Thread: Can cracked scales be repaired?

Originally Posted by lz6

. . .
I slipped a piece of saran wrap under the damaged area and used Gorilla brand superglue covering both walls of the crack put some saran wrap on top of the scale and clamped the scale cross ways. . . .

"Gorilla-brand superglue" (water-clear cyanoacrylate glue), or "Gorilla Glue" (brownish polyurethane glue, foaming or non-foaming) ?

The Gorilla Glue (polyurethane glue) sticks to _anything_, and is very forgiving -- takes hours to set. The cyanoacrylate glues (the original Krazy Glue, etc) are more difficult to work with -- take minutes to set.

It sounds like you have a sound repair -- congratulations! I hope I do as well.

Charles

I'd certainly give it a shot, but not be too hopeful. I've had very poor luck repairing cracked scales, and I've "repaired" a fair number. Now, I don't even try -- I just make new scales. But, try it and you might get lucky. And, until you try, you'll never know.

Gorilla Super Glue (cyanoacrylate) just found it a few days ago, could be a new market item for them. I am guessing some other additive than the usual super glue, seemed to be more flexible than brittle. Took several hours to set but the scale material may have had something to do with that.

Originally Posted by cpcohen1945

"Gorilla-brand superglue" (water-clear cyanoacrylate glue), or "Gorilla Glue" (brownish polyurethane glue, foaming or non-foaming) ?

The Gorilla Glue (polyurethane glue) sticks to _anything_, and is very forgiving -- takes hours to set. The cyanoacrylate glues (the original Krazy Glue, etc) are more difficult to work with -- take minutes to set.

It sounds like you have a sound repair -- congratulations! I hope I do as well.

Charles

I used "Thick Gel" off-brand Krazy Glue. There are washers on both sides of the joint, and the joint itself isn't clean -- the broken piece is slightly mis-aligned. It's the glue between the washers (inside and out) and the plastic that's holding everything together.

The nut is screwed tight enough to give enough tension so the razor closes centered in the scales. I don't want to push it . . . <g>

I'll see how many shaves this is good for.

Charles

I've fixed a few cracks/splits in scales using some of the methods mentioned in this thread, except I used Glaze Coat epoxy to do it. That stuff is practically liquid acrylic.

I did a razor that had the pivot cracked, scales are ivory though and I used a single layer of fiberglass to line the inside of them to help re-inforce the scales and hold them together.

That was 2 years ago and the repair is still looking and working great, I haven't had any problems.

Thread for it is here: http://straightrazorpalace.com/works...ry-repair.html

Thank you! I never thought of putting a _complete_ layer of fiberglass on the scales.

I did a razor that had the pivot cracked, scales are ivory though and I used a single layer of fiberglass to line the inside of them to help re-inforce the scales and hold them together.

What thickness (or weight) of FG cloth did you use?

Considering how strong FG is, it becomes structural -- the remaining ivory (or plastic, in my case) would just be decorative.

If and when my repair fails, I'll re-do it as you have.

Charles

Originally Posted by bevansmw

I did a razor that had the pivot cracked, scales are ivory though and I used a single layer of fiberglass to line the inside of them to help re-inforce the scales and hold them together.

That was 2 years ago and the repair is still looking and working great, I haven't had any problems.

Thread for it is here: http://straightrazorpalace.com/works...ry-repair.html

This repair was done very well, the razors came out looking really nice too...
I honed these and got to see them up close and in hand, it was very good work...

Depending on the material, adding a bit of MEK to the epoxy will often give it enough bite to hold well on acrylic and some celluloids. See if ta drop of MEK or MethyleneChloride /Model maker's liquid plastic cement will melt the inside of a scale. If so, this may work. There is also a Devcon epoxy in the doubled syringe bubble pack for plastic repair in many hardware stores...Stinks terrible but holds well.
~Richard

I just used the standard stuff I found at home depot, the cloth one with the tighter knit, I think they had some looser mesh stuff too. Not sure what the weight was

Originally Posted by cpcohen1945

Thank you! I never thought of putting a _complete_ layer of fiberglass on the scales.



What thickness (or weight) of FG cloth did you use?

Considering how strong FG is, it becomes structural -- the remaining ivory (or plastic, in my case) would just be decorative.

If and when my repair fails, I'll re-do it as you have.

Charles