Razor Restoration - Lessons learned

I decided to try my hand at the restoration of a straight...
I talked with a guy down at the local knife shop and ended up buying some buffalo horn to make the new scales with. I had this grand idea of how everything would turn out.

I learned a few lessons:

First and foremost: people who said that working with horn is like working with wood are big fat liars. The buffalo horn was like working with solid granite! I have honestly worked with softer steel before. I spent hours just trying to get the material thin enough for razor scales, and their still about 1/32" wider than I'd wanted.

Second : no matter how straight you think your drill is, you will drill the pin holes at an angle... both times... need to invest in a drill press.

Third : Razor scales should be flat on the bottom, they don't need to be rounded.

Next time around should produce better results. That said however, I am very pleased with the outcome. I have a little more work to do on the blade, to clean up some very fine scratches, but it's fully clean and usable now. Just doesn't have that perfect mirror finish yet.

It does have a little tarnish and pitting, but it almost looks decorative. :)

Here's the before picture. I forgot to take the completed pictures, so you'll have to live with my crappy webcam pic until I can get some better photos later tonight.

From what I can see, you have done a great job! Conrats!

Hi,
it is awesome :rock:

the picture isn't all that clear, but it appears to have turned out pretty good for a first razor restore. You have learned and put another razor back to work, congratulations!
Scott

So here are my hi-res images.
I am looking for critique and suggestions, so please don't spare my feelings :)

You can see on the photos a little damage to the scales ... i dropped them in the garage :(
Also you can see the dark tarnish. On the spine it's actually pitted a little to the point where you can feel it by running your fingernail across it, but the rest is just a stubborn black discoloration that won't go away no matter how much I sand/polish it.

I tried to get a good picture of the spine, but my camera just wouldn't do it...

I suppose I could take the grinder to it, but I think that would more than likely damage or destroy the blade.

Thanks to all in advance...

How did you work the horn?
I do not have the experience that its hard for what its worth there are harder woods.
If you had to thin the horn then I can agree it takes time if you do not have power tools, pre cut 1/8" horn is not a big deal.
For making straight holes use a jig, a piece of flat metal like aluminum or steel, drill a #52 hole and use as guide.
Use a #52 drill for some wiggle room for the pins and scales to adjust.

I tried cutting the shape out with a Dremel tool. Smelly, slow and tricky. A normal wood coping saw ended up working best.
The horn was 3/16" thick, so not too much thicker than it needed to be. I used an inverted reciprocal sander with 60 grit sandpaper to shave it down to about 1/8", but I had cut the pieces out first. Probably would have been beter to do that first, then cut the pieces out.
Then sanding ( a lot by hand, some with the above rec. sander ) to take the angular cutout shapes and smooth them into the desired shape.
There are probably better ways to have done all this.

Looks really good.

I'd have to say they are very good looking. From the above shot, are the scales the same thickness or is it a color difference giving an optical illusion? For your first rescale, you should be patting yourself on the back. If I were to make any suggestions, I'd say to countersink the screw heads/nut or replace with brass or nickle pins.
Scott

Here is a cheap drill press. Well cheap if you already have a dremel.
TowerHobbies.com | Dremel Drill Press and Work Station

Yes, there are much quicker and easier ways of doing it, but the end result is eally nice. Well done.

Very nice job! I would never have attempted restoration of a blade so heavily rusted as yours, and you achieved amazing results removing the rust. The edge looks good, which often is not the case due to the "swiss cheese" effect of rust on very thin metal. Congratulations. For a source of pins I can recommend an eBay seller who provides nice pins, a gapper tool as a cutting guide, and instructions with each order. rose789pipo . I have no finanancial relationship with this seller. Or you can make your own.

Thanks for all the suggestions. I really liked the idea for countersinking the pin holes. I was actually thinking of replacing the pins with a torx screw. ( I use mostly with knives )

The scales are very close in size to one another. I put a caliper on them to measure and both came out to just a touch over 1/8" One of them is probably about 1/64" thicker. So I'm guessing the colors are making one look larger than the other.