Oddball scale materials

Well, I'm still waiting for my restoration CD from bill to get to my house and get forwarded out to me by the wife, since the post decided to break the last one he sent in half, so for the moment this is my only advice regarding razor restoration. My eBay special came in the mail yesterday, and I've begun the hand sanding...and I have to say, wow, after hours and hours of sanding, my hands hurt.

The scales the razor came with were miserable. One was black plastic, and I'm not cool enough to tell what kind of plastic, but the other side looked like it was carved out of a table leg, and the razor was pinned with little picture frame nails that had had the pointy end hammered flat enough not to come out. If it was a car, it'd be a jalopy, and I plan on making new scales for it.

My question is about the feasibility of making scales out of 2x4's or plywood. I have at least several months, and potentially quite a few more, to work on this, so despite my scant access to tools, I can make up for that in patience. I think it would be pretty sweet to have a razor I restored / fabricated during a deployment -- I can't think of a cooler memento, especially since war trophies are no longer allowed. I'm not experienced with wood, though; would shaping scales out of a 2x4 be work, or is the wood not up to it?

Hand sanding is a PITA! :)

As for making scales out of a 2x4, well, that's a LOT of wood! Well, unless you are putting scales on the razor Bill made for Josh, You just need wood about 1/8" thick x 1" wide x 6-7" long. If you can get your hands on a small coping saw that might work for cutting. As for the pins, 1/16"x 1" brass nails will work, clip off the head and peen the ends.

If you need materials we can send you some, just let us know......

C utz

I can't work with wood worth a damn, but I CAN handle plastics a little. I'm making some scales from a small sheet of polycarbonate.($4 for a 10"'x15" sheet of Lexan at Home Depot) Since I'm very new to restoration, and since Lexan is cheap and damn near indestructable, I'd rather risk screwing up on the plastic instead of some hyper expensive piece of wood. :D

I have a saw on my Leatherman, and believe me, I have the time to hack pieces of wood out of a 2x4. I just wanted to make sure the wood wouldn't be unworkable. I appreciate the offer of sending me things, but since the blade was already aquired from out of country, I feel like SOME of the material ought to come from here. :) I'm not too terribly worried about sheer beauty. Thanks for the tips!

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Originally Posted by TomlinAS

I can't think of a cooler memento, especially since war trophies are no longer allowed.

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The wife and I were at the Museum of the Pacific War in Fredericksburg TX last year, and they had on display one of Gen MacArthur's General Orders forbidding servicemen from sending Japanese body parts back home as souvenirs. Apparently some of the guys were sending ears and skulls back to their mothers/girlfriends and it was freaking them out a bit...

On a more serious note, I've got a Thiers Issard with palm scales, maybe you can scrounge some palmwood from the natives?

I'm thinking that using 2x4 wood for scales might be a bit of a hassle. The pine/fir used to make 2x4's pretty soft and you'll have to be careful of denting or scratching the scales when they're finished. As long as you can keep your knife razor sharp, you should be able to whittle it.

Plywood would be possible, but not with a pocket knife. Also, you'd want to use a higher-grade plywood like Baltic Birch plywood or something without any voids in it.

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Originally Posted by TomlinAS

I have a saw on my Leatherman, and believe me, I have the time to hack pieces of wood out of a 2x4. I just wanted to make sure the wood wouldn't be unworkable. I appreciate the offer of sending me things, but since the blade was already aquired from out of country, I feel like SOME of the material ought to come from here. :) I'm not too terribly worried about sheer beauty. Thanks for the tips!

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See if you can find a stick of something local. olivewood? date palm? ramshorn? the jawbone of a camel?:roflmao

Actually, I was thinking of something along the same lines.....

If you are going to be cutting up wood, and you want to do this while you are there, are there any native trees near-by that you can get a few branches from?

Cut the Scale/wood from those!

"...and here is a straight razor I restored and used while I was in Iraq...and those scales, well, I made those from the tree indigenous to the area ..."

:)

C utz

Pine, often used for lumber, is quite soft. I would also worry a bit about the pins wearing on the holes a bit and making the razor quite loose fitting.

Plywood would be interesting when complete, but poses a couple challenges that have been commented on. One, it has voids in it from time to time, this would make holes or even chunks in your scales when you sand any types of curve to your handles. Two, plywood is laminated wood. The lamination layer can be uneven, sometimes very hard and sometimes surprisingly soft. This is going to result in challenges cutting and sanding the scales to the final shape. If you pull it off you can end up with a number of exposed layers on the scales which would create an interesting visual effect.

I would probably varnish or poly the scales of plywood as it will seal them up.


All things considered, personally, I would look for scrap hardwood. There is likely some company making hardwood something or anothers around you. considering the size of the scraps you need, you likely can walk out of there with an armload of scraps for nothing.

Alex -
While I understand that you are looking for a scale-making project to fill your spare time - another interesting thing might be....


....a few years back (quite a few, actually) I was working in the offshore oil business, and a lot of the old salts that I worked with had also done projects in the middleast, and they all had these beautifully worked metal hard hats covered with incredible stipple designs and art work, which, they explained, was a local craft.

If you could find an old eBay beater - you know - good blade, throw away scales - and then find a local metalworking craftsman and have some really nice metal (aluminum? zinc? silver???) scales made and decorated.

......sweet!

-whatever

-Lou

How bout sand in a mold and add clear epoxy?

Just kidding.... I'm sure he last thing you want to be reminded of is the sand.

Even more so when you consider the U.S. armed forces choice of service rifle!:td

:OT

Went out shootin mine the other day and some jackass locked the bolt back and somehow got it full of sand (read "Dropped my freakin rifle in da dirt eh !") and man that thing was stopped up like a fat girl three days after an " All You Can Eat " cheese festival !! :cry:

Just for a little pespective for you non shooters.... A friend had his class 3 Mak 90 out there and the probably the same nerd left it open....so someone had some Walther knockoff in 32 auto and was blazin away at whatever and slingin cases all over the truck...Al grabbed the Mak and started playing anti-aircraft gunner at some birds (remote area) WHEN HIS GUN JAMMED!!!! :thinking: (we need a smile of a man with a rifle shooting in the air)

AK variants rarely jam so we were all interested to see what happened.... and I was eager to make fun of his weapon in order to take the heat off of my "Overly expensive to jam on a little sand rifle" ....
turns out that ol slappy one nut had ejected a case right into the action of the Mak!
It still burned like 25 or so rounds on full auto before it jammed on a 32 auto case though!!

LOOK DAT MOOSE IS MAKIN FUN OF YOU EH!! SHOOT HIM !!! ";"

OK I KNOW ITS NOT A GUN FORUM SO....

It seems to me that when I was growing bonsai trees (if you want to call a 10 year old tree thats only 7 inches tall " growing a tree") that sand and a little peat was the preferred "potting soil".

I'll bet those trees had super tight grain!

Might be a good idea to start takin a strap with you on patrol and the next shrub or bush you see that shocks you in its ability to grow in such harsh conditions... well... put it out of its misery! :nj

Not sure if you get "out" much but just an idea....

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Originally Posted by TomlinAS

I feel like SOME of the material ought to come from here. :) I'm not too terribly worried about sheer beauty.

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Well, just thinking out loud here...

... what are the 2x4's used for? If they're from crates they're likely pine... too soft. But if they're from shipping pallets... hmmm, lots of oak and harder woods used in them. Should work.

... still have access to the MPool? Hmmm... brass and or aluminum roughly 1x6" and about 1/32 - 1/16 inch thick or so would make acceptable scale liners... eg, maybe cut from shim stock, or an old radiator tank, or anything else that doesn't rust and is roughly flat and the right size. You could rough cut with tin snips or a hacksaw and then further shape them using a file, bench grinder, sandpaper... whatever is available. You could cut/shape pieces of wood, plastic, metal, stone, colored glass, etc. to fit together like an inlay and epoxy them to the scale liners.

If you allow your imagination to run a little wild you'll find that you're not as limited by the lack of tools and materials as you think. The end result may take you longer to do with hand tools and the materials may be unusual, but in the end you'll make a keepsake you'll cherish forever.

OK now I have a real idea.....actually a modification of the other one.

How bout kevlar?? Get a vest thats been hit and saturate an area about the size you need with clear epoxy and work with that!

Not only will it be readily available over there BUT YOU WILL BE THE ONLY PERSON ON THE PLANET WITH A KEVLAR RAZOR HANDLE!!

I'm honestly not sure how hard it will be to shape but if you can get sandpaper that should do it.

I've done lots of fiberglass work and though it may be tedios to do by hand it IS doable.

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Originally Posted by gratewhitehuntr

OK now I have a real idea.....actually a modification of the other one.

How bout kevlar?? Get a vest thats been hit and saturate an area about the size you need with clear epoxy and work with that!

Not only will it be readily available over there BUT YOU WILL BE THE ONLY PERSON ON THE PLANET WITH A KEVLAR RAZOR HANDLE!!

I'm honestly not sure how hard it will be to shape but if you can get sandpaper that should do it.

I've done lots of fiberglass work and though it may be tedios to do by hand it IS doable.

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Fibreglass is not kevlar!

Kevlar is much more abrasion resistant, and a total nightmare to sand. Only a madman would hand sand it.

Second, sheets of kevlar and carbon laminates are used by knife makers for handles, and i very much doubt no-one else has thought to make a straight handle out of it.

didn't realize Kevlar was so hard to work with....just tryin to come up with something here.
I got some real nice teak the other day from the Chinese store from a pallet!
Thats right, a pallet all the way form china!!
Just got to be creative sometimes.

Hey Tom that reminds me! I've seen some SKS rifles with teak stocks!
Perhaps you could look for captured weapons?

Most rifle stocks are made with SOME kind of hard wood and communist countries never were known for their efficiency. They just made them from anything, a tree is a tree is a tree.

I bet if you look a little you can come up with some decent wood.
Even if you are REMF you should be able to find SOMETHING.

Ok thats my final answer...... CAPTURED WEAPONS :gth

btw REMF should not be considered a insult if thats what you are TOM , if I were in Iraq thats where I would want to be!!!:y

Teak could work. I think burr wood looks nice on a razor.