windows or power. I will have to do this outside in in the woods in my yard.
Is there a good place in the workshop sub-form to look?

Ok this is taking me much longer than expected, haven't found much time to work on the scales. Anyhow I took the tracing of the scale twice glued to the horn blank. Then cut with a hacksaw. PITA. Then took Dremel held with claps and ground down to the basic shape. What a mess and oh such a lovely smell. At least it was outdoors. It has rained every time since then that I had time so that is where I am at right now. Also trying to figure out what to use for a wedge. I was thinking of grinding down a nickel or penny unless I can find something else around the house to use. I guess I have to go to a lot of hand sanding now to clean up all the edges and create the bevel sides and get these where I want them. So do I rubber cement them together while I do this and drill the holes?

Oh and the horn will most likely just look brown. It had a nice pattern on the one side, but I think that was also dyed with yellow or something. It was odd and only on the surface and maybe a little deeper. I did that side out so I will see once I get to that point.

Trying to grind /sand coins to shape for a wedge can be done but be prepared for some work.
To keep it traditional looking lead works fine and is easy to work . Old fishing weights /tire weights etc. can easily be hammered then shaped to work.

To hold them ( scales ) together while you work them and drill it's easy when you use a couple of pieces of double sided tape ( carpet tape) to hold them together.

This is just a quick and dirty explaination but there are better "how to'" in the stickies at the top of the forum you might find helpful .

That is a really good idea I had not thought of using fishing weights for the wedge. That will save me a lot of time and angling the wedge will be much easier. If I need to make it thicker of thinner all I need is the hammer. For a clean edge on a lead weight do you cut, sand or grind to fit cleanly in the scales? Never worked with lead before. Figure making it airborne is a bad idea even if it is outside.

The carpet tape I have is really thick do they have thin stuff at the hardware store?

Like most any grinding or sanding a mask is a good idea. Lead can pretty easily be cut by scoring and finishing up with a file or sandpaper. The angle is also easily adjusted by keeping a sheet of sandpaper flat on a table and sliding the wedge back and forth.

You can get the very thin tape at most any hardware shop but I only use the thicker stuff that looks more like fabric.