Trouble with Horn for scales

Hi everyone

I might already asked this question or a relative one here. I've a French blade with a fancy spine about 7/8 ( but it will lose some because the edge had some rust but not a big deal). Its actual scales are made by plastic but the size doesn't fit. So as have some black horn, I started to make new scales for this one.

Before go further, is like to have some advice from you guys. These horns are about 5 mm thick. And I need to absolutely make them finer, lose some thicknes. I tried some hand sanding before with wood for an other blade but it's really trying, it takes to much time and not the perfect result. I also tried with a electronic sander. I had similar issues but better than hand sanding.


Well with electric sander the problem is; actually it is made for send floor. But I'm using it, with turning down side to up and put the horn or wood on. But as it's so powerful I can't control/ keep the material stable on it every time, last time the wood was not perfectly plane. So tomorrow I went to start on this job but still not sure how to take these horns to make them finer?

I'm looking for a fast but good result.

As always any advice will be appreciated ...

Yea, don’t do that…

Take a look at this thread. Hand Sanding Horn

Post 6 and the link to Karlej’s tutorial with very good photos and step by step instruction.

There are also some good templates of Sheffield scales somewhere, google Razor Scale, I will take a look for you also.

You might want to take a look at the

Welcome to the Workshop

and Making Scales Step by Step tutorial from the library.

Here are a couple Tracings of old scales.


Attachment 237511Attachment 237512

thanks for these but i've already my exemples. just the thing my horn blocks are too thick, about 5 mm. i need to reduce them to 3.5 mm max. that's my problem.

Choose a friendly luthier nearby if you do not have a thickness sanding machine, buy a 6-pack of good beer, chill them and go there at about 0600 PM to have a word with him. You'll be amazed how much you and him will enjoy talking about razors, musical instruments and handcrafting while drinking a late afternoon/early night beer while he adjusts the thickness of your scales in a blink. Go make a friend and introduce one more pal on the brotherhood.

"Excuse me, Sir, do you hame a moment to talk about classic things?". With a 6-pack in hands at 0600 pm, must be easy. :beer1:

You can reduce the size and thickness quickly with a scraper and profile at the same time, as Karl shows in his tutorial.

Or with a sharp hand plane and a simple jig made from set of U shaped stops, made from paint stir sticks or a couple popsicle sticks glued on top of each other (depending on the thickness you are shooting for) and glued to a flat board, MDF works well as a substrate.

Just cut your horn into 1 inch wide slabs and plane them flat and to thickness. Do not nails or screws, if you hit them with the blade you will chip it. Wood glue is very strong for shear strength.

The stops will also act as a thickness gauge runners if you space them wider than the blade but not wider than the plane, allow for the amount of blade extending past the plane sole/face… You can shim the horn work piece between the runners or double faces tape them down.

Here is a video of a guy using a similar type jig.

Or just double stick tape the horn to a flat board and free hand plane it. Mark the thickness on the side of the horn clearly with a marking gauge or a sharpie and piece of wood or another scale flat on a work surface and used as a depth gauge.

If you use a compass or marking, gauge high-lite the mark with a colored sharpie and do not try to plane to final thickness. Get close and do your final thickening and shaping with a scraper and or sandpaper.

Horn is very soft and will plane easily and smoothly with a sharp plane blade.

jig with horn i don't think it's going to work. but i did it. i pasted the horn to a wood block and sanded it on a electrical sander. it took 2 hours + one and half hour cleaning (i'm so tired). now i just need to finish it.

You may want to consider attaching the blanks to a larger block of wood to allow you to hold and control it better while using an electric sander, double sided tape works well for this.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by RezDog

You may want to consider attaching the blanks to a larger block of wood to allow you to hold and control it better while using an electric sander, double sided tape works well for this.

---

that's exactly what i did. the shape and the thickness is ok. now i need to do finishing and polish.

It's not directly related with this post but it is a part of it.

As I've breathe problem and I use a medicament for it. The dust of horn kills me every time. I'm using some simple masks to protect myself but they don't work enough. Do you guys use any of a tool to protection from dust while working? What kind of a mask do you use?

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Oustoura

It's not directly related with this post but it is a part of it.

As I've breathe problem and I use a medicament for it. The dust of horn kills me every time. I'm using some simple masks to protect myself but they don't work enough. Do you guys use any of a tool to protection from dust while working? What kind of a mask do you use?

---

What i have done is set my sander up with the vaccum cleaner tied to one end so almost all of the dust gets sucked up. It helps on the clean up to.

I've a bag for it which collect the dust but even when the horn or wood is on the paper while sending there is too many dust comes out from left and right sides.

I have a pretty grand dust collection and air filtration system and have to say when sanding anything in my shop I smell nothing and have almost no airborne dust. I recommend dust collection and air filtration. Even a good shop vac with a hepa or equivalent filter it pretty effective. Just make sure it is a high volume vacuum, with a kicking filter and all will be well. I have done a lot of working in a mask and it takes a quality mask that is properly fitted to keep it out of you lungs.

The hand plane is dust free and works very well once you have it set up.

Attachment 237556

Attachment 237557

Attachment 237558

Attachment 237559

My mind is about gone but I think it was a you tube video that showed me the vaccum set up. I think and i may be wrong but i think it may still be on you tube. Ck out makeing scales for razors. I will try to find it.

A small cardboard box, duct tape and a shop vac hose. Make sure point the exhaust out the door or clean the filer frequently.

A strong fan blowing across your face and the work helps, as does a good face mask, they are not expensive.

Always cracked me up in the movie apollo 13, where a group of engineers at NASA designed a filtration system to save the astronuts, "they fabricated a air scrubber from spare parts and duct tape" that saved their lives...

They put a filter in a cardboard box and duct taped the intake and exhaust hoses on to it.

This is the luthier method referred to earlier:
First is the horn blank - then run through the thinning process and finally the pre-finished side prior to cutting scales and hand sanding to shape and contour. The last photo shows the set up and how the extraction system works.

http://i1270.photobucket.com/albums/...psb632a6d9.jpg
http://i1270.photobucket.com/albums/...ps60de5c27.jpg
http://i1270.photobucket.com/albums/...psf71e808f.jpg
http://i1270.photobucket.com/albums/...ps388382cf.jpg