Thread: Scale Wedges

What material do you use for making scale wedges/spacers and where do you get it? Is there a better option than buying the ones that classicshaving has in terms of price and quality?

Thanks,
David

I save all the parts I get when I take apart broken scales. I'm also looking at other materials, I like silver and want to try that in one set soon.

Came across a cheap and elegant solution for wedges while rescaling an eskilstuna the other day - coins. Wanted the brass look to match the brass pins being put onto ebony scales but I didn't want to go and order more bar stock than I'd use in my lifetime. A Nepali brass alloy 5 rupee coin did the trick- while not everybody has rupees sitting around the house, much of the foreign currency is a lot thicker than US coins. The face value of newer coins is more than the metal value, but its still a pretty easy and cheap option - hacksaw and a file are all you need for nice metal wedges.

I have stacks of old silver coins that I got as junk silver, they will do the trick I think

I use brass barstock (available from Texas Knifemaker Supply) or reconstituted stone (from Masecraft Supply). Of course, just about any material can work, as long as you can shape it. Re-using the original wedges works well.

My local hobby store sells brass bar, rod and sheet stock. I didn't even know about the bar stock until I had already ordered some. The only think I can't get there is 0 washers, but before I need some more, I might check and see if they can order them -- let them pay postage instead of me!

I really appreciate the help guys! These are great ideas.

I think the material you use is limited only by your imagination. The only thing to watch out for is the weight factor. If your working on a large wedge a heavy silver spacer can add quite a bit of weight or enough to throw your balance off on the razor. If you have access to a lapidary saw you could cut up and slice all kinds of minerals, semi precious gem stuff. It could get really interesting. I had a razor rescaled by one of our exmembers a while back. He used Mamouth ivory for the scales and used fossil ivory for the spacer.