Thread: Pinnless scales?

So I'm restoring 3 straights as my first foray into this hobby. I do have a question about pinning. Do you HAVE to have pins down at the wedge? One set of scales I'm doing are acrylester inlace - (resin basically) I know certain CA when used on plastic will actually slightly melt the plastic in order to form the bond. I was going to use a matching piece of the scales to form the wedge...so my qustion is has anyone not pinned the wedge and just used ca/epoxy creating a pin scale?

I can't speak to the glue being used, but some early 20th-century scales I've seen were without pins at the wedge. I also have a small razor re-scaled in wood that is glued together at the wedge, without a pin there.

Some of the fancy scales were made with bonded wedge ends. Some of them failed over time and were pinned then. Your choice for some.
~Richard

Originally Posted by ssgmeader

So I'm restoring 3 straights as my first foray into this hobby. I do have a question about pinning. Do you HAVE to have pins down at the wedge? One set of scales I'm doing are acrylester inlace - (resin basically) I know certain CA when used on plastic will actually slightly melt the plastic in order to form the bond. I was going to use a matching piece of the scales to form the wedge...so my qustion is has anyone not pinned the wedge and just used ca/epoxy creating a pin scale?

I have a friend who is in the business of not only selling but working with inlace acrylic. I'll send him an email and see if there is a preferred way of joining the inlace chemically.

Originally Posted by Geezer

Some of the fancy scales were made with bonded wedge ends. Some of them failed over time and were pinned then. Your choice for some.
~Richard

Good to know!! I thought I would try something a little different with the 3rd razor I'm doing. The other 2 are getting more traditional wood scales.

Very nice! I love that wood.

I believe acrylester is mostly acrylic(could be wrong). If this is the case you should be able to bond it chemically with a solvent like acetone. This would be stronger then any glue or epoxy bond.

I own a few of the bonded celluloid scales, and they work just fine.... until they dont. I have NEVER pinned them again after they went loose, I have always re-glued them.

That bond lasted 80 years, its nothing to be laughed at.

Originally Posted by BeJay

I believe acrylester is mostly acrylic(could be wrong). If this is the case you should be able to bond it chemically with a solvent like acetone. This would be stronger then any glue or epoxy bond.

Inlace Acylester is actually more of a product name- but it's a polyester resin, different than Silmar 41.

Originally Posted by ssgmeader

So I'm restoring 3 straights as my first foray into this hobby. I do have a question about pinning. Do you HAVE to have pins down at the wedge? One set of scales I'm doing are acrylester inlace - (resin basically) I know certain CA when used on plastic will actually slightly melt the plastic in order to form the bond. I was going to use a matching piece of the scales to form the wedge...so my qustion is has anyone not pinned the wedge and just used ca/epoxy creating a pin scale?

This is what I got in from my friend in the Inlace Acrylester business:

If it were me I think I would use epoxy.

Ca works well for a lot of things, but it tends to lack flexibility.

For pens and stuff that doesn’t require a lot of effort to keep the plastic and metal together it works fine, is easy, and neat.

For a superior bond I would use and epoxy though. It will have a stronger bond and the glue won’t be as brittle.

F

I hope this is of some help.