Latest Restoration - Horn if you've got it!

WELL, this is the latest work that I've done. ("Old English" Patent Tempered Steel)

The blade was a Re-grind by Robert (Williams) a while back. So that was easy enough (no damn hand sanding!!). However, what always bothered me was that the original scales were broke above the pivote pin, and two of the four original rosette collars were lost/ruined.

SO, I came across an old razor that was slapped onto a 'modified' horn set of scales (an obvious missmatch of old). That's when things started to crystalize....

I took the 'modified' horn scales, and mounted them to my brass liner-blue plastic combo. Then I thinned them out and reshaped them to fit the era of the blade. I also added an inlay of a nickel silver shield to the front scales. The original pewter spacer was crap, and since I did not have anyother materials to play with at the time, I layered up my brass and plastic to make a new end spacer. Then sanded the hell out of the horn up to 2K grit.

I used the Rosette collars on the bottom and pinned the pivote as close to the style of the time as I could.

My original intent was to make this a three pin design (I know, more modern than the era that I was trying to reproduce), however I learned WHEN you have to make the razor a two pin design.... The tang on these old blades are so broad that there is NO room for the middle pin when the blade is closed. With the straight-scale design the blade already sticks out of the scales... SO, screw it. I kept it to it's era-look. (I know I could have added a pseudo-middle pin, but why bother).

What is nice is that the inside brass liner actually highlights the edge of the horn..

Anyway, I think it looks good for a reproduction of an old style razor....

C utz

Wow good thing this isn't a FS thread I've spent way to much this Christmas season as it is. Something about this razor really tickles my fancy, the scales? the style? Idon't know but it looks great. Maybe even more appealing than some of those incredible all custom Jobs I've been drooling over. What Age is it anyway?

Chris, now I can't wait for my re-grind from JC to come back. I'm thinking unlined chechen+truoil. Dang it, you got me inspired :D

Thanks!
The style and age of the set-up is what I look for in a razor. The regrind sevices that J.Chandler and R.Williams offer definitely save time on blade clean-up. Depending on the blade, it might make the difference in time and quality of the restoration. However, if you have the patience and skills, Vlad's hand work looks best so far.

The scale design I aimed for was early 1800's, late 1700's. However, I'd place the blade at mid 1800's. So, the blade might not match the set up (we will not even go into the plastic liner on a piece set to it's era...big flag on that play).

If you remove the bend in the scales, and make them more straight, the tip of the spine will stick out when closed, giving the look of the earlier razors.

Anyway, thanks for the compliments guys, now I just need to finish up the walnut-scales I'm working on. That has a shield-inlay too (the first inlay I tried), and have been a major PITA making (everything keeps falling apart!!), but have been a HUGE learning experience for me. I have found that T88 epoxy does not work for me. I'm not sure what I'm doing wrong, but when I start sanding things down, things start separating. Despite conventional methods, Gorilla glue is actually working great for me (the black horn razor posted here is all gorilla glue work, except for after the inlay I added super glue over it to fill any gaps around the work, then sanded it flush). What's great about the expanding gorilla glue is that on the inlay, I can gouge out more than needed and the glue fills the spaces under the work to make it flush.

With the walnut scales, I had to re-glue everything. I also treated the wood with minwax wood hardener (you brush it on, and sand off the excess after it's dry). The hardener makes the wood darker (not as dark as when the final truoil is added, and I have not added the truoil yet, so we'll see how the two work together), and well, obviously harder! I recommend sanding the wood down to close to the final grit you plan on using before you use the hardener. Sanding after is VERY slow once the wood is hard (this may seem obvious, but it is something I did not think about before I did it, and am thankful that I had done the above with out thinking. In hindsight, if I had treated the wood first, it would have taken me a lot longer to sand the wood to 2K smooth).

We'll see how these scales turn out. As for the blade, I'm not sure I want to use it, since there is some pitting near the edge, that is showing it's self as I clean it up. Regrind might quickly clean up the blade (might not). We'll see...... (sorry for the rambleings, but this reply has me thinking.....)

C utz

Here are some razors that I had in mind.
The top one is an OLD 'Bengall' razor, of the era I was aiming for in my restoration. The bottom razor is a "J.Barber" from the era that the restored razor was from. The restored razors 'former' scales were similar to the bottom razor. They also had the same 'rosette' pin designs.

I guess the restored middle razor looks like the offspring from the top and bottom razor, with some modern embelishments.........

C utz

Chris, what kind of sheeting do you use for plastic liners? Major inspiration struck me last night as I was thinking about the TEW project and I want to put it to work :D

Nice work, Chris. You did a good job matching the era for blade and scales. I could be wrong, but I would place it in the early 1800's.

Thanks Bill! The 'earlier' the better! Is there a definitive way to tell? It seems that the earlier makes fall into a vague timeframe. Outside of glareing hallmarks, I have trouble telling (i.e. celluloid vs plastic, blade style and grind, scale design, Tang stamp information, and company times of opperation). Wouldn't it be fantastic if we had archived some original catalogues showing what was being offered, by whom and when?!

Firestart, I bought my plastic liner from Texasknife.com: http://www.texasknife.com/store/s-pa...frameStore.htm
(Plastic liner --> Hightech Plastic spacer), It's a little pricer than the other options, and I'm not sure if it's much better. But hey, it's titled "Hightech" so it has to be good right? ;)
I had ordered red and black as well, but blue was all they had on stock (that's why all my scales have blue liners). However, Bill recommends: http://www.knifeandgun.com/catalog/s...9_products.htm
The material is cheaper here, and I was not aware of this site before I bought mine (yes, I'm one of those people with the bad habbit of doing the work before I read the instructions). I still debating on where to get my next supply though, and I don't have enough plastic liner to make another set right now....

About the liner that I did get though... It's good and it's bad. It's somewhat brittle in that you can not use a scissor to cut it out or it will chip and crack as you try to cut it. I use a dremel and a cutting wheel to make rough cuts. After that I sand it down to shape when the materials are glued. It sands easy and is flexible. It's just a PITA to make the inital cuts. You can treat these with either rubing alcohol or acetone and they are fine. Also, and I have a feeling most of these plastics will do this, when you cut or sand it, it has a VERY fine particulate, so wear a mask!!!

Let me know if you plan on buying a few sheets, I might go in on some with you to help save on the S/H costs....

C utz

Thanks for the links and the offer Chris. I was actually looking for neon-green (and bright one at that) to offset the darkness of the truoil-treated chechen (no joke). I guess I'll have to find another alternative. :thinking:

WOW, interesting.

You know, I recall reading that one of us uses plastic folder's as liner material. OR, something along those lines. You might want to make a general post (outside of this thread) asking for that specific color of plastic (otherwise you'll get a bunch of links to the same 'boring colored' plastic liners).

Good luck and I look forward to seeing your posts on those eclectic scales!

C utz

Thanks Chris,
About to take the plunge :nj