Thread: Glass scales....

Great use of the nylon washers and removable pins, nylon wedge?

You guys know more about this than I do. But the flex I see in the razors I have, it's not necessary for the scales to flex (they do) If some sort of flexible material was used in the bottom, the scales could spread instead of flexing...no?

On rethinking this - the weight of the glass could be a bit of an issue - the balance would shift quite some way and I think could make the blade a little unweildy.

Laminating the scale to a more traditional base would be one way around the issue of providing holes for the pins.

It will be interesting to see glass scales, even if throws the razor off-balance. At least it will make a stunning piece of art.

I was thinking that pinning could be helped by reinforced sleeves in the glass: A steel/brass tube going through the scale right under the pin so the pin would tighten onto the brass, not the glass itself. The tube might then be epoxied onto the glass.

I look forward to what you come up

Amazing, what she does!
Flexible mounting, silicone coat and a blade that's heavy enough to balance it, come to mind.

She does great work!

You could always make a brass set of scales and mount the glass panels to them - brass or silver-clay bolsters could be at either end for the pinning. Forming the brass liners around three pins would eliminate the stress from flexing - close together at wedge, spreading out towards slightly off-centre plug pinning, then getting slightly closer again towards the pivot.

If you did the thing totally in glass, perhaps you could drill them before annealing them in the kiln? Some scales I've seen have a cut-away at the tang to accomodate the thicker metal here (Puma rubber-covered tang springs to mind) and these don't flex much, if at all.

Regards,
Neil.

Wow, I never thought this thread would take off like this. A couple thoughts...

First off, those pictures I posted above are not hers. They are just ones I found on line that I would say are comparable. I don't have any pictures of hers, but she does some pretty amazing stuff with all kinds of materials incorporated.

Second, incorporating a pin sleeve in the design might be a good idea. As for the bottom, since tha is the place that needs to give so that the top part doesn't flex what about putting the fastener ou the outside (like one of those nasal strips) with just a buffer material in the middle.

Or springs incorporated in the pin design could help. I would not use ordinary pins, probably adjustable allen head type pins. Anyone know where I can get those?

I'm not worried aboutr the weight. I only use heavy blades. There still may be a balance offset but it would'nt be as bad as if I was using a 5/8 double hollow, although the amount of matierial use for the handle might be commensurate.

Now if all of you punks would lay off my ebay auctions we could get this thing started.

Originally Posted by Visibility

I would not use ordinary pins, probably adjustable allen head type pins. Anyone know where I can get those?

Try Microfasteners.

I worked as a glass tech for about 2½ years.
I have glass drill bits and that takes a lot of time. VERY slow going and use premium drill bit coolant... OFTEN.

I have tossed around this idea, too. Here are my thoughts and maybe it will help you in the process.

1) Temper the glass. The last thing you would want is a ton of shards all over the floor and counter-tops cutting your feet up trying to clean up the mess. I would much rather clean up small cubes than tons of shards from the plate.

2) For impact reasons I was thinking of ¼". Anything thinner and I was thinking it would be too fragile. However, the thinner glass would have minimal flex but would snap quickly. Buuuuut... for the purpose of a test run (beta-test) I would use 1/16 since it would be easier to cut, sand, and drill. The glass is a lot cheaper, too and not to mention most glass shops toss out glass that would a perfect size for scales.

3) I would most certainly use a seam and polish. That would give a ever so small bevel on the edge to reduce being cut and give the outside edge a nice shine.

4) If you have the money, you can have a glass manufacturer/distributor do the work for you. I have on many occasions given them specs and they cut, seam and polish, drill then temper it. Sad part, they generally only take orders from glass companies and are not open to the public.

5) I would probably start with a square set of scales and goof around with the hole drilling and pinning to see if the idea is feasible before jumping in and making a masterpiece.

6) This would be the only razor I own that would be in a case when not being used to avoid breakage. Unless, of course, I get a nice razor that comes with a wooden box. Then it would only be proper to let it rest in there until the next morning.

Also, if you try to temper at home using a kiln... bah I can't remember the temps required for tempering... put in a small piece of glass with it. A 2"x2" scrap should be fine as you want to break that small piece when done to ensure the tempering process was done correctly. The idea is to inspect the breakage and if you see shards that resemble breaks that are characteristic of plate glass then it was done wrong. If you see a bunch of cube shapes and none of them come out looking like California with deep sharp edges then it was done correctly.

As a friendly reminder if you decide to temper, this is the last step. Once it is tempered it is not a good idea to sand, drill or attempt to shape it as it will *poof* turn into a bunch of cubes.

These are just some of the ideas I had been tossing around for the past week whenever I thought about it.

I certainly hope it helps you out in some way.

Glass scales! Since there's a bit of concern about them being fragile, how about a partial glass scales. Maybe some longish bolsters as well as a pair of metal guides to hold them. Probably not going to prevent damage from a short drop but it might help stabilize the glass.

While we're on this, if anyone can make me a set of these pictured below I'd be happy to make it worth your while! I'm trying to figure out how to sculpt these myself (I think they're ivory) but in the end these are very very nice looking. I'd like a set of ladies instead of guys and get as erotic as you want with the design! :-) I'd love to say I took this photo of my own set but unfortunately, (long story here) I found this pair on the German Ebay site. I don't read German and was so excited at finding this set that I didn't realize the auction photo was actually a photo of a postcard! I won this for about a single Euro and was stunned no one else bid it higher. I think I bid about 100 Euros - glad it sold for one. When it arrived a laughed for a good 5 minutes.