Gold Dollar 66 Rescale in Wattle Timber (aka snake wood)

[rbscebu]

Last week while rummaging through my to-do box, I came across a Gold Dollar 66 blade. I had this blade on hand to one day convert to a symmetrical kamisori style with fixed handle. Once found, I decided instead to rescale the blade in wattle timber and include it in my shave-ready SR loan-outs. I have some more GD66s on order so I can make my kamisori later. Here is what I am starting with:

​

From top to bottom:

Piece of lead/tin solder stick for the lead wedge​

Scales blank of wattle timber 201mm x 52mm x 3.5mm thick​

Gold Dollar 66 blade (2023 grind)​

Brass pinning rod​

Brass flat collars​

​

I will cut the scales blank lengthways so that I have two pieces each 201mm x 26mm x 3.5mm thick. For the scales profile shape, I will use the same profile as the generic GD66 scales.

As the blade is one of the latest grinds, the geometry is good and no modification is necessary. Like most SRs, the pivot pin hole is bigger than the diameter of the pinning rod. In this case it is 1.9mm while the pinning rod is standard 1.6mm diameter.

I will start this project tomorrow (Monday).

​

 

[Mastropiero]

Do you usually bother inserting a..... Please help me out, my English is letting me down here.... I am thinking about a piece of metal, like a metal tube but, obviously of a small enough diameter to be possible to insert it in the pivot hole, narrowing it down, so the brass rod fits tighter.

 

[Zeke]

Do you usually bother inserting a..... Please help me out, my English is letting me down here.... I am thinking about a piece of metal, like a metal tube but, obviously of a small enough diameter to be possible to insert it in the pivot hole, narrowing it down, so the brass rod fits tighter.

Bush?

 

[rbscebu]

Do you usually bother inserting a..... Please help me out, my English is letting me down here.... I am thinking about a piece of metal, like a metal tube but, obviously of a small enough diameter to be possible to insert it in the pivot hole, narrowing it down, so the brass rod fits tighter.

As stated by @Zeke, the technical term is a "bush".

No, I never insert a bush into a pivot hole. All blades that I have worked on have pivot pin holes larger in diameter than the pivot pin. From memory, the largest hole was almost twice as big as the pivot pin.

Having an "oversized" pivot pin hole has no effect on the operation of the razor, as long as the razor's point does not come in contact with the wedge.

What I do do with an oversized pivot pin hole is full it with epoxy weld and then redrill the hole ∅1.6mm into the epoxy as close to the blade's tail as possible. This just makes it easier for me as I like the blade's point to be close to the wedge. As the epoxy wears, the blade tends to move away from the wedge.

You will find an example of what I mean in this post:

Good Deeds Never Go Unpunished - "Bengall" Restoration

That Bengall Shortie looks great. One day I want to get a shortie.

paste-and-cut.com.au

 

[rbscebu]

I started on this project this morning. First, using my fret saw, I cut the scales blank in two and applied thin double-sided tape.

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Next I stuck to two pieces of timber together and marked out the shape of the scales that I wanted. To get the shape, I used an old GD66 set of scales as a template.

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From there, I used the fret saw to cut out the rough shape of the scales, being careful to try and stay outside of the pencil line.

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Using 80 grit sandpaper, I sanded the scales profile to the pencil marking and marked the location of the pivot pin hole using the old GD66 scales as a template..

The pivot pin hole was then drilled. Still using 80 grit sandpaper, the scales were then sanded to my desired shape. here I used my eye and feel to get everything the way I wanted.

Using some pinning rod, I positioned the blade on the scales and marked out the location of the blade's point. I then marked were I wanted the thick edge of the wedge to be located, in this case about 1mm from the blade's point. I also marked my preferred location of the wedge-pin hole, about ⅓ of the wedge length from the thick edge of the wedge. Others may prefer this located in a different position.

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The wedge pin hole was then drilled and the scales were given a final sanding with 180 grit sandpaper.

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Now it was time to make the lead wedge. From measuring the wattle scales, I knew that the wedge had to be 22mm long and at least 19mm wide. I also measured the thickness of the blade at its point where I wanted it to be in contact with the top of the scales. I found this to be 2.55mm. It was then a matter of cold forging the bar of lead/tin solder to the desired wedge thickness and width. This was done with a hammer and heavy lump of clean steel as an anvil, finishing off with a sanding on 180 grit sandpaper. The thick edge of the wedge needed to be about 2.5mm to 2.6mm thick and the wedge tapering down to a under 1mm thick at the other end.

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All is coming along well. I am now considering whether I should apply cyanoacrylate to the timber to give it some protection from moisture and enhance the timber grain. Normally I would just give the timber a few applications of beeswax and polish but I might not in this case. It would be interesting to see how the wattle timber looks with a CA finish.

​

 

[LesC]

Last week while rummaging through my to-do box, I came across a Gold Dollar 66 blade. I had this blade on hand to one day convert to a symmetrical kamisori style with fixed handle. Once found, I decided instead to rescale the blade in wattle timber and include it in my shave-ready SR loan-outs. I have some more GD66s on order so I can make my kamisori later. Here is what I am starting with:

​

From top to bottom:

Piece of lead/tin solder stick for the lead wedge​

Scales blank of wattle timber 201mm x 52mm x 3.5mm thick​

Gold Dollar 66 blade (2023 grind)​

Brass pinning rod​

Brass flat collars​

​

I will cut the scales blank lengthways so that I have two pieces each 201mm x 26mm x 3.5mm thick. For the scales profile shape, I will use the same profile as the generic GD66 scales.

As the blade is one of the latest grinds, the geometry is good and no modification is necessary. Like most SRs, the pivot pin hole is bigger than the diameter of the pinning rod. In this case it is 1.9mm while the pinning rod is standard 1.6mm diameter.

I will start this project tomorrow (Monday).

​

@rbscebu, I had this blade on hand to one day convert to a symmetrical kamisori style with fixed handle.
Now this is what I would love to see!!
Will keep an eye out on your future posts
Cheers
Les

 

[Ebonysw45]

Looks good. If you are after lead for the wedge an easy option is 50 cal .490 round balls. They come in a box of 100.

 

[rbscebu]

Looks good. If you are after lead for the wedge an easy option is 50 cal .490 round balls. They come in a box of 100.

Thank you but lead fishing sinkers are easier for me to source in town (about 80km away). I also have available 60/40 bar lead/tin solder here on the farm where I live.

 

[Ebonysw45]

Thank you but lead fishing sinkers are easier for me to source in town (about 80km away). I also have available 60/40 bar lead/tin solder here on the farm where I live.

Fair enough. It was more for the other blokes and someone years from now looking for an equivalent.

 

[rbscebu]

I decided to treat these scales in cyanoacrylate (aka superglue or just CA). How I did it is posted here:

Applying a Cyanoacrylate Finish to SR Scales

WARNING! The fumes given off from cyanoacrylate are harmful. Always use in a well ventilated area. Cyanoacrylate (aka superglue or just CA) is applied to SR scales to give them a shiny almost clear plastic like finish. It also helps protect the scales from moisture It is often applied to timber...

paste-and-cut.com.au

They turned out rather nice. I like the effect.

​

Next is to do a little work on the blade's pivot pin hole, finish the lead wedge and put it all together. That will have to wait until Wednesday as I have some professional work to attend to tomorrow.

 

[Mastropiero]

I decided to treat these scales in cyanoacrylate (aka superglue or just CA). How I did it is posted here:

Applying a Cyanoacrylate Finish to SR Scales

WARNING! The fumes given off from cyanoacrylate are harmful. Always use in a well ventilated area. Cyanoacrylate (aka superglue or just CA) is applied to SR scales to give them a shiny almost clear plastic like finish. It also helps protect the scales from moisture It is often applied to timber...

paste-and-cut.com.au

They turned out rather nice. I like the effect.

​

Next is to do a little work on the blade's pivot pin hole, finish the lead wedge and put it all together. That will have to wait until Wednesday as I have some professional work to attend to tomorrow.

Drew Dick uses extensively CA for his wooden scales, the effect is terrific.... If that's what floats your boat.

 

[rbscebu]

Drew Dick uses extensively CA for his wooden scales, the effect is terrific.... If that's what floats your boat.

I rarely use CA on scales having only used it on 4 or 5 sets of scales. Most of my timber scales I leave natural and just polish with beeswax. I like the look and feel of natural untreated timber. Other of course may feel differently about their timber scales.

 

[Mastropiero]

I rarely use CA on scales having only used it on 4 or 5 sets of scales. Most of my timber scales I leave natural and just polish with beeswax. I like the look and feel of natural untreated timber. Other of course may feel differently about their timber scales.

I hear you. When I commissioned Drew my Japanese style Kamisori, I wanted a wooden, English yew sheath for it. He insisted on a CA finish on it, which I allowed him to do, despite my doubts. When he sent me the razor, there was a slight defect with the finish of the sheath, I sent it back, he tried to fix it, couldn't, so, eventually, he sanded it and gave it a natural look. So much better.

I mean, I already have a shiny grand piano at home, and despite being Romanian, that's all the shininess I need in my life.

 

[StratMan]

they look awesome have some sinkers here I can sacrifice for the cause, if you get time post some close up how to's on the lead weight

 

[rbscebu]

I forgot to mention that the scale blanks remained stuck together right up until it was time to treat them with CA.

To separate the two halves of the scales, I use an old but sharp paring knife, being careful not to damage or break the timber. Once separated, the adhesive residue is easily remove by rubbing it with your finger.

 

[rbscebu]

Yesterday evening I filled the razor's pivot pin hole with epoxy weld. This was not really necessary, however I prefer to do it so that I can better fit the blade in the scales.

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This morning I re-drilled the pivot pin hole through the epoxy as far from the blade's point as possible. This will mean that as the epoxy wears, the blade's point will tend to move away from the wedge.

​

My next step was to pin the blade into the scales. I had previously given the blade a thorough examination and found that the shank was much thicker towards the shoulder than it was at the pivot area. the shank was also not ground symmetrically about the blade's longitudinal centreline, being thicker on the face side. The tapering shank from shoulder to pivot could be easily handled by fitted some washers between the blade and the scales. The unsymmetrical shank was going to give problems in having the blade close centrally in the scales. this can be corrected by judiciously sanding the inner surface of the face-side scale.

For pinning, I decided on brass rod with brass castle collars. The reason being that I had much more brass rod than nickel alloy and that I was not overly fond of castle collars.

The blade was pinned to the scales and I then set about working on the wedge end.

I had cold forged the solder bar so that I had a tapered end that went from almost zero thickness at the outer end to about 2.6mm thickness 23mm away from the outer end. The wedge also needed to be at least 19mm wide at its 2.6mm thickness to match the scales. Using scissors, I cut the lead/tin alloy at the 2.6mm thick mark. My scissors will cut lead up to about 3mm thick. (Sorry, I forgot to take pics of the wedge before fitting it.)

Holding the wedge in place in the scales, I marked the wedge pin hole with a pin and then drilled a Ø1.6mm hole in the lead wedge. I then fitted and pinned the wedge into place closing the scales. Using my scissors, I trimmed the excess of the wedge back to near the timber scales.

As expected, the blade was not closing cleanly into the scales so I set about sanding the inner surface of the face scale in way of the shank near the blade's shoulder. eventually I got the blade to close reasonably well into the scales without the blade's edge easily coming into contact with the scales. It is not perfect by certainly good enough for my use or as a loan-out SR.

I also sanded the edges of the lead wedge back to where they were flush with the timber scales. This removed some of the CA so I applied a couple of more CA coats were needed and polished everything up.

I now have a re-scaled Gold Dollar 66 in wattle timber.

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Now to hone it up and give it shave test tomorrow morning.

Overall, this project took me a little of 3.5 hours of my time, not including CA drying time.

 

[Mastropiero]

Excellent and thorough job mate, well done.

 

[Gargravarr]

Until you first mentioned these wattle scales, I had never heard of it described as snakewood, which I've always associated with the hard, dense and extremely expensive timber from South America used occasionally to make violin or viol bows.

I wondered briefly if this is the same wattle that grows like a weed on my property (from a 6-inch sapling to a 15 foot tree in 10 years) but apparently not. I gather your wattle is Acacia xiphophylla endemic to WA, whereas mine is Acacia pataczekii and A. pycnantha (Golden Wattle). The timber looks pretty similar. You're welcome to a few logs of it if you like (if you don't mind seasoning it). I also have some thoroughly seasoned Tasmanian native cherry that might make an attractive material for scales if you like.

 

[rbscebu]

The honed GD66 had its test shave this morning against a 6/8 pre-1924 T.R. Cadman "Bengall". It was very hard to tell the difference between the two, even with the CdM. The GD66 was more forgiving with its more obtuse bevel angle but both razors were about equally as keen.

This re-scaled GD66 is definitely ready for loan-out and I will list it later today.

 

[StratMan]

scales look great.. nice job!!