Thread: Straightening horn scales

I have serious problems with English [eheh!], but my first succesfull experience with horn scales is documented below. I hope this could be the starting point for a new short tutorial.

***

To straighten out horn scales:
1_ put the scales in boiling water for 20' (protect the blade);
2_ dry with paper and put some spacers between scales to give them the correct distance and bending;
3_ clamp scales between two pieces of wood covered with soft paper;
4_ add more spacers if required, slightly increase pressure and let dry for 48h;
5_ put scales in oil (I use sweet almond oil) for 24h before cleaning them.

Steps #1 to #4 can be repeated (before going to #5) if required to obtain the proper shape.

EDIT: added pics in .zip format.

Awesome! Very informative, your english is better than like 25% of the native speakers by the way! lol!

Mille grazie, chlavichord. Here is your article: Illustrated guide to fixing warped horn scales - Straight Razor Place Wiki

If possible, I would like to incorporate the original, bigger images (as shown in Illustrated Guide to Fixing Warped Scales - Straight Razor Place Wiki). I wonder if the two articles should be merged, with different sections for bakelite, horn, and other stuff.

Originally Posted by BeBerlin

Mille grazie, chlavichord.

Grazie a te! ..EEEEEHHHH!! Thanks!

And here we go: Illustrated guide to fixing warped horn scales - Straight Razor Place Wiki

Great work guys!

Many thanks for the tips, they work well!

I just put the scales of a very old razor (late '700/first '800 - it has no tang) into oil after straightening them with your method. A single bath of 20 minutes has been enough to get them at their previous state.

But I have a question for the experts, that I put here because I couldn't find any thread about this: after this oil bath, how can I treat the horn scales to fully restore them?

Also some instruction about treating horn would be very useful, as I could not find them in this forum. For example, how to deal with horn exfoliation? And with horn worms? How to polish this material to get it brilliant and translucent as in its better days?

Thanks to anyone so kind to share his experience and give suggestions!

There is more than one reason why horn scales can be bent. They may simply have simply taken a bend, which is about bound to be the case if they are both bent outwards, or both inwards. Another possibility is that one scale has simply expanded or contracted more than the other. This is very likely to be the case if one scale remains straight. Either condition could be responsible if the concavity is on the same side of the razor. One reason for uneven expansion or contraction could be the razor lying for years in a place where one is damper or warmer than the other. I don't believe there is any practical method of making one scale contract lengthwise.

It is a good idea, if you are dismantling a razor, to remove one rivet first, and see what happens. You may find that when you do this, and straighten the bend, the empty holes are slightly out of line. Surprising little is enough to produce a bow in the scales, and you may find that widening the holes into line and using a larger diameter rivet is enough to cope. If the materials allow you to reassemble the rear end of the handle with epoxy, you may find that a full-diameter 1/8in. pin, with its ends disguised as the washer and head on a 1/16 rivet, is all the fastening you need.

Thank you Caledonian, the case you explained is exactly mine. The scales are slightly different in size. It looks like one became longer and thinner, while the other is 1 mm. shorter and larger. The fat one bent slightly on itself, and the other bent on the the other way, so the blade cut into the slim scale.
I think the solution of enlarging one hole and cover it with a double washer (a little and a larger one) is the best.
I'll put a picture once I'm done!

Originally Posted by Mauri

Thank you Caledonian, the case you explained is exactly mine. The scales are slightly different in size. It looks like one became longer and thinner, while the other is 1 mm. shorter and larger. The fat one bent slightly on itself, and the other bent on the the other way, so the blade cut into the slim scale.
I think the solution of enlarging one hole and cover it with a double washer (a little and a larger one) is the best.
I'll put a picture once I'm done!

I'd be surprised if you find a millimetre's difference in the position of the holes. If you test this with a couple of pieces of carboard, it is enough to make your cardboard razor handle look quite banana-shaped. It is very much the situation I said could be induced by differing length (by rather less than that millimetre, probably), but doesn't have to be.

If you want to boil the scales of an assembled razor, I would feel safer boiling blade and all (in a pan small enough to stop it opening enough for the edge to rattle on metal), rather than have the blade sticking out in a mixture of hot air and steam.