My Sort of restoration/customization

[C utz]

I'm not sure where this fits in here. I'd like to pretend I'm like you guys, restoring razors, but truth be told, I don't have all the toys or the shop to do it (and I'm not even sure if I have the skills!). But anyway, I have been practicing sanding down blades, and have a number of 'custom scale' designs kicking around my head. But till then.......

This weekend, I decided to do the next best thing...work with what I have. SO, ventruing into my ol' tackle box of miscellanious razors parts and such, I dug out a nice Wade & Butcher with cracked celluloid scales, an old set of horn scales (blade long gone, most likely junked) that were all cracked, split and chipped, and my dremel, ball peen hammer, some brass rods, nails, washer's and sand paper.

My goal was to add my design (I guess it sort of has a modern punk studded look), but in a manner that looks consistent with the age of the razor (i.e. make sure the hardware looks original!)

This is what I came up with: (I know it does not look like I did anything but...)
What I did:
1. Gun Blue/black the tang-spine (hard to tell, but it polishes to a dark tinted mirrored Black)
2. Old Horn (faux tortise) scales were super glued (to reinforce the cracks, splits and chips) and sanded to glass finish (from what looked like remains of what one of my cat's spit up. You could originally see the fibers running through the horn like a corn husk!).
3. Fashion spike studs and peen them into the horn scales so that the inside is flush with the horn, and away from the blade.
4. Add third pin with silver/metal spacer.
5. Pin pivote and bottom with double washer and peen/flatten so style matches the age of the scales/razor (this was very tricky since the original pewter washer was very thin, and the 'bow' that the scales needed to pin the bottom and pivote was difficult. MUCH tap,tap, tap, sand, sand, tap to peen those ends tight).

Not a complete overhaul since I had scales (did not need to fashion them out of wood) and the blade was in great shape to start with. All in all a $30 razor as I'd like it to look Now I just need to finish honing it.......

Next is my sanding of blades....still working on that.
AND, making scales from scratch (JUST bought the coping saw and some wood, and still waiting for some materials to roll in....)

All in all this was a pain in the ass, and took me forever!
BUT, I'm happy with it

C utz