Thread: Early razor scales?

Here's 7 different styles of scales + ornaments from around the right time period.



You've got a lot of leeway! Obviously some of them are more difficult to do than others. Probably the most straight forward would be the flat slab with rounded edges. I've had good luck making those sort of edges with a router bit with my Dremel held in a vise and just gently work the edge until it looks right.

It's about 50/50 whether or not razors from this time period had pewter wedges or not. If they didn't, the wedge was cut into the scales. I wouldn't recommend trying that unless you've got experience with it.

I know folks regularly talk about the lead wedges in old razors but most -- if not all -- were made from pewter. There's a lot of folks selling reasonably priced pewter ingots on eBay.

What I've done to make wedges is use an old teflon-coated baking pan with squared edges. I tilt it at a slight angle, hold the metal with some pliers and then just melt it with a blowtorch into the pan. From there it's easy to cut it down and shape it with a belt sander.

Strangely, many of the razors from that period have wedges with a characteristic pattern of holes. There's the central hole which the pin goes through but it's surrounded by three others in a pattern like the Clubs mark. It's only really noticeable if you use translucent horn.