Thread: Aluminum scales

Has anyone ever made a set of scales from aluminum? I have read where several people said they did not like razors with stainless scales becaues of weight and balance issues. I have a couple of junk razors and a full machine shop at my diposal so I figured I would try my hand at scale making. Any thoughts are much obliged.

I've done liners and some bolsters out of sheet aluminum, and, it polishes up pretty nice.. I imagine that it would work.. assuming you get a piece thick enough that it doesn't get all bent up over time... Of course, if its too thick, you'll have the problem of it not bending enough... you'd have to find the happy medium I imagine.

I`ve seen razors with aluminium handles on ebay, so it obvious;ly works....

One forum member has done some pretty amazing stuff with aluminum scales;

Harner Knives » Pictures

Any information about finding in the market aluminum scales?
Thiers-Issard has some straight razors with aluminum scales, but i cann't find themin the market.

You could also have them anodized a variety of colors. There are several folks really into making custom paintball guns who do their own anodizing. A lot of them even do small batch anodizing for other folks.

Ray

I am not interested in anything custom made.
I prefer to buy standard aluminum scales from TI, Dovo, or whatever.

Originally Posted by Slur

I am not interested in anything custom made.
I prefer to buy standard aluminum scales from TI, Dovo, or whatever.

You can do your own anodising. I haven't, although I have done nickel plating, and I have only got as far as buying the right dye on eBay.

Aluminum Anodizing at home - DIY aluminium Anodising

The required ingredients are quite easy to ge.t. You need to consult the links, particularly on hard anodising. It is quite important to have a continuous power supply when plating (i.e. a transformer/rectifier or battery backed up by a charger, rather than a charger alone, since they cut out when the battery, real or imaginary, seems in danger of overheating, and that produces peelable layers in the plating.) But I don't believe that matters with anodising.

Titanium also bears looking at, since it is easy to anodise in various beautiful colours. I'm not sure how the blended colours used in jewellery are achieved (maybe by slow immersion or removal from the solution?), but that is the place to look for inspiration.

Texturing the metal before anodising bears thinking about. You could use a Dremel tool and small burr, a small hammer and coarse carborundum grit, or try to matt it with caustic soda. A minor problem with anodising is that you can't finish the pins off flush, or at least not the pivot pin, without scarring the surface. But you could have flush pins at the wedge, and a dome head and washer at the pivot.

I have a dovo that came with the metal scales... I do not like them as they add too much weight to the tang side of the blade. It is VERY noticeable when stropping. Plus, the edges are actually quite sharp and should have been beveled, but that is something anybody can fix with a file.

I've seen several C V Heljestrand razors in those kind of scales. They used to make them for hospitals, but I don't think anyone makes them any longer!?