Just like most model railroaders, I tend to look at everyday items in terms of how I can use them on my layout. The other day when I was walking around the auto body shop I work in, I noticed a piece of rusty metal on the floor. Now that is not an unusual thing to see around here, but for some reason it got my attention and I picked it up to look at it. It turned out to be the thick part that is used as the handle of a single edged razor blade. Once I saw what it was I had an idea of what I could use it for on my layout. It looked to me like a rusty old fence panel that I have seen lining industries in various areas. So I looked around the outside storage yard and came back with a handful of old rusty single edge razor blades. I would recommend wearing some kind of protective gloves when working with these and to still handle them with care. Perhaps make sure your tetanus shot is up to date too, just in case.
Here is what they look like before they get dropped on the ground to rust.
I took a small flat head screwdriver and pried open the handle section very carefully and then pulled the blade part out with a pair of pliers. Some of the blade parts were very rusty and broke apart so I saved those pieces for my scrap pile and to make a gondola load of rusty scrap. Nothing looks like rusty scrap pieces better than REAL rusty scrap pieces.
After I had all of the blade parts separated, I lined up the thicker handle parts side by