Thread: Second project choices?

Help me pick one for my next project.


1)No scales but in very good shape.



2) Needs a good cleaning some pitting no active rust



3)Broken scale(not sure what thy are made of



4)Broken scale, small chip in edge. Etching of a figure looks like George Washington (not sure if it could be saved of I polish the blade)




I am leaning towards #3

3 looks like bone. Love the blade design, should clean up nicely and look good in Horn.

Start with 000 steel wool with WD40, then decide how deep you need to sand. 1k or 600 with a hard backer should polish the tang without removing too much of the stamp.

One or three would be great choices. The number three certainly looks like bone to me too. I think it pretty easy to work with. I use it frequently. I’m pretty much doing bone and horn these days. So my opinion on scale material is a wee biased.

I would start with the colonial. If you give some blade dimensions I have several sets of scales for those as I used to collect them. If I don’t have a set that fits you can make your own. They’re solid shavers and generally easy to hone. Making scales is very difficult business until you understand how they work. Making them provides you with a much better understanding, reading and theory only get you so far.

For material I have those blades in bone, horn, Bakelite and plastic. They are fairly common.

#3 is a Holler from California. An importer, likely a Wostenholm or other English make.
Scales are bone. Hard to fix that. Would require at least a replacement scale half.

Still, this looks to be the easiest blade to get shaving if you don't over-restore it. No visible spine wear, really.
JMHO

Originally Posted by sharptonn

#3 is a Holler from California. An importer, likely a Wostenholm or other English make.
Scales are bone. Hard to fix that. Would require at least a replacement scale half.

Still, this looks to be the easiest blade to get shaving if you don't over-restore it. No visible spine wear, really.
JMHO

Over restore?

You can over sand and ruin the blade geometry.

Some errors are sanding in a frown, putting a dip in the spine face, over sanding the toe or heel and putting dips in the blade face that screws up the bevel.

As you gain experience you will learn how to avoid these problems.

Originally Posted by jfk742

I would start with the colonial. If you give some blade dimensions I have several sets of scales for those as I used to collect them. If I don’t have a set that fits you can make your own. They’re solid shavers and generally easy to hone. Making scales is very difficult business until you understand how they work. Making them provides you with a much better understanding, reading and theory only get you so far.

For material I have those blades in bone, horn, Bakelite and plastic. They are fairly common.

I was thinking of gluing in a liner of some sort and repairing the original. Thoughts?

It is doable. The trick is getting the liner thick enough to have the strength yet thin enough to not make the scales fat and feel awkward in the hand. G-10 is the most likely candidate as it is very strong even at 1/32”, metal like brass could be another choice. The key here is super thin.

I was thinking G10 Thanks.