Making new scales

I'm making some wooden scales (black walnut) and when I ordered the blanks I was hoping there would be enough extra to form the wedge as well.

That was not the case. There is extra material but no one single piece is large enough.

I'm not sure how strong a bond either wood glue or super glue forms and thus my question. I have two "larger" pieces that if glued together would make a good wedge

Is this an acceptable practice or as I suspect is it not a good idea?

Also, is it better to use super glue or wood glue for gluing the wedge in place? Whether it's for the wedge described about or a whole wood piece is not my question here. I'm just wondering which is best as I have both.

I'm using shellac and steel wool to get the "shine". I don't think that's the most popular or best choice these days but it seemed fairly simple for my first attempt at making scales.

Thanks.

Personally I like the scales and wedge to contrast each other, let's say dark scales with light colored wedge or vice versa. I like to use lead wedges with my wood scales.

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Originally Posted by DoughBoy68

Personally I like the scales and wedge to contrast each other, let's say dark scales with light colored wedge or vice versa. I like to use lead wedges with my wood scales.

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I like the contrasting visual but I think making lead wedges is out of my skill level. :)

I have a roll of 1/8" that was given to me by an old plumber friend. It cuts pretty easy with wire cutters and I finish shaping with a sanding drum bit with a Dremel and hand sand to really smooth it.

PM me your address and I'll mail you a piece.

You got a couple of choices here. You can glue the two together as you said. You can go to hobby lobby and get some 0.030" brass or aluminum sheets and do a lined wedge; there is a how to in the workshop forum. You can use two pieces of wood and make a bi-color wedge. Either glue will work in this case, however you need waterproof wood glue if you use it. Tite bond has a "hybrid" glue at lowes that i use, it has a longer set time in case you mess up the alignment on first try. Shellac is fine, i like to use it as a sanding sealer, or you can use trueoil which you can pick up in the gun section at bass pro or usually local gun shops. Shellac is going to give you a satin or semi gloss finish like bare wood with the grain raised, so don't get discouraged when it's not a mirror finish.

Don't be worried about what is popular or accceptable.
People may or may not agree with your choices, but the fact remains that it is YOUR choice. You learn by trying & experimenting. I know that even the professional restoration members here, like to see new ideas, regardless of who they are from.

Experiment, have fun doing it & show us your work.

Thanks guys. DoughBoy68, thanks for the offer. I'll keep the lead idea in mind for the future. I think (just due to my impatience) I'll come up with something soon just to get this first one completed. I'm sure I'll learn a lot just going through to completion with this one.

If I glue the two pieces of wood together I can actually do it so that only the one piece is visible. Both are long but just narrow.

Good to know tiddle regarding the semi-gloss finish. I think that will be fine for this first project. It's black walnut and isn't that "fancy" in the first place. I have a more interesting looking piece of spalted sugar maple coming that I may want to go for a shinier look (or maybe not).

By the way, the blade I"m using is a W.H. Morley and Sons with what I guess you would call a notch tip.

I've gotten it fairly polished looking. It was decent looking from the start except for the tang and monkey tail.

Without a Dremel I'm probably not going to get it as polished as the better restoration examples I see in the gallery and elsewhere but it should still look fine (to me).

Quote:

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Originally Posted by DoughBoy68

Personally I like the scales and wedge to contrast each other, let's say dark scales with light colored wedge or vice versa. I like to use lead wedges with my wood scales.

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Agreed..one of the first critiques on my first set of scales here was that they would have been that much better with a contrasting wedge, from a well respected member here. I took it to heart and have always done my wedges in a contrasting material. Depending where you are i'm sure you can find something to fit on the cheap. I've never recommended trying to "piece" something together..it's totally up to you but in the end you'll always be sorry that you did...it will show.
And just to clarify..it is kind of the norm...look at any production razor today or of yesteryear....the wedges dont match the scales.

If you have chromium oxide and a rag and some time you can us that to polish the blade. That's all the green polishing compound in the bars is any way, or if you have like .5 micron diamond spray or paste you could us that before or inlue of the crox. W ork with what you got on hand, nothing wrong with that.

Wedgeless scales are fairly common, you just have to know how to set the "Angle" or the scales won't flex and the razor won't "work" right, there are plenty of examples in the Workshop..

That's interesting. I'll have to look at that more closely. For this one I've decided to use a piece of wood I found around the house.

I'm still working on getting the angle exactly right. I thought super glue would work and therefore bought some but in reading the directions I see that it doesn't work with wood.

I thought I had some Elmer's Wood Glue but I can't find that. I did find some Elmer's Glue All which says it works with wood.

I don't know if it can handle getting wet but I don't plan on letting my razor scales get wet for long anyway. Do you think it will work for this purpose or should I just go and buy some Elmer's Wood Glue?

I'm still working on thinning the wedge so that the blade can't go too far into the scales.

Personally I just glue one side of the wedge. That way, if I have to take the razor apart later, I don't have to break it loose. I've always used superglue. As you can see from the comments, there is more than one way to do it. I'm assuming you are going to pin the wedge anyway, so the glue isn't terribly important. If you are not going to pin the wedge, use epoxy.

Titebond III is a great wood glue. And it says right on the bottle "water proof". But it is definitely permanent.

I thought I post a few "lessons learned" from my first scale making project.

I'm not a particularly mechanical guy compared to most in this sub-forum I'm sure.

I'll spend more time fine-tuning things with the sandpaper next time. I do like the "natural" looking effect of shellac.

The wedge took more time and was harder to fashion that I would have thought. It turned out to not be a perfect fit but at one point I just decided to continue on with the project just to get it finished.

I should have installed the blade before I glued the front end (wedge) together but I didn't. Therefore when I did pin the blade the scales were tight enough that I couldn't use the inner o-rings.

I could also just have glued only one side of the wedge so that everything could be taken apart.

When pinning the blade the outer o-ring from one side fell off without me noticing so as I penned one side it did flatten out the brass but there was no o-ring there.

It's still working (didn't pull though) but one day I'll redo it when I have more parts. So far the blade isn't tight enough or as tight as I'd like it. I still may be able to adjust this.

I bought some wax today and may use that on top of the shellac. Pinning in general was a little more tedious than I would have thought.

All tools used were hand tools except for an electric drill. Another lesson learned (for next time) is to put a pin through the first set of holes drilled before drilling the second set.

I visually lined things up while drilling and everything worked more or less but one set of holes were slightly offset. I did drill though both pieces of wood each time but it's easy for the pieces to not be lined up precisely.

Going thought this process from start to finish is definitely a good learning experience. As you can imagine I will do things a bit differently next time.

I'll post a picture in a day or two after I've had time to tweak a few things but this first project is nothing to write home about compared to some of the examples I've seen on this site.

It's a start however.

Got pics?????????????????

Double sided scotch tape is your friend here, makes things so much easier when driling and shaping.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by gcbryan

I thought I post a few "lessons learned" from my first scale making project.

I'm not a particularly mechanical guy compared to most in this sub-forum I'm sure.

I'll spend more time fine-tuning things with the sandpaper next time. I do like the "natural" looking effect of shellac.

The wedge took more time and was harder to fashion that I would have thought. It turned out to not be a perfect fit but at one point I just decided to continue on with the project just to get it finished.

I should have installed the blade before I glued the front end (wedge) together but I didn't. Therefore when I did pin the blade the scales were tight enough that I couldn't use the inner o-rings.

I could also just have glued only one side of the wedge so that everything could be taken apart.

When pinning the blade the outer o-ring from one side fell off without me noticing so as I penned one side it did flatten out the brass but there was no o-ring there.

It's still working (didn't pull though) but one day I'll redo it when I have more parts. So far the blade isn't tight enough or as tight as I'd like it. I still may be able to adjust this.

I bought some wax today and may use that on top of the shellac. Pinning in general was a little more tedious than I would have thought.

All tools used were hand tools except for an electric drill. Another lesson learned (for next time) is to put a pin through the first set of holes drilled before drilling the second set.

I visually lined things up while drilling and everything worked more or less but one set of holes were slightly offset. I did drill though both pieces of wood each time but it's easy for the pieces to not be lined up precisely.

Going thought this process from start to finish is definitely a good learning experience. As you can imagine I will do things a bit differently next time.

I'll post a picture in a day or two after I've had time to tweak a few things but this first project is nothing to write home about compared to some of the examples I've seen on this site.

It's a start however.

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Get yourself a couple of O-80 size nuts and bolts - about 1 inch long. Use them to check fit before you pin your scales. Saves a lot of mistakes before they happen. Good luck - waiting to see the pictures.

Yes, I used double-sided tape and it was helpful. It moved around a little on occasion however. It was great for the sanding though.

I did just stick in a long piece of the brass rod for alignment for much of this process.

I just forgot to do it for the drilling on the second set of holes.

I think I need to spend more time on the wedge in the future and to get better with the pinning process.

After tweaking things a bit I'm liking the result a bit more. I'll post a picture or two later tonight or tomorrow. I want the last shellac treatment to dry and I'd like to try waxing it on top of that and then I'll take the pictures.

I have a couple of questions for those with more experience with this....

I've been ordering the 1/16 " brass rod with the proper sized outer and inner o-rings online from someone selling them specifically for razor scales (short rod length).

1). Are these small sizes possibly available at the local hardware store or is this just too small to find locally?

2). Will this work...for my next project I was thinking about putting lemon oil on the wood blank (spaulted sugar maple) and letting it dry and then using shellac over that and maybe wax over that.

My thinking for this is that the lemon oil (which I already have) would make the wood darker and the grain more pronounced and the shellac provides some protection while looking natural and the wax adds a bit more shine and protects the shellac from any possible alcohol from cleaning the blades.

If you want local, hobby lobby sells the brass rod only. Ace carries the 0-80 machine screws, and the #0 and #0wide stainless washers. Try using danish oil and let it dry for about 3 days then the shellac, or you can use a satin exterior app rated tung oil, usually for marine apps,same look but better water resistance.

Thanks.

Regarding Tung or Danish Oil. I'll have to try that. I don't know that much about oils. Is there a reason that Lemon Oil isn't appropriate for this application?

Here's a picture of my first scale project.

Attachment 112629

I'm thinking about taking the scales pictured above apart at some point to redo a few things. Since the brass rod gets flattened a bit even after taking off the washer is the flattened rod likely to enlarge the hole materially when taking it out?

In other words, with wood scales, is the pivot hole likely to be larger and therefore looser when I put the new pin in?

I don't want to make matters worse.

There's no reason for the pivot hole to enlarge. here's a tutorial.
Un-pinning and re-pinning a razor - Straight Razor Place Wiki