Thread: What are your favorite scale materials in the shop?

Originally Posted by Geezer

1 mm sheet sterling is readily available from jewelry supply houses. A spot price of the Day.
It can be cut, contoured by hammering, sanded and polished.
Do a search here for "silver scales," and "aluminum scales."

I would post links, but cell phone is all I have for a while...
~Richard

I hope this link is helpful:

Sterling Silver Sheet Metal - Price Per 6" x 1" Piece | OttoFrei.com

I have not seen a solid set of silver scales. The ones I have seen are silver that has been pressed to create the pattern or image on the silver, and it bends around onto the sides and creates a hollow scale that is filled on the back at the pivot and at the wedge. Most of the scale is open on the inside, so not so much hollow as cupped. They are very nice, and because they are scarce they are kind of pricey when you do find them. My sons wife is a silver smith and we have discussed it at length. Perhaps we will make a set or two at some point in the future.

My more common scales are:

Camel Bone forms nice and takes a good shine

Water Buffalo Bone much harder than camel bone and really shines

kirinite great to work and shine

Buffalo Horn great to work except for the smell

Wood Lignum V. is great as is walnut. Other woods seem to require CA finish which is not hard to do but takes some time.

Tropical hardwoods are easily worked and take a beautiful polish: ebony, cocobolo, ziricote, bocote and especially rosewood. I started with rosewood after I got a box full of scraps from a custom wood worker friend. Lovely stuff and doesn't even really require a finish, but a mask is a must for all of these, as the dust is toxic for most.

Buffalo horn: streaked black or brown, honey, or just jet black all look great. If you can get your blanks flat enough and oriented right, and work around de laminations and that SMELL, I love the deep luster it will take too-and no need to worry about a finish!

I haven't worked with bone or any synthetics yet, but would love to make a set out of that colored acrylic like I believe it was 10Pups was putting his Dubl Ducks in a couple years ago. And that sort of teal-colored acrylic I've seen on some of Max's razors is just stunning.

My favorite is blonde horn...
I love when there are dark parts in it. It gives a fantastic colour comvination in my opinion.

Black horn is also nice...but often oit Looks like plastic.

Tropical hardwoods are also great materials but I made only a few of them so far.

For knives, my favorites are bone, horn, antler and stabilized wood, and mycarta in some instances. So far, I've only made a couple of razors, but am sticking with mycarta for it's moister resistance. Maybe I just need a new way of shaving as I normally wash the whole razor in hot water under the tap and and wipe/blow dry and oil. I'd probably stay away from natural woods like Cocobolo and Ironwood as the oil I use on the blade would likely darken the wood faster. What bothers me is with a SR it's in a wet environment and while I'm using a carbon steel blade, I like the fact that the handle won't absorb moister or blade oil. I might do another in bone, but if I do it'll likely be stabilized, wouldn't mind using stabilized wood either.