Thread: Replacing scales

Originally Posted by PaulFLUS

I found another source for horn. I've been looking for honey and it seems like everything is either heavily streaked or the sellers were out.
Attachment 310208
I got these from guitarpartsandmore.com These four pieces were $34 including the shipping which comes out to $8.50 each. That's a sight lower than some of the other pieces I've seen. In fairness there is a certain amount of warping to a couple and one piece has a a little delamination on the edge but I can work around that. They are 2 in x 8 in by .15 in which comes to about 3/16. It's always good to have options.

What does delamination on the edge mean?

The edge starting to split. A little CA can glue it if it's a lot as long as you get it clean between. But sanding a curve on the edge of your scales or trimming the shapes out around the delam can be done if the pieces are large enough.

Horn is made up of layers of keratin. As it decomposes it separates along the layers. It also can come apart from being flattened out. The layers are laminated one on top of the other. When they come apart they delaminate.

Originally Posted by STF

What does delamination on the edge mean?

The others explained it well, but who doesn't like picture examples?


This is the worst I have on hand, blonde horn shows it best.
You could catch those edges with a fingernail and peel them up. Also, if it goes deep into the horn, it kinda looks like bubbles inside.


When it gets really bad, the whole surface can get rough and start flaking up



If you have horn scales you want to keep for another hundred years, keep the poor things hydrated with a bit of neatsfoot oil every now and then, and this will be much less likely to happen

Originally Posted by Euclid440

One often overlooked dimension is the thickness of the scale, less than 1/8th inch, thinner is better also remember the scales should be under tension at all times, so material comes into play. Thick scales make honing, shaving and especially stropping difficult and ungainly. Add large pins and the razor quickly becomes awkward.

The good news is, un-pinning and pinning is relatively simple and inexpensive, cut your pins from brass or nickel rod. If you buy or make your own scales and want to learn to pin and un-pin, practice pinning tongue depressors to your razor. You can also practice different un-pinning techniques, I drill or file pins depending on if I am trying to save the scales.

If you are replacing broken scales filing off the pin tops with a good file is quick and easy. There are lots of good post and videos on pinning. Pinning with brass is easy, so practice with brass first. You will learn a lot by doing, pinning your razor with tongue depressors a couple times will make the actual pinning much less stressful.

Making scales, horn is probably the easiest to work with simple hand tools, saws, files, scraper and sandpaper. The least expensive wood or plastic, a thrift store clipboard will make several scales, great for making scale templates.

I'm with Euclid. I file the peened head off, if there are washers. Some old ivory scaled razors are pinned without washers. When washers are present, just file down into the washer a bit, and then you can pop the top scale free with a small screwdriver. Spread the scales and press down with the flat of the screwdriver on the filed end to get it started out the other scale. Sometimes a few taps with a hammer are needed. Grab it from the other side with needlenose pliers, rotate and pull. Wa lah. Some guys use flush cutters. I find it difficult to do this. YMMV.

The standard modern pin diameter is 1/16". For your first practice piece, you might want to use brass rod. It is softer and easier to work with. A little too soft for sustained use, IMHO, but it has been done. Nickel-Silver is the standard material and you can find it online easy enough. For a trial pinning, you can get size 0-80 bolts and nuts from www.microfasteners.com. They have a variety of size 0 washers, too. No domed ones, but if you want domed, you can easily make a die set to dome flat ones, or buy a set already made. Domed washers can be found, but not from microfasteners. Like brass rod, the microfastener brass bolts are rather soft. However I have installed them for trial pinnings on cheap beater razors, got it right first time, and then simply cut and peened the bolt end over the nut or over washers only. It ain't purty but it works.

Trial pinning is especially good to check and correct proper centering. To "steer" a blade away from one scale toward the center, sand or file the inner face of the scales like this. On the scale toward which you want to steer the razor, thin it slightly in the area adjacent to the pivot pin hole, for about and inch toward the big end. On the scale that you want to steer the blade away from, do the thinning between the pivot hole and the small end. Easy does it. Sand and try, sand and try, softly softly catchee monkey.

Maggards has some scale materials. Some interesting laminates. You can make your own micarta, Cut your own wood. Ebony pool cue turning blanks can be sawn into razor scale blanks. Horn is widely available, and bone. Cow bone is used but for higher quality, go with camel or giraffe bone. Bleached, dyed, natural, all are available. I like camel bone because it isn't expensive and it looks and feels a lot like ivory. Doesn't warp as badly as horn. Horn can be difficult but few things are more attractive on a razor than some nice honey horn scales. For wedges, same material or acrylic, which is very easy to work with, or lead if you want to be traditional and are very careful and use proper PPE and hazmat working practices. Often you can find new or NOS replacement scales. I put a set of Filarmonica scales on one of my customized Gold Dollars once, just for laffs. I called it the FilGoldDollarmonica. I think I still have that razor somewhere, actually. I believe those scales came from Revisor. You may find other classic replacement scales there.

Oh and get ready for more howls of outrage, but my peening hammer is a spoon. Load it with an ounce or two lump of JB Weld and you have an excellent pin whacker that won't miss the pin and crack a scale. Whack whack whack whack that pin! Sharp whacks deform the pin into a head. Ponderous blows with a big hammer can bend the pin in the middle. When I say big, I mean like a 4oz tack hammer or similar. Grind a tiny divot into the top of your anvil or a heavy bench vise for the bottom end of the pin while you are whacking the top. FLip and do the other end. Back and forth, until you get the tension that you want. Acrylic is good for practicing. It makes nice looking scales and it is cheap as dirt, (www.tapplastics.com is my source) but it WILL crack or shatter if you go nuts on it.

What ever works, notice the thin handle on my clock makers hammer.

I have a collection of hammers, many clock maker hammers with thin handles, some with even thinner handles. The thin handles allow you to make a rhythm as you lightly tap the pin, held between thumb and forefinger and produce a finer finish.

Here turning the pin,(chuck) allows you to keep the hammer stationary and rotate the work, and make micro adjustments by twisting your wrist and changing where the hammer lands and or produce a glancing finishing taps.

I would imagine the spoon would work much the same.

Yeah a big collet chuck is great for starting a head on one end. I forgot to mention that. I don't know where my spare drillpress chuck is. I been using a pair of vise grips but a chuck is better. I have in the past just started with the bottom end in the divot in my bench vise which is my peening anvil, pin already running through razor and scales, (taped together tightly) and doing both ends one at a time that way, but it is easier to form or partially form a head first, on one end.

If you saw my post in the Replacing scales thread then you saw my peening hammer. It is a 1.5-2.0 oz. ball peen. I don't remember which but it's tiny. I do basically the same as stated with turning the chuck but I turn the whole razor around the block which turns the pin. I tap like I am trying not the hit it. More light taps in a circle around the pin makes a head and doesn't bend it much better than trying to hammer it quickly. You'll find too that as you hammer one side the other side gets rounded and, more importantly, smoothed in the divot on the other side.

Edit: I like the spoon ideas though.