Torrey

Picked up a nice little Torrey. I don't know exactly what to call it so I call it the Torrey Signature. The blade had some great lines but cheap plastic (vulcanized rubber scales) that were cracked.



The cracked scale fell apart during disassembly.

Got it all cleaned up and dressed in a pair of African Mahogany scales with a CA finish.









The CA finish came out beautiful but it is a tedious process.

Very nice work.

Great work, and agreed, CA finishing can be a pain.

The Torrey Buggy Whip was Torrey's economy line. Great American steel.
Consider some of the details of the scales next time you make a set. The pivot pin does not appear to be centered in the scales. Measure and drill the hole before the scales are contoured and while the scale halves are taped together. Makes keeping everything centered easy. The wedge (in your case a spacer) does not fit well. Do the final shaping of the wedge with it assembled in the scales. Micro fasteners work great for this. Never do the final shaping/sanding of the wedge separate from the scales. The result will be an undersized wedge. The scales are the same. If you finish sand the scales without the wedge installed you roll all the scale edges and lose the sharp clean line you should have where the scales and wedge meet.
Enjoy the journey chief.

karlej said:

The Torrey Buggy Whip was Torrey's economy line. Great American steel.
Consider some of the details of the scales next time you make a set. The pivot pin does not appear to be centered in the scales. Measure and drill the hole before the scales are contoured and while the scale halves are taped together. Makes keeping everything centered easy. The wedge (in your case a spacer) does not fit well. Do the final shaping of the wedge with it assembled in the scales. Micro fasteners work great for this. Never do the final shaping/sanding of the wedge separate from the scales. The result will be an undersized wedge. The scales are the same. If you finish sand the scales without the wedge installed you roll all the scale edges and lose the sharp clean line you should have where the scales and wedge meet.
Enjoy the journey chief.

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That's some good info on the Buggy Whip. I thought it was a script/signature. I had seen a few other mentions on the whip in other posts but I did not realize that is what it was. Funny that it is considered a economy line as the steel appears to be of higher quality, density and heft than a few other Torreys I have seen. The machining and grinding seem to be cleaner too.

I hear what you are saying on the scales. I am not completely happy with how they came out. It was more of a practice in salvaging failure. I am an arthritic with extensive nerve damage due to trama (9MM projectiles tend to do that to a person). That and my ADSOD (attention deficit shiny object disorder) combined for a momentary lapse (I spaced out) during the drill press process. The scales were taped together and marked. I just flat out MISSED . I was not able to accurately control the press. I was considering starting over and trashing them but I continued on to use them as a platform to practice my CA glue application and polishing. I am extremely happy with the way the CA came out. Just gorgeous.

As far as the wedge/spacer, that was a whole other issue in and of itself. I was debating whether to install the spacer then do the CA or do the CA then install the spacer. Each avenue presents their own challenges. If the spacer is installed first it would get covered in CA and there would be untreated/uncoated wood below it that would be subject to water damage. I did not want the spacer to be covered in CA. The other option is to complete the CA process on the scales and then install the spacer and end up with the finish I have here. Although not perfectly flush the way I would have preferred it to be, I do not find it aesthetically unpleasing.

I have already decided that I will be using wood wedges (and yes I will be going for wedge vise spacer) in future attempts. I figure if I coat the inside of the scales with one coat of thin and one coat of medium/thick CA as well as the wedge I can then glue those together and finish the interior and exterior of the scales with CA and have that perfect fitted wedge look with complete and total water intrusion protection and a flawless/seamless CA finish.

Trust me, myself and I (uhhh yeah, that works) when "I" say that I had numerous arguments with "MYSELF" in order to convince "ME" that it wasn't a TOTAL FAILURE. And yes, that is how "OUR" brain works.

When all was said and done I just wanted to pin it all together so I could at least hone and enjoy the fruits of my labor (which I have yet to do). It has been honed but it is in the rotation for next week.

I guess you can see some of the reasons why the old masters did not use wood for scale material.
I think Torrey used the same quality steel in all their razors. Torrey seemed to use more steel in their razors and blade for blade are heavier than say a Geneva/Genco razor. Another excellent American razor.