CJ Bianco (who still occasionally drops by here) asked me to rescale an Atlas Japanese blade for him. He picked out a gorgeous set of brown feathered horn from my stash, so off I went. I cut them out, double-side taped them inside out to flatten the insides, then did the same for the outsides, doing my usual shaping and thicknessing as I go. But even though I had clamped the scales together HARD on the tape, they started to bow out before I was done-as you can see, one is still slightly thicker than the other (which would have been a quick fix if I could only get them back to flat!).
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So despite repeated application of both wet and dry heat, dry ironing per Mike's suggestion, all followed by clamping between heavy DMT plates, etc., they just got even more bowed and warped/curled outward.
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I hate to give up on a beautiful, one-of-a-kind set of horn scales like this, but I've hit a wall, guys-never had horn go this haywire on me that I couldn't fix (and I've worked with horn a good bit).

Plan B is another nice set from my Indian Ebay supplier here; not as nice, but I've got them if I need to start over.
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I appreciate any advice from anyone who has saved a pair that is this far gone! Aaron