Thread: 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!

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:

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!

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!