Thread: Well I Tried

I tried my hand at rehandling a razor. It is defiantely not perfect, nor anywhere near what ya'll are turnin' out, but I tried anyway .
It's black walnut, wild cherry spacer, boiled linseed oil finish. Now that I got the feel, I'll probably improve over the future, like learning pocket knife embellishment all over again!

As far as improvements go, my peens could be more even, my handles need to be a tad thicker, definately need to try something other than walnut, and blade finishing needs improvement, but past that I think I've got it. What do you think? Any comments, suggestions more than welcome

The Razor itself is a tillotson&co

Looks Great ,

I hope my first attempt goes as well, as you going to try and clean up the blade anymore? ( sand / polish )

Did you make the scales yourself?

Cheers,
Neale

Thanks, I made the scales myself.

There's nothing wrong with that start. Gary was doing about the same last year and look what he puts out now.

X

What did you think of the walnut? I have a set now that I made (still need to do the final sanding and truoil coats). I found the wood to be rather soft, which was nice for the shaping. I then treated the wood with a few coats of minwax wood hardener. You then have to sand off the excess hardener...WOW was the wood a bear to sand! The wood is slightly darker too, but not as dark as I expect them to be after the truoil....

What were your thoughts working with the walnut?

C utz

Nothing wrong with the start. I actually like the fact that you were ambitious and went for a 3-pin design

Not bad at all. I think the Walnut was a good choice for this blade.

Looks pretty usable to me.

As you said though, its a pity that you didnt clean up the blade a little more, as it is infinately easier to do without the scales on!

Thanks guys,
I didn't have the proper stuff to clean the blade up more at the time, now I do .

As far as the walnut goes, it's a good wood to work with, it's a medium wood, fairly porus, and is prone to denting easily. It is real easy stuff to work with, but dosen't hold up as well as other woods might. I use it for my starting projects on everything, knife handles ect, so It's easier to get the hang of things before I move on the denser woods. I didn't treat this with any type of hardener (probably should have) just a hand rubbed coat of boiled linseed oil, it's looking kind of dry this morning so I'll give it a couple more coats. I'm not crazy about the feel of it, the scales just feel light and flimsy, but are about 1/8" thick. How thick do you fellas usually make your scales? My next set will be on a W&B, maybe desert irownood or osage orange this time .
Thanks for all the wonderful comments.

1/8 sounds about right. Ironwood is great for scales. Other choices would be red/purple/yellowheart, cocobolo and chechen. I just finished a padauk set (also fairly soft so it needed a CA finish).