Thread: Which material is best, for scales

I it were me I would go with the polystyrene if those are you only two choices.

Polyethylene reminds me of soft nylon. I think that is a fair description. While it may not be anything like nylon chemically it works like soft nylon. I have a few small sheets of it here and I am giving you my observations of the material. All the sheets I have here have bowed under their own weight while resting against the wall. One small sheet I have sat on my bench and the sun coming through the window caused it to bow. While it would work and it would be tough as far as surviving the impact form a fall etc. I am afraid that the a set of scales made form polyethylene sheet would relatively soon deform under their own weight.

Polystyrene is a different story. The two pieces below are castings I have taken from molds of a knife I engraved several years ago. I have used both urathanes and Polystyrene to make this type of casting in the past. The polystyrene is more rigid than the ethylene. While not as impact resistant it will keep its shape in free standing situations like you would have in razor scales.

That being said, most industrial supply places that sell Polystyrene and Polyethylene sheet stock also sell urathane sheets. If you are interested in using this type of industrial plastic. It will be slightly stronger than the styrene but you can still break it if you abuse it. Of course, you can break most handle materials if you abuse them. It should be as strong as any of the traditional vintage materials.

I have actually played with the idea of making a set of aluminum scales, engraving them, making a mold off them and then making urathane castings of decorative scales that I could sell or swap to help pay for this growing razor hobby.

Ray

PS I had a bran fart. I am comparing polypropylene above not polyethylene. Polyethylene should work better than polypropylene but I still would rather use the styerene or urathane.

@RayCover

I had a bran fart

Cutting down would probably help with that I'd imagine. Sorry for the shameless trolling.

Back on topic I quite like the look of G10, so do several other members here. Just my 2¢ go with what makes you happy

ok understand that the materials are not the ultimate to use
But tell me where I can buy G10 or Mokume Game?
Bit in the direction of Europe, so the shipping cost will be no more than the material.

Cgm:@.I denk dat nederlands heb gehurd. Vresilik taal!


Charlie
Reno, NV

Je doet het al aardig........ voor een buitenlander.
Beetje meer oefenen, en je kan deze geweldige taal ook begrijpen.

translation:
You do it all nice ........ for a foreigner.
Little more practice, and you can also understand this wonderful language.

Originally Posted by kalerolf

Je doet het al aardig........ voor een buitenlander.
Beetje meer oefenen, en je kan deze geweldige taal ook begrijpen.

translation:
You do it all nice ........ for a foreigner.
Little more practice, and you can also understand this wonderful language.

Actually... Your translation does not mean entirely the same thing.
'You're doing pretty well, already' would be a better translation.
It is sometimes tempting to translate the meaning of the words instead of the meaning of the sentence.

One of the more obvious examples is the use of 'throwing someone a bone' in English, which would be 'iemand matsen' in Dutch. Neither can be translated to the other when looking at the words, but when looking at the meaning, it is the best translation possible.

You are right of course. Dutch is a very nice language.
And I am saying this as an objective observer. The fact that it is my mothertongue is purely coincidental.

Me likes Tortoiseshell made from genuine endangered sea critter. Beautiful to look at and handle. Not sure how difficult it is to work with though as my tortoise shell has come from antique razors.