Thread: Best natural materials for scales

Hi All,

I'm pretty new to this straight razor shaving and recently acquired a Wapienica razor. I would like to replace the scales and was wondering what you would recommend as he optimum natural material for the scales?

I was thinking of a nice wood or horn. When it comes to wood I thought that something that's hard and moisture resistant would be suitable (maybe Teak)? I am a lot less familiar with horn than wood but maybe that would also be suitable. What about the finishing of the scales? Would several coats of varethane suffice?

Thanks in advance for your help.

Rafal

I always use wood for scales. I really like wooden scales, and you can make them with basic tools.
Any hardwood will do. For water resistance I coat the insides with several thin films of superglue (CA). The outsides are coated with antiques wax on my scales. Some people use CA on the outside as well, but I like my wood to feel like wood.

The only thing you need to make scales are a saw, a bastard file and sandpaper. You can use power tools of course, or other methods, but a file and sandpaper work just fine. It's what I used.
The holes are best drilled beforehand, because then it is much easier to make sure that they are opposite each other.

For your choice of wood, the best thing to do is to go to your local saw mill, and ask for some hardwood scraps. I use merantie a lot, because meranti saw ends are dirt cheap here. Meranti is still used often for window frames.

this is what meranti looks like:
http://straightrazorpalace.com/galle...lls-wedge.html
(yes, I just felt like bragging )

But your first couple of scales have a significant risk of not ending up with what you had in mind / making mistakes. So it's best not to use anything expensive for your first try.
Also, when making scales and using sandpaper / a sander / a file / whatever, use a breath mask. wood dust (esp from tropical wood) can cause all sorts of nasty diseases when inhaled.
Other people use other materials, and all have their pro and con. I just use wood because I like it best and working it is easy. But other materials can be used just as well.

Thanks Bruno,

I have all the tools and even some scrap maple, cherry, walnut and purple heart. There is a place here in london that carries all sorts of wood and maybe I'll go to see if they have something exotic. I wonder if coating the scales with crazy glue won't end up a bit expensive. I suppose you would end up going through a lot of it.

Very nice scales by the way!

Cheers,

Rafal

Not expensive at all. My 5 ml bottle is still half full.

What you do is:
1) clean the wood with diluted ammonium to de-grease it. skin fat or water caused whiteness in the CA
2) put a drop or 2 on the scales
3) with a finger in a latex glove, rub the CA smooth so that it covers the entire surface.
4) when the CA has dried enough, add a second layer.
5) when it has cured completely, sand the CA layer smooth.

You probably need to do this a couple of times in order to have the entire surface covered with a smooth and clear layer.
You only need a little bit of CA to do this.

Wood is great. Apparently bone is even better for keeping moisture out.

X

Excuse the pic, first time screwing around wth photobucket, but wood scales are neat, here are some scales made from a gum tree in the front yard. Geneva Cutlery blade btw. Cherry stained with multiple coats of tung oil.