Thread: How you choose to finish your wedge/spacer

All right, something I notice and wonder about. some guys appear to finish the wedge separate from the scales while others finish them together. Personally I much prefer when they are finished together, it leaves them flush with the material on either side, the finish matches, it's just visually more appealing TO ME.

but I've noticed some custom makers don't seem to do it that way either. I'm just wondering why those of you that have done scales do it whichever way you do. I can see where it would be a lot more work. I'm still in the shaping portion of my first set of scales (I traced a set I really liked, but have realized that blade is longer than the one I'm making them for so have to adjust accordingly) but am hoping to do it the flush and finished together way myself when I get to that point.

and those of you onlookers like me, do you even notice this, am I crazy?

Red

Actually Red, I have never noticed.

I shape my scales and wedges at the same time, temporarily pinning them together. They would never match up otherwise. However, once that's done, I finish them separately, only bringing them back together when I'm ready to pin. If there is any misalignment due to finish build up then I lightly sand it back to shape, but usually that's not the case.

I tend to notice only when they've not been done together, but only when the finish isn't quite perfect. It's possible to cross contaminate when sanding. For example, ebony & boxwood. It's very hard not to get the black dust into the pores of the pale wood & ruin the effect. For cases such as these it's probably better to take some extra time to do them seperately.

You know I have have noticed that the pros here always do a great job o the contrast on their wedges. The razor I recently did in Purpleheart had the same material for a spacer. Yes, its boring I know, but I was going to use brass, but I recently figured out that the wedge blades are too wide for the 1/16th material I have though it works great on hollow grinds. FOr the few wedges I have used made of wood I tried to keep them separated so the colors wouldn't mix in sanding. As for the actual finish, if the scales are oil, I use oil on the wedge and the same with polyurethane.
THis is my VERY LIMITED experience. I also found that the brass wedges are much more difficult for me to make, but that is probably not important.
Good Luck!

Fit -vs- Finish...
I am sorta lost here, are you talking about fitting the wedge/spacer to the scales, or are you talking about applying finish coats on the scales????

Red,

for the ultimate flush looking and perfect blend of the wedge and scales the wedge and scales need to be finalized together, re-sanded or re-worked to remove all excess of the wedge and then depending the scale material re-worked to their final appearance.

I can always tell when it's done differently. Not saying other methods are worse or better but when looking for perfection and an eye for detail that's the only way to go.

Biggest problem with doing so is that it takes extra time and effort since you basically have to redo the whole toe side of the scale destroying whatever finish you might have already done to the scales. Not everyone has the patience or time for doing so.

I was talking about both. I have the one that you did for me Max, and it is just like all the ones in your pictures, the wedge is shaped together with the scales and somehow they are finished together, at least that portion of the job, it ends up matching.

Now granted, Max's job for me is synthetic, so I hadn't thought about contamination as mentioned above. HOWEVER, I have a razor rescaled by Josh Earl and it is padauk with an ebony spacer, it is flush and matched, obviously done together in the end. I don't see any contamination.

I hope nobody gets offended, I'm just talking about a difference in how we all do it. I'm going to try and do mine like this, I got ebony, for spacer material, I'm working with cocobolo right now. I have padauk to play with after that.

Red