Thread: blade centering sans repinning

i cleaned up a nice torrey 11/16 this weekend, and as a final step peened the pivot pin (say that ten times fast) to tighten up the scales, as the blade was wobbly. now the blade intersects the scales... it's in great condition, and i'm disinclined to rescale it, so i was wondering if there was any way to true it without repinning

Most likely one of two things happened:::
1. You tap tapped that puppy a little to hard and bent the pin or perhaps it was already bent and you just worsened it...
2. You did not hit the pin dead straight and off set the scales..

Solutions: You can repin...
Or you can look at the scales from the pivot end of the razor and try and re-tap the pin at a reverse angle to straighten up the off set.... GENTLY!!!!!! very Gently!!!!!
If you think there is any way that you might crack a scale, take the easy way out, and re-pin.........

I was wonking on a razor recently that had this problem. One thing you can do is put a washer (or extra washer) between the scales and tang on the opposite side of the scales that touch. That didn't work for me though. I then tried adding a bushing in the tang's pivot hole. That also didn't work much. Looking at the razor it seems like the blade is just angled toward one side (off-center). Add that to the fact that the pivot hole is large and oblong (and it is kind of angled sideways) and this problem doesn't look like it will go away. It at best closes close to the one side. Just need to be careful opening and closing.

What material are the scales? If they're plastic, you can heat them up with a hair dryer, then bend them gently when they're hot. Hold them in the desired position until cool.

This trick works really well, although you might have to try it a couple of times to get things just right.

Josh

If they are celluloid, don't get them too hot--they will go up in flames!

Dan

Good point. I don't know how hot is too hot, but if you're careful with the hair dryer it should be OK. You can't let it get too hot to touch, anyway, or you won't be able to bend it to the proper shape.

Josh

ooh, actually warping the scales, good idea. i'll try that this weekend.

A lot of fountain pen restorers use a hair dryer for things like this because it's hard to get it hot enough to flame out and I should have mentioned that the first time. It's open flames that are usually the culprit. Many of us who have used a spirit lamp or the burner on a gas range and suddenly had roman candles in our hands--it's very dramatic!

Dan

Many, many vintage razors have warped scales, unevenly ground tapers, or bent pins. I find that if you really look at them, the scales have already been "warped" to compensate for shortcomings in the manufacturing process. Maybe that's part of the reason why most razors seem to have plastic scales of some type.

Josh

Originally Posted by emile

i cleaned up a nice torrey 11/16 this weekend, and as a final step peened the pivot pin (say that ten times fast) to tighten up the scales, as the blade was wobbly. now the blade intersects the scales... it's in great condition, and i'm disinclined to rescale it, so i was wondering if there was any way to true it without repinning

On the side where the blade is making contact or is too close... tap the pin on that side. Tap gently, this might get your blade centered.