Thread: What does everyone think? Celluloid Rot?

I was perusing Ebay and came across this razor. In an effort to get better at identifying celluloid rot thus avoiding purchasing a problem I'm curious what everyone thinks. I'm thinking it is cell rot based on my understanding of the issue. Rust confined to bottom of blade/clear boundary- check. Light colored celluloid handle- check. Rust less visible when blade is closed- check.

Good guess, the iced scales are a bad sign and that rust is off gassing for sure, scales are throw away and so is the blade. Might only have Swiss cheese

By the way your signature is cool, but correction, it takes torque to get you there , horsepower only keeps it there.

That's celluloid rot. The whole thing is terminal. Edge is probably swiss cheese.

A little science project I keep outside in the garage, seal in a pill bottle. I check on it every year or so, watching the progress. Put the bronze, fish hook in there about a year ago, to gauge how it reacts to fresh, hardened steel.



We'll see, in a couple more months.

Cell rot is brutal. Look at this 1939 Epiphone Triumph I have. It was locked in the case for decades, the faux tortoise celluloid pickguard went off, oxidized the top frets, rotted out the brackets of the pickguard, bit the plating of the pickup and electronics housing, bit the brass underneath, and set the white celluloid off as well where it shrunk and disintegrated. It also rotted the base of the truss rod under the fretboard. And the strings... And the tailpiece. Nasty nasty stuff... it also ate some of the hide glue.

Now that sucks.!

That would have been the pickguard size. It didn't take much to create a disaster in a contained area. Maybe 2 or 3 sets of scales worth of faux tortoise. Thing is, a lot of northeast us guitars from this era have this issue. I suspect the blades from this area with similar rot issues got their celluloid from this same unstable run.

Yikes looks like a mess!

Interesting project.

Mike, the fish hook looks like it’s doing ok, how does it look compared to when you stuck it in there?