Restored: "Joseph Allen" - a lot of FIRSTs for me!

Hey all! Thought I would share my first fully restored blade with everyone.

This was my first time doing all the following:

- mirror polish
- scales (stained red oak)
- pinning


The story: I bought this guy for $9.00 at an antique shop. the scales were cracked but the blade was OK (although, heavily rusted and pitted). I decided to try making a set of scales. I don't have any woodworking shops around me to buy interesting types of wood, so, I just used some red oak. This is my FIRST TIME doing just about everything in the restoration process.

I have no power tools. No dremels, belt sanders or drill presses. I roughed out the blanks with a coping saw, and used a large pocket knife to widdle it down to reasonable dimensions.. then I hand sanded the scales, I hand sanded the razor and used a rag and metal polish to get as close to a mirror polish as I can. Now, I won't say these are perfect, but, for my first attempt, and for a razor I intend on keeping to shave with, I am very happy with the results. The razor is centered in the scales, is very tight, and feels solid in the hands.

I just want to say thank you to all the SRP members and their incredible videos, guides, and responses to questinos --- I only laid my hands on a straight razor for the first time about 5 weeks ago and here I am restoring one.


On to the pictures!


http://www.dreamlash.com/pics/allen1.jpg
http://www.dreamlash.com/pics/allen2.jpg
http://www.dreamlash.com/pics/allen3.jpg
http://www.dreamlash.com/pics/allen4.jpg
http://www.dreamlash.com/pics/allen5.jpg

excellent work

Things I did wrong:

Left too much pin on each side during pinning, and ended up with peens that were too big.

Started with 1/4" oak. Man, that sucked. Hand to sand it WAY down to get it thin enough. Next time 1/8"

Didn't let polyurethane dry long enough when I was re-coating it. Bleh.. Who does! I don't foresee wood scales very often in the future, if I do more restores.


Here are some photos of my scale making process:

http://www.dreamlash.com/pics/scale1.jpg

http://www.dreamlash.com/pics/scale2.jpg

http://www.dreamlash.com/pics/scale3.jpg

http://www.dreamlash.com/pics/scale4.jpg

http://www.dreamlash.com/pics/scale5.jpg

http://www.dreamlash.com/pics/allen.jpg

Wow, scales without power tools. I am very impressed. And the finished product looks amazing as well.

That's pretty impressive! I read the bit about whittling it down with a knife before i scrolled to the photo's & just thought "here we go", but it looks fantastic!http://straightrazorpalace.com/images/icons/icon14.gif

Great Job,!
I hand make my scales with a bastard file and mini hacksaw when I am not at home to use my scroll saw. Just a thought, but you seem to be good at this so you may buy some tools. If you buy a saw, I reccommend a small band saw because I bought a scroll saw and it still leaves a lot of work to do to finish shaping. But, I can tell tell you, that is a great job and much better than any thing I have put out so far. Keep up the good work!

i'd be impressed even if you did use power tools. but the fact you didn't even more impressive. :)

Great job!

I hate having to wait for finish to dry the appropriate length of time too. I usually put my scales in the oven at 170F (~75C) for 3-4 hours to speed the process along.

Congrats! Nicely done! My first scales were made from oak, because that's what I had and yours turned out very well!

Beautiful work! :bow

You have a good eye - Great Job all around! :tu

Don't give up on wood scales in your future work - these scales look great and each set will get even better!

excellent work. Everything to be proud of there.

I appreciate all the comments guys, I really enjoyed myself working on this, even though my wife thinks I am crazy. :)

Good job on both scales and blade. Keep up the good work.

bj

The razor looks great with those scales!

how many hours did you spend on those sales?

Great job!

Maarten

An inspiration! I guess I have no excuse to avoid making scales for my Double Arrows any more. :gaah:

I spent about 3 hours, I'd say, cutting and sanding. Then, stain and poly took another hour or so (small 10 minute increments). I did 3 coats of poly, probably coulda done more....ehh.


The spacer was actually made out of a piece of black plastic from some office furniture that i found laying on the floor at work. Was gonna pitch it in the trash, and thought.. hmm.. need a spacer...black plastic works...and just roughed it down with a pocket knife and sanded it with 80 grit to size, finished it with 600 grit to get rid of scratch marks.

hogaloo was kind enough to send me some brass rod in exchange for a few washers from my microfastener order. Thanks Lee! unfortunately some of the rod popped through the envelope on the way so I only got 1 stick instead of 3. LOL. good enough though!

I bought the razor on Friday the 13th. it was finished on the 22nd. most of the time was just waiting for washers and rod ;)

I made the scales shorter than the originals by about 1/4" on purpose, because I thought it fit the petite nature of the razor. I generally kept the same shape though.

The entire razor, folded, measures 6 1/4". almost an inch of that is tail! It has a long one! :D

The blade is 2 3/4" long and 9/16 wide

Great job! I'm not usually a fan of oak, but those scales turned out awesome!!! :rock:


Do you have a drill press? How'd you get the pin holes if you don't? Just free hand drilling with a vise?

Definitely an inspiration, especially without the power tools (I'm in the same boat...)

lol, free hand drilled it... broke all the rules ;)

Still, if this result isn't a testament to the amazing tips and tricks that SRP members have contributed, I don't know what is!

Only one comment :bow

Great Job! Your work is an inspiration to another newby (only had a SE for 2 weeks). I am in the process of hand restoring a Puma and I'm glad to see that such a beautiful result can be achieved without and powertools. Keep up the good work.

This is awesome. Get some power tools so you can turn these out faster will ya? That's a prize!

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