Thread: Blade Centering

My thoughts on centering are that the pivot pin has little to with it. I have had little luck trying to peen one side or the other to get the blade to move to where it needs to be. I have had good luck by changing the inside surfaces of the scales to compensate for poorly shaped blades. I think that the blades centering is regulated by how the tang rubs against the inside surfaces of the scales. A little material removal down by the pivot end makes for a big change on the wedge end.

The wedge pin also plays a role in the centering, If you re-pin the wedge end it gives you a chance to slide the two scales back and forth thus changing their position relative to the blade.

Charlie

So in the picture, up being North, was the blade hitting the scales on the North side or the South? I'm thinking North but I'm not sure.

Not trying to be disagreeable and I'm not a restorer. To be honest I have never re-pinned a razor but I have corrected quite a few with centering issues by tapping the pin on one side or the other.

Originally Posted by keenedge

So in the picture, up being North, was the blade hitting the scales on the North side or the South? I'm thinking North but I'm not sure.

The blade was too far south. The bulk of the material was removed from the north side, allowing the tang to move a little further to the north.

An emery board works well for this. A folded paper towel works well for applying finish to the inside surfaces.

This works great on wood scales, but I have also done it on factory made non-wood scales.

Charlie

Originally Posted by JimmyHAD

Not trying to be disagreeable and I'm not a restorer. To be honest I have never re-pinned a razor but I have corrected quite a few with centering issues by tapping the pin on one side or the other.

You are not being disagreeable at all. This is what works for me. I have never had any lot luck with the peening one side or the other. I read about people doing it all of the time, so I know that it must work. I have not read of other people advocating what I am saying. I appreciate your candor.

What can I say, it works well for me, especially on miss-ground-blades.

My MIlage Varies

Charlie

Well I am glad this discussion is taking place. I believe this thread was brought up from my post in a pervious thread.
I heard or read it here that if your blade was moving to one side or the other inside your scales when you go to close the blade, you can tap the pivot rivet on the side that the blade was moving to and the blade will move more towards the opposite scale.
I know I made some mis-descriptions on what the toe and heel were as it relates to scales, however the question I had was to the pervious post on that thread stating that you need to tap the rivet on the other side of the scale to make the blade move towards the side that had the most gap.
I have re-pinned scales and have had some trouble on some with the blade not centering properly and would like to find an answer on how to resolve this.
So, what I have read so far is that there may be more or less scale material in the inside and that may need to be removed. I have also noticed that if you use nylon or plastic pivot washers on the inside of the scales that they tend to be harder to re-align than with metal washers on the inside. Anyone with opinions please speak up because this is an important subject for new people who wish to resore razors and hare having this type of issue.
I will stop now to breathe and read what others have to say.
I thanks all who participate in this subject.
Thanks,
BillW

I have had this problem, but found that just adding a washer on the side that is hitting the scales, which seems to fix the problem easily. I had no luck with extra peening.

I've had to do the same thing Charlie. There could be other causes rather than tang rub to cause off centering and I suppose several reasons for the tang to rub. Trying cherry tree branch scales gave me a pretty good work out on error.

Thanks to Charlie for putting the thread up...

There are several factors that go into getting the blade to close straight...

First is the tang straight??? I struggled with this one myself for a while thinking I had messed up when I built the scales and made them uneven.. Finally I checked the tang itself and the light came on, ALL TANGS ARE NOT STRAIGHT... Hold the tang against a known flat surface and see if there is deflection.... What Charlie is describing fixes that problem, or you can do as Seraphim has described in his DA threads and try and straighten the tang (Good Luck) that is an advanced technique....

Second are the scales straight????
This solution can also work for bent or warped scales but go slow...

Third is the pin bent???
This technique does not solve a bent pin issue and basically it is overkill when a new pin can fix it...

Fourth are the scales uneven???
As Charlie was saying the wedge end could be slightly off too or the pivot could be or both this leads to c0ckeyed scales basically the ends are higher or lower then the other scale... This is a condition that can be remedied by tapping the pins with slightly directional force as Jimmy was saying...


That is all I can think of at the moment but I am sure something else will pop in

The adding an extra washer on one side routine, I have heard this can help, although I cannot do this myself, not even on my own razors, the thought of having an extra washer on one side would drive my OCD brain over the edge, and I would never consider it on a customers razor...

Originally Posted by gssixgun

The adding an extra washer on one side routine, I have heard this can help, although I cannot do this myself, not even on my own razors, the thought of having an extra washer on one side would drive my OCD brain over the edge, and I would never consider it on a customers razor...

It drives me crazy too....

Originally Posted by spazola

A little material removal down by the pivot end makes for a big change on the wedge end.



Charlie

Charlie i should say this is great post. Thank you for that.
i have a question. My question is this. usually when you clean up the blade you already remove the metal right.
lets say we clean blade and north side we remove more metal then south side. Now when we scale usually blade tip most like will hit the scale.
To resolve this we can put 1 0r 2 washer inside the low level metal side and fix that problem. So far i was doing this.
You are saying instead of putting extra washer just go head remove metal from south side . is this correct?
thank you