Wacker Jungmeister Love the razor, hate the scales. It really does need to be in horn, doesn’t it???? Mike (@M14Shooter) has a great example of what I hope to shoot for. Hope you don’t mind me stealing your SOTD pic Mike... Now that is how it should look!!! A little bit of luck needed with the choice of horn. Not quite as nice, but will be better than the wood. Interesting discovery unpinning... and it wasn’t that easy. A pretty bent pin and 5 internal washers - 3 on one side and 2 on the other. I’ve been known to “make it work,” but this is a little crazy. Coping saw and 60 grit dremel sanding drum got their workout in today. A little wide and a little thick. Got some hand sanding work to do with 180. Here is the end of Day 1. I’m interested to see just how these pieces of horn turn out. Enjoy your projects. Tom
Looking good, especially with it being just "Day 1." It looks ready to start polishing? What will you use to polish/finish it out? Ya' done good!!
Thank you Gary! I appreciate it Keith... fingers crossed. Thank you! I normally get to point in sanding when I rush it to get it done. I plan to take a little more time with these, spend a majority at 400 grit, then work my way up to 2000 grit. After that I’m thinking Flitz, followed by Renaissance Wax. I’m hoping . Thank you.
Horn is pretty nice material to work, you can get a beautiful gloss finish on the scales, once you go through the correct grit progression, once you start to hit the 4K and 6K that horn takes on a high polish.
Continuing to plod along... Spent a day with 400 grit paper, slowly taking out the 180 scratches. Then flattened out the inside by taping 180 (and then 400) to the backside of my DMT plate. Used double-sided tape to hold my fingers to the top of the scales, and off to work... Yes, machinery would make life easier. Then pulled out the 800 to work both sides, and it got me here: DMT with 800 in the background. Drilled my scales at this point, decided on and made a horn wedge, and then mocked it up. Checked to make I don’t need to reuse all 5 internal washers . Looks pretty good and should be a decent upgrade. Then took everything apart and continued sanding. Spent a while at 1500 dry and then wet. After that I polished with Flitz and a microfiber towel... but I do try to turn my Speed dial up to 10 for fun. Done for the weekend... I’ll check it daylight to see how I did and what is left. Enjoy your projects. Tom
Thank you Mike. The horn has some interesting internal coloring. It will be slightly different once it is put back together. Thank you Gary. Definitely liking it more than the wood... though I may reshape/reuse those scales in another project.
I've had this problem, removing pins before. I've even broke one set of scales, not a big deal, because they were just so-so, anyway. All that is in the past. I now mainly use a "Jewelers Saw", on any scales I wish to re-use. The saw makes fast work of the process, without little to no damage to anything but a washer.
I electrical tape the scale over the pin and use a dremel sanding drum to grind it down... does seem like an unnecessary risk on my part. Might have the give the saw a look.
Just order the smallest, and next to smallest blades you can find, on ebay. Just be aware, blades are inexpensive, and they do snap. Just get a good saw, not the cheapest. Like this. Easily adjustable. https://www.ebay.com/itm/GOXAWEE-JE...=362643983910af84d9b9bac14107b9dfdbce360961e1 ..
Finally got a chance to finish... Brass all around for pinning. I like how the horn wedge turned out: So here is where we started: And I had some great examples on this forum to imitate! Here is where I landed: And the backside: Each piece of horn has its own personality, and I like what this piece did for the blade. Enjoy your projects. Tom