The way you made the scales was often done by people carving their own scales for their razors. The method works. Like anything else, the quality of any project improves with experience and the expense of the tools!!!

The "flow" of the scales is not quite smooth near the middle, but oh well. The washers commonly purchased from places like Micro Mark come in two sizes. Your pinning might have looked better with the smaller size. The cleaning of the blade is what it is--you can't always remove all the pitting from every razor no matter what tool you have or use. As long as you've removed active rust, sometimes that all you can do.

In a nutshell, it really doesn't matter how well this one went. The fact that you did one is all that matters. You learned from it and the next one will go better!

Overall, it's a great start!!!

If you want the finish on the blade to be improved, you could always send it to me for buffing. How do you feel about tracking and insurance?