Thread: Trip to the beads shop

Ok, please don't laugh. I was looking for a way to spruce up a kind of dull looking set of stainless steel scales.

In another thread I saw how someone used daisy spacers as a nice replacement for washers using the micro fasteners. http://straightrazorpalace.com/works...tml#post153414

Thinking this was a great idea, I ran off to the local beads shop looking for spacers. There I found tons of stuff!

You can get spacers in gold, silver, copper, pewter, abalone and whatever designs might suit your needs. You can get the typical daisy spacers in circles, squares, turn them vertical for diamonds, swirls and whatnot.

As a side note, take your adjustable pin with you as some of the holes are not 1/16". For some of the spacers you can drill them out but some will be destroyed. Most of the spacers I received there was NO drilling involved except for my abalone spacers.

Also, don't use gold unless it is plated on there. It is too soft and the tightening of the pins will crush the gold. Some of those gold spacers are 5mm thick and will be crushed and at $5 a spacer you will be mad. Instead there are spacers that are less than 1mm thick that run $11 each if you REALLY want 14k gold and appear like they are paper thin. And, yes, if money is NO object to you there are spacers with real jewels in them but you have to special order them since no one will carry them in stock.

Most of the spacers I purchased were less than a dollar each except for the larger ones or the abalone. Also note, these spacers were used on the outside as I kept the normal washers between the razor and the scales.

For the pivot hole I have found staying at or below 1mm makes it easier for stropping but the end of the scales it seems you can play around a little more.

Please ignore the long micro screw, I was simply playing around with the way they look and is not the finish product. I just wanted to share this with you all. As mentioned in the original thread where I discovered this idea you can flatten the spacers so there is less interference or appears smoother using smooth pliers.

I wouldn't dream of laughing. As a matter of fact, I think it is kind of cool that one can keep his masculine dignity and take an otherwise dull looking object and make it unique to his own taste. It says a lot about your character. If it means anything to you, I like the abalone and copper.

That's a good idea. I really like what I suppose is an Irish knot. I've got a Wapi that I've been thinking about doing re-scale on (would be my first) and a bead shop about a 1/4 mile from the house.

Talk about synchronicity... I just visited my local bead shop this last Saturday (!)... same sort of thoughts...

Thanks for the kind words, gents!

If any of you are looking for a smoother finish you can flatten most of them with smooth pliers versus the pliers with teeth used for grip.

I had to return some of the beads I got and turned around and purchase the jewel end caps, flattened them and the end result is much more flush feel with a nice spruced up look.

The jewel end caps that I came across are gold, silver, copper, black and pewter.

Sorry for the blur, I have the caffeine shakes. Coffee!

Great idea, I like the spiral and the ball shaped one.

Cool stuff, and a darn good idea!

Great idea!

And, thanks for the subtle reminder to add Dr. McGillicuddy's to the list for the liquor store! I like to keep a bottle in the freezer. Great for what ails you! "Intense" is truly appropriate!

Hey thanks for sharing and taking time to post pics! :Beer:

FWIW, if you've ever heard of Subaru's STi ) the badging/emblem is cherry blossom ( most people call it pink ). In japan cherry blossom tree is highly regarded. It's blooms and falls within week therefore special. Most Japanese school fronts have said trees.

CHERRY BLOSSOM

I used some sterling silver ones when restoring this set:

http://straightrazorpalace.com/galle...set-resto.html

It's actually the only set of straights I have now, I had a SRP livi and a bunch of other razors, DDs etc and after finishing the EABs I widdled everything down to just them. This October it'll be 1 year since any of them have been honed, haven't used any pastes either except some dovo white on TM cotton weave, but I just started using that.

I still have a bunch of them, the sterling bead caps, I have two problems with the sterling now though:

1) It tarnishes, but is easly buffed shiny again with a whipe of a MAAS buffing cloth
2) The sterling pins loosen up on their own and require re-peening fairly frequently

Other metals may work better

I still have a bunch of the rod and have been thinking about re-doing the hinge pins on the entire set and finding a way to harden the silver a bit before I cut them down to use for pins so they won't soften and loosen up as much.