inlays

has anyone ever tried/successfully removed the inlays from scales? I have a broken set of C-Mon scales that i would like to salvage the inlays from for use on a handmade set of scales. how would one go about this?

If you're not going to use the scales anymore could you drill holes from the other side and push the inlay out?

I imagine that as well as being a press fit, the inlays will also be glued in place. If its an old razor, made in the days when quality was important, then they are likely to be glued in there pretty good.

Greg Frazer

ya they are set in there pretty damn good. I was thinking of maybe boiling the bejeesus out of them to soften/break down the glue and try, i thought of using a heat gun but i think i'd probably just end up permanently bonding them to the plastic.

if i was utterly desperate i could shave/grind/sand the plastic away from the undeside till i hand the inlays separated

I'm looking for just those in-lays myself... let me know how the process goes. I have a nice razor missing the one 'C-Mon' inlay from the scale body. thx - John

I'm not sure of the exact composition of the scales but why don't you try a chemical means?

There are lots of things that dissolve glue and even dissolve or soften some plastics without attacking metal.

I would suggest for starters some mean carb cleaner like Berryman B12 Chemtool available in a pourable form at Autozone for about $3.

That stuff is super mean and will make any skin it touches burn like it's on fire.
If this stuff won't break the glue then I have no idea what will.

http://www.berrymanproducts.com/Port...16,%200155.pdf

Don't get it on anything you like !! (other than metal)

As others said drill a hole in the back, then using a medicine dropper either use a little nail polish remover or thin paint thinner. I guess carb cleaner could work. its a very delicate process

i like the carb cleaner idea, it makes sense (break down what you don't want, keep what you do)

A major reason I thought of this was because I have liquified smokeless powder with acetone.
If the scales are celluloid this carb cleaner will just dissolve them away.

Even if they aren't, I haven't seen a whole lot of glues that will stand up to this stuff.

I work on cars alot and haven't come across anything stronger.

I know it's safe on metal.

One thought though. There are a lot of materials that are plastic plated to look like metal.
I doubt this is the case here but I wanted to point out that this stuff will absolutely destroy things of that sort.

I've removed the brass inlay on an old set of Puma scales (the blade was toast), by heating the scales with a hair dryer and bending the scales (so that the inlay was on top of the bend). As the plastic softens you can lightly pull the brass inlay away with a tweezer. It's easy to do, but you'll feel like you need 3 hands (one for the hair dryer, one to bend the scales, and one to use the tweezers!).

C utz

well i managed to remove the inlays and keep them intact. i used a variation of C utz's idea using boiling water instead of a hairdryer. this makes it alot easier to work with the scales (don't gotta hold the hair dryer) i found tweezers to be a little too clumsy and large so i opted to use a cuticle trimmer. very thin profile, easy to hold. made it very easy to coax the inlays off. i'd dunk the scales in water for a few seconds, take them out and loosen a portion of the inlays. repeat until done. after seeing how bad my first scale was destroyed i traced an outline of the other scale along with hole placements for reference when making new scales. these came off of a C-Mon Blackie so i'm thinking probably ebony. i kept the wedge and third pin spacer

here are some pictures (that thing at the bottle is the cuticle trimmer i used):

OR, you could do that too! :D

That's the great thing about working with these razors....there never seems to be one right way of doing it!

I can not wait to see what you come up with on those 'new' scales!!

I believe Vlad and others use CA to 'seal in' the inlay...I guess it's not really an inlay then, is it? :shrug:

Well, what ever you come up with, post it with pictures!!

Good luck!

C utz

after rumaging through my resto pile i found another candidate that looks like it might want its inlays transfered to some new scales, a FW Engels Special. the current scales are warped and stained and misaligned so it's probably gonna be another project in the future.

for the time being i don't have access to my tools to make new scales quite yet (nor do i even have any scale material) and probably won't until the end of august.

i was thinking of trying to make the inlays flush with the new scales by carving out the design. then going over with a CA finish. I don't know if i'm that ambitious/have the skill to do it yet lol :w

for the time being my resto will be limited to sanding/polishing/repinning/cleaning/honing/destroying old scales (you know...just because i can) lol

i'll definately get some pictures up when these razors start coming together :tu

well i went ahead and went wild on that FW Engels. this time knowing what i was doing the inlays pratically fell off as if theyd never been glued to begin with.

for anyone looking to salvage inlays i highly recommend this method. if you are looking to salvage the scales as well (if you sanded down the marks and refinished the scales you'd still be able to use them) my method sucks. it destroys/warps/shrinks scales lickity-split.

i also tried to straighten some warped cracked ice C-mon Stainless scales by sandwiching them between two hot pots (i didn't dare boil them as was my original plan after seeing how fast that can destroy a set of scales...don't ask how i came up with the pot idea). all was going well and they were setting quite nicely, but i got distracted and forgot about them...needless to say they are now unusable so i ended up performing yet another inlayoscopy.

so now i have 3 razors awaiting custom scales...what have i gotten myself into :shrug: