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Custom Straight Razor Mother of Pearl Scales - Making Of (Part 2)

Custom Straight Razor Mother of Pearl Scales - Making Of (Part 2)

This post is a continuation of my Custom Straight Razor Mother of Pearl Scales - Making Of (Part 1) Update! So, I took the scales off of the clamps, and then I scraped off all of the paper that was super glued on the nickel sheeting.  Then, I took my 1/16" Drill bit and drilled right through all of the holes that were in the nickel sheeting straight through the 3 MOP panels on the other side.  This made it so that the holes were perfectly positioned.  Obviously I have quite a bit of excess MOP material hanging off the sides.  that is OK though! :) mother-of-pearl-straight-razor-16 Then, I sanded the MOP side flat with my disc sander.  This ground down the excess nickel sheeting that was sticking out on the panel dividers. mother-of-pearl-straight-razor-17 I was then able to do the whole thing over again on the other side.  I trimmed up the MOP pieces to the correct dimensions, and then epoxied them in place, starting with the center piece: mother-of-pearl-straight-razor-18 And then I put in my nickel panel dividers and epoxied in the other two panels: mother-of-pearl-straight-razor-19 You can see the dividers sticking out.  All that excess material will go away after it sets up! mother-of-pearl-straight-razor-20 After it set up, I unclamped the scales. The epoxy set extremely solid. mother-of-pearl-straight-razor-21 I took it to the belt sander, and flattened out the pile side scale mother-of-pearl-straight-razor-22 After that, I used the pre-drilled holes on the front scale to drill through the pile side scale. mother-of-pearl-straight-razor-23 I then did some more profiling with the belt sander, and when I started getting close to my original tracings, I took the original scale and I bolted it on to the the MOP scales so that I had an exact profile to match. mother-of-pearl-straight-razor-24 You can see a little bit of excess material that I had to grind down. mother-of-pearl-straight-razor-25 After a little more sanding, I was close to the original profile mother-of-pearl-straight-razor-26 You can see no overhangs now :) mother-of-pearl-straight-razor-27 Then, I spent about 30 minutes on the belt sander, very carefully and slowly thinning out the scales (they started around .125" ea, and I thinned them to approx .11"). MOP chips easily, and sands slowly, so, it was a delicate process. mother-of-pearl-straight-razor-28 So, it was on to hand sanding. I started at 220 grit and went to town. mother-of-pearl-straight-razor-29 With every grit, it got prettier and prettier mother-of-pearl-straight-razor-30 After a buff, I was just stunned! mother-of-pearl-straight-razor-32 Unfortunately, there was no time to enjoy. it was on to the next step. I started to carefully pin the panels on to the nickel liners, one hole at a time mother-of-pearl-straight-razor-33 After each of them were pinned, I buffed up the heads on the MOP side mother-of-pearl-straight-razor-34 Then I ran some 1000 grit sandpaper along the back side of the scales (the nickel sheeting, and then gave them a quick buff. A final buff will come later. mother-of-pearl-straight-razor-35 Here is another shot, ready for pinning. mother-of-pearl-straight-razor-36 I decided to use the original lead wedge, but, it was pretty gunky, so, I started to clean it up mother-of-pearl-straight-razor-37 Here are the edges, polished up mother-of-pearl-straight-razor-38 Then it was just a matter of pinning it into the wedge end of the scales mother-of-pearl-straight-razor-39 And finally, here it is -  the reason for ALL of that work -  a mother of pearl scale that is capable of flexing! mother-of-pearl-straight-razor-40 And finally, the results! wade-butcher-mop-03 wade-butcher-mop-01 Check out the Full Gallery!
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Comments

assad - November 18, 2020

Hey,

what was the thickness of the nickel sheet and the mop pieces you used?, and what was the end thickness? Also did you bent the scales to curvature after you glue the mops?

Chris - November 18, 2020

Very nice work I have a wade and butcher full concave with MOP scales as well one side is completely in tackt howeverone of the tips is missing aluminum backing seems intact so please let me know if you can help me out shouldbe getting it today but I can send you a link with pictures for now and how much it would cost. Just need that spot and maybe a look through of the other one could send the MOP as well if needed

Thanks. Chris

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