Thread: Wooden Scale Advice

As has been said above,wood was used because of cheapness,ease of working.availibilty.
back in the day,the best of the best did not have wood scales.
The great blades,The classic blades,should IMO be dressed in scales of the period they were made at any cost,thats true restoration and preservation.
To see great blades dressed in gaudy plastic,multi colored Micartas,things that did not exsist when the razor was made makes me sick,But again,JMO

My first restore was a Genco, I still have it after several years. The scales are made from a gum tree in the yard and have the warm, soft luster of tung oil highlighting a beautiful grain.

Originally Posted by pixelfixed

As has been said above,wood was used because of cheapness,ease of working.availibilty.
back in the day,the best of the best did not have wood scales.
The great blades,The classic blades,should IMO be dressed in scales of the period they were made at any cost,thats true restoration and preservation.
To see great blades dressed in gaudy plastic,multi colored Micartas,things that did not exsist when the razor was made makes me sick,But again,JMO

Here I did this thread long ago ie: "Restoration" is a word that is thrown about quite a bit in our circles,, there are many deffierent levels but really it is all semantics and always the choice of the owner

http://straightrazorpalace.com/works...storation.html


But honestly there is no cause to be rude about it

Was not being Rude Glen,Your a gun Guy,would you restore a nice 1886 with a Zebrawood stock and beavertail forend?
Just because thats what the owner wanted,I think not.

Originally Posted by nun2sharp

My first restore was a Genco, I still have it after several years. The scales are made from a gum tree in the yard and have the warm, soft luster of tung oil highlighting a beautiful grain.

Pics, please -- I'd love to see it!

Originally Posted by mapleleafalumnus

Pics, please -- I'd love to see it!

Check the classifieds under member services, it is in the pic that accompanies my honing ad.

Originally Posted by pixelfixed

Was not being Rude Glen,Your a gun Guy,would you restore a nice 1886 with a Zebrawood stock and beavertail forend?
Just because thats what the owner wanted,I think not.

I think that thread I linked you explains it quite well, each person can do what they chose...

Regarding restoration, well this is my take on it, as far as celluloid and plastic scales from original vintage razors are concerned, these were very easy for the manufacturers of the day to make and quality control was easily met because they were all cast in the same mould, to make scales from very expensive hardwoods needs far more high level of skill and without doubt would certainly bump the cost of those razors back then, and regarding keeping the razors original i'm not sure that as any real relevance, because i'm 100 per cent sure if the very best razor manufacturers back then would have had Micarta Carbon fibre and the vast array of plastics and materials available back then I have absolutely no doubt they would have used them, so when i hear people say you shouldn't use this or that material because it's not right, well i'm thinking there really is no such thing as right or wrong, i will give you a prime example regarding vintage razors, Filarmonica's great blades most of the scales are without doubt the worst i've ever seen and always made me wonder why no one ever pointed this out to the company while they were producing the razors, imo the scales where sometimes an after thought in a lot of vintage razors.

Jamie.

Originally Posted by celticcrusader

Regarding restoration, well this is my take on it, as far as celluloid and plastic scales from original vintage razors are concerned, these were very easy for the manufacturers of the day to make and quality control was easily met because they were all cast in the same mould, to make scales from very expensive hardwoods needs far more high level of skill and without doubt would certainly bump the cost of those razors back then, and regarding keeping the razors original i'm not sure that as any real relevance, because i'm 100 per cent sure if the very best razor manufacturers back then would have had Micarta Carbon fibre and the vast array of plastics and materials available back then I have absolutely no doubt they would have used them, so when i hear people say you shouldn't use this or that material because it's not right, well i'm thinking there really is no such thing as right or wrong, i will give you a prime example regarding vintage razors, Filarmonica's great blades most of the scales are without doubt the worst i've ever seen and always made me wonder why no one ever pointed this out to the company while they were producing the razors, imo the scales where sometimes an after thought in a lot of vintage razors.

Jamie.

+1 to Jamie's opinion. Manufacturers are always motivated by the bottom line: profit. Make it as inexpensively as possible and sell it for as much as possible.
As far as restoration goes, my $0.02 = "You own it. Now make it yours."

Originally Posted by nun2sharp

Check the classifieds under member services, it is in the pic that accompanies my honing ad.

That is a great looking set of scales!