Trick420's Big Thread 'O Straight Razor Scale Related Stuff

Well, all of my recent posting activity has raised some eyebrows of some folks so I decided it would be best to put everything into one thread and just post here from now on - similar to Seraphim, Undream, etc...

***Disclaimer: At this time that none of these razors are for sale (at least, not the ones that are in my possession) and my services as a restorer are not for hire***

This thread simply aims to document the work I have done and collect it into one location. Here are links to my previous threads of scale work:

Henckels Platinum 4/8 in Osage Orange: http://badgerandblade.com/vb/showthread.php/265818-My-first-set-of-scales?highlight=
Gold Dollar 208 in Mora: http://badgerandblade.com/vb/showthread.php/268465-Ugly-duckling-turning-into-a-swan?highlight=
Paco's Custom Chopper, Round 1: http://badgerandblade.com/vb/showth...-for-Paco664-s-custom-made-chopper?highlight=
My first Gold Dollar: http://badgerandblade.com/vb/showth...st-stab-at-modifying-a-Gold-Dollar?highlight=
Red Imp in Walnut Burl: http://badgerandblade.com/vb/showthread.php/272157-New-scales-for-a-Red-Imp?highlight=
My First Gold Dollar with proper scales: http://badgerandblade.com/vb/showthread.php/273176-Custom-Gold-Dollar-Redux?highlight=
Paco's custom Chopper, Round 2: http://badgerandblade.com/vb/showthread.php/277980-Paco-s-Big-Little-Chopper-Redux?highlight=
Corsan Denton and Burdekin Chopper with a floating dovetail wedge in Mora: http://badgerandblade.com/vb/showth...ora-with-a-floating-dovetail-wedge?highlight=
The Hillbilly Sofa King - Floating Dovetail in Leopardwood: http://badgerandblade.com/vb/showth...g-dovetail-The-Hillbilly-Sofa-King?highlight=
Thiers Issard Le Dandy in Fumed White Oak: http://badgerandblade.com/vb/showthread.php/281121-TI-Le-Dandy-41-5-8-quot-Onondaga-quot?highlight=
Wm Greaves "American Razor" in Fumed White Oak: http://badgerandblade.com/vb/showth...or-quot-chopper-in-Fumed-White-Oak?highlight=

I will from now on be posting the stuff I do to this thread, so stay tuned, and feel free to post if you want any scale making or finishing advice.


Enjoy,
Jeff

The next razor I have done in my collection is this Le Grelot. I got it in a trade gone bad a while ago, and it had a very sad set of scales for a "restored" razor. Anyway. I love the way Quartersawn Maple looks. It has really cool flecking in it and in the right light is quite stunning. QS wood also has the benefit of being extremely stable in temperature and humidity changes. String instruments commonly use QS maple for the bridges (Fiddles and Banjos anyway).

So I found a historic TI scale shape and copied it. To be honest the scales were going to go on a 5/8 Wade and Butcher hollow ground Special, but that razor is badly bent... Anyway, The scales are finished in a french polish shellac, pinned and wedged with brass. Turned out pretty good, and I love using it even more now (It's one of my best shavers).

very nice, indeed!! i like it.

Awesome. I wish I had the talent/time to be able to do restorations. I may get better with time, but time is what I don't have much of. Sometime in the future.

Very nice indeed.

I'm still floored by the "Sofa King". The way the lines on the spine and the lines on the scales look remind me more of concept art than an actual object, if that makes any sense. Very dramatic. You do some nice work!

Clean, solid looking work. Very nice indeed!

Here's the latest...

Some of you may recognize this razor from Hillbilly's thread Razor Shaped Object

Well, without going into specifics, this razor is now a part of my personal collection, so I own both of the file razors he's made. They're both similar, but very different, and both are wonderful shavers.

Anyway, I decided to put new scales on it. So this one has floating spline wedges of maple. Scales are Cocobolo that is cut across the grain - sorta like quarter sawn, but not really. Like the first Sofa King (Now referred to as Sofa King No.2 since technically this was the first one he made) I wanted scales the flowed with the blade shape and complemented Hillbilly's artistic design.

Right now it's pinned with a microfastener. Going to do the final assembly tomorrow after the scales have had some time to cure and harden.

Here she is:

Awesome. That blade and scales go together perfectly.

Just beautiful work!

Thanks guys. The scales need a proper buff, as you can see in the last photo - I was so excited at how they came out that I had to temporarily put them together and snap some pics... Gonna pin them propery probably tonight. Can't wait to shave with this one again. For a full wedge it's surprisingly refined and is a really smooth shaver.

I like the way those "wedges" look kind of like woodworking joints. Neat design.

Drybonz said:

I like the way those "wedges" look kind of like woodworking joints. Neat design.

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Thanks. That's exactly what I was going for (because I'm a woodworker! (not professionally though)). Look at the links at the top of this one in the first post - there are two other razors I did that both have true dovetail joints.

So I got this really badly ground #66 Gold Dollar - the hollow was asymmetrical and on one side actually slanted. Anyway, I got a wild hair and decided to try to fix it. About the same time I was doing that my friend Rick says "Hey, what would it take to get you to make me a Gold Dollar?"

My reply? "Sometimes, all you have to do is ask"

I figured, I had nothing to loose, and made no promises that it would be anything good... I wasn't even sure that I could competently fix the sucker...

So, I started grinding away... First, I fixed the wonky hollow grind, then took off the shoulder and evened it up side to side, then evened the tang so the blade centered... I wasn't able to grind off the makers mark though - that bummed me a little. For whatever reason, this one got an extra deep stamping.

"Hmmm... I have a workable blank now..." So I started in on the spine, and cut a spanish point into the toe. Got it all done and was quite pleased with the outcome - it was easily as nice, and maybe better than the covered tang Gold Dollar that I did for Competition #3.

So, for scales, I went with marblewood. Marblewood normally is a light orange color with darn, almost black grain "stains". The piece I had had no black in it though, just beautiful, tight grain that looks close to Osage Orange in color and texture.

The scales are coated in a french polished shellac, and the wedge is purpleheart, although it so dark that it looks more like walnut.

Before I shipped it to him, I honed it up and it took an amazing edge. Better than my competition #3 razor (smoother by a mile) and equal to the cocobolo #66 I did last year. It made me a little sad to give it away, and the jerk in me wanted to keep it for myself, but Rick's a great guy and has been more than generous to me with all the samples and fountain pen crap he's sent to me, so I wanted to return the favor with something he could hang on to for a long time.

So here you go, here's Rick's new Gold Dollar:

Is this the one you offered me because you thought it was so bad you couldn't fix it and I said,,, JUST FIX IT?

mycarver said:

Is this the one you offered me because you thought it was so bad you couldn't fix it and I said,,, JUST FIX IT?

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Heh... yeah, it is, and yeah, you were right - it wasn't that bad to fix... It was harder to get the tang grind issue sorted out than the HG issue. But neither was that bad.

I'm digging the spanish point. Very nice work as usual.

trick420 said:

Heh... yeah, it is, and yeah, you were right - it wasn't that bad to fix... It was harder to get the tang grind issue sorted out than the HG issue. But neither was that bad.

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It's just metal, push it around to where you want it to be. I guess now I'm a wild hair? Aren't you glad you didn't toss it as planned?

mycarver said:

It's just metal, push it around to where you want it to be. I guess now I'm a wild hair? Aren't you glad you didn't toss it as planned?

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I'm glad.

You shave yet?