Thread: Rich. Abr. Herder with wild Bubinga scales

Pfew, time for a new project! (High-res pictures at the bottom)

Made a few scales in the past and now working on a razor for a friend of mine.
Got a nice little default 4/8" blade, tossed the crappy scales (didn't even make pictures). Cuz.. let's be honest... plastic?


There is a little pitting in the blade and a 1mm deep crack at the tip of the razor.. Let's say it needs some work.

My friends dad gave me some nice pices of wood: cocobolo, bubinga and purpleheart. I decided to fit his razor with some wild bubinga scales.

Scale design:

Made with Inkscape. The square is to check if the aspect ratio is ok.

Satisfied with the design... TO BATTLE!
Made some blanks, by cutting a piece in half with a ryoba. Flattened the inside and glued them together with superglue and sawed out the design with a fine saw.


Glued them to a board, and started forming the scales. I like to really round them, up to the middle. Not only a round edge (like those scales that come on factory razors).
By the way, superglue is my friend... Just always make sure I use this order: Wood - glue - paper - glue - wood. To not rip the wood to shreds when separating the parts.

With the rough form set, just checking if it looks good on the razor:

Fine by me.

Next.. preparing myself for a few hours of sanding. (Getting some beer.)
Result:

Used 100, then 500 grit sandpaper. Switching back and forth a few times. The 500 grit sandpaper always reveals the minor scratches and dents. At this point I really try to make them identical.

Splitting the two parts, with a LOT of force! :

Just kidding, I'm really careful at this point.

Now the finer grits of sandpaper. Again, the higher grits show still a lot of imperfections, by leaving sawdust in the cracks/dents.
Starting to get a little scared. The scales look pale, colorless and flat. It actually looks like cheap piece of semi-hard wood. Quickly I grabbed another beer.
I dunno if any of you do this, or if it's a good technique, but it works for me. I use Tung oil, with 1200 grit sandpaper and sand with the oil. This prevents the sandpaper to get filled up. And using water is NOT a good idea :P

Anyways, this is the result after one treatment of sanding with oil (after drying):

Someone kill me for ever doubting the looks of this wood. To me, this is porn. The next day, I could feel some tiny bumbs, sanded again with 1200 and oiled again.

Result so far:

Originally Posted by kevor

I dunno if any of you do this, or if it's a good technique, but it works for me. I use Tung oil, with 1200 grit sandpaper and sand with the oil. This prevents the sandpaper to get filled up. And using water is NOT a good idea :P

There is a similar technique known as 'hard burnishing'. Don't be concerned about the sandpaper clogging. The timber only needs to be damp & the resulting slurry will fill the grain giving you a furniture quality patina. Too much oil will darken the timber but you seem to have a nice result there

Turning out very well so far. Can't wait to see the finished result!