Thread: Scale designs & sizes?

Originally Posted by urleebird

Wish I knew how to do that. I'd like to learn that vector stuff. Inbetween everything else I am behind on...

excuse my ignorance but what is a vector drawing
Regards Peter

Originally Posted by bg42

excuse my ignorance but what is a vector drawing

Vector drawing is made with lines that are defined with the positions of their points in coordinate system. Well, that's the best definition I can think of right now. The point is, they are editable, not like the line you draw with paintbrush in your favorite drawing program (bitmap editing), and they don't loose their quality no matter how big you scale them, or how many times you edit them. You can read more about vector vs bitmap here:

http://msauer.mvps.org/vector%20bitmap.htm
http://www.eastbywest.com/pub/vectorbitmap/
http://www.prepressure.com/image/bitmapvector.htm

Bill, I use the industry standard, Adobe's Illustrator program for vector drawing. It is the best out there. Other popular solution is Corel Draw.

Nenad

Thanks for the advice guys. I'm sure it will come in handy.

I think I'll try nenads method first. Seeing as I too am a nerd I'll probably just use photoshop though. I have nothing against vector images (in fact, I kinda dig them), but, I find raster based software so much easier to work with.

Now I just need to find and hookup the scanner again

I decided to try mocking up some scales on my computer (using photoshop).

I scanned in my scaleless blades and a scale to use as a base for the template. I then pathed out the scanned scale so I had something to work with. Next I took my template and put it over the picture of the blade and started fiddling around until I got everything to a size that looked good.

Anyway, you can checkout the mock up I've created over here. Let me know what you guys think and if everything looks alright.
All I need to do now is print out the template and use it, but I wanted to post it here first to see if you guys catch any glaring errors I managed to make but overlook.

very nice. flatten out the top of the scales to make them closer to parallel to the top edge of the blade.

Yep, that's the method. The good thing is that you can see where the blade lies in the scales. I'd say the heel of the razor is too close to the edge of the scales. You can cut yourself if not careful when washing or wiping the razor...

Nenad

Words of wisdom for sure.

Last night finished off a lovely set of scales, brass lined, made a brass wedge as well and bugger, they don't fit.

My fault of course, I used a template for a roundpoint 8/8 and this blade has an inverse squarepoint. The arc the blade makes at the leading edge is great than that of the roundpoint.

So I have a nice set of scales but have to make another set for this battleship sized monster.

No worries though. I have been playing with Corel Draw and will experiment scanning a pic of the blade in and then design the scales over and around it. If I can't get that to work I'll go back to Billy's blog and lay the blade down and work from that.

So it pays to get everything correct before putting hours of work into a set.

yeesh, 8/8, juicy! I think it will be some time before I need to design scales for something like that. So far, for me, it's been almost entirely 5/8 & 6/8 full hollows.

A word to the wise though. When you're designing the scales digitally, use bezier curves! these things make adjustments a total breeze. If anyone wants, I can post the photoshop doc of the one I have.

All may not be lost Gary, My other 8/8 is a round point....

Originally Posted by garythepenman

Words of wisdom for sure.

Last night finished off a lovely set of scales, brass lined, made a brass wedge as well and bugger, they don't fit.

My fault of course, I used a template for a roundpoint 8/8 and this blade has an inverse squarepoint. The arc the blade makes at the leading edge is great than that of the roundpoint.

So I have a nice set of scales but have to make another set for this battleship sized monster.

No worries though. I have been playing with Corel Draw and will experiment scanning a pic of the blade in and then design the scales over and around it. If I can't get that to work I'll go back to Billy's blog and lay the blade down and work from that.

So it pays to get everything correct before putting hours of work into a set.