Le Grelot 355 Rescale by Alfredo

MichaelS

MichaelS

Forum GOD!
Steve56 said:
He does wedges normally, but:

You use a wedge when:

- The razor tang is tapered like in the good old days, and
- The scales can bend a little, like horn, ivory, tortoise, celluloid ….

You use a spacer when:

- the razor tang is not tapered
- The scale material won’t flex, like wood, hard bone ….

Razors with tapered tangs and wedges are the most elegant ones, made by accomplished craftsmen. They look better, feel better in hand, are lighter, and are better overall. A slab-sided tang with inflexible scales and a spacer instead of a wedge is something that you can make with less skilled labor. That’s every mainstream razor made today, Boker, Dovo, TI, many artisans and so on.
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Excellent summary, should be a sticky!
 
MichaelS

MichaelS

Forum GOD!
UKRob said:
Two materials I’ve tried but would not use again are:

Ram horn - the smell when working this stuff is nauseous making and the end product just not worth making the effort.

Giraffe bone - I made the mistake of following the fashion on one occasion. It’s so dense that it’s almost impossible to form by hand - power tools are needed - and the scales have little to no flex.
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+1

For me the bumpy ram surface was also a nightmare for drilling the pivot pin hole; and my giraffe scales were so heavy the resultant razor was badly unbalanced.
 
G

Grayswandir

Veteran
UKRob said:
Not in my experience. But, again, the flex is the real problem. Bovine bone is much more available in the UK but why anyone would want to use it beyond me. Bone is not a good look for scales. Ivory is a good look for scales.
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It all has a similar smell to me, like burnt hair, it's nasty.

I appreciate the tip on tang shapes Steve!

I was aware of some measuring techniques in regards to how thick a tang is and the relation to the thickness of the wedge, etc., but I never really thought about tangs that are not tapered. The first time I had a problem with a spacer was on a Dubl Duck Special No.1. The razor was "floating" or rising in the scales and I didn't understand why. It just wouldn't close properly. I eventually figured out that I needed a wedge and not a spacer, but it always bothered me because only certain razors showed this behavior. Now I know why, so thank you. I just assumed that using a wedge was the right way by default, without realizing tang shape was the real culprit.

I have some bone scales that still need some finishing work (bovine). I imagine they'd flex if thin enough? I don't know, ivory is kind of in short supply these days, and bone can be made to look handsome. I doubt I'll buy more, it's just not worth the extra work. Natural materials can be problematic because they're not uniform in shape and thickness like acrylics and pre-cut woods are. I haven't worked with Kirinite yet, but I really love the look of it, it's just so damn expensive!

-gray.
 
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