Will this Duck quack again?

Hello everyone,

I picked up this Dubl Duck Satinedge recently and was pretty much horrified when it arrived in the mail. I was taken in by its mint spine (no stains, no hone wear) and assumed that the rust on the blade would be pretty light. Well I was wrong. The rust was very heavy, which mean honing with a raised spine on 400 grit sandpaper just to get to (reasonably) solid steel. Here is the result thus far:

Attachment 122932

What is tough to see is the pitting near the edge. Some is visible on the bevel, which is not yet (and perhaps never will be) in uncompromised steel. The scales are nice but are probably what caused the blade corrosion. Can anyone confirm this as celluloid rot? I did notice some strange smell and I cleaned up the scales with Flitz....

Do you think this Duck will live to tell a story? Do I need to get a new set of scales? Any suggestions here (such as the TI replacements? Should I try the inlay transfer? Thanks for looking!

Put it in a ziplock bage for a couple weeks and you will find out. The gas will put rust on the razor quickly. I made the mistake of trying to save some bad Otto scales and alomost ruined several razors by storing a bad set of scales with good ones.. And truth be known I was one oof those guys who didn't buy into scale rot.. Ii learned the hard way.

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Originally Posted by Wintchase

Put it in a ziplock bage for a couple weeks and you will find out.

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If it's bad even a couple of days will tell & it will even corrode thru oil.
I got caught thru bad eBay pics on a duck once but got it shaving in the end. Looks like you have some stabiliser trimming a head of you too.

So if I do the sealed bag test, don't I risk rusting parts of the blade that were never rusted and are in great shape? If so, I'd rather just store it in shaving position away from my other razors...

If there is cell rot in the scales, as long as the scales and blade are attached to each other, rust is going to reoccur. This is due to the offgassing of the scale material as it deteriorates.

Putting it in the bag will do two things. First it show if cell rot is present by causing a reoccurance of the rusting. If there is no cell rot, the rusting will not return and you can proceed with restoration. The other thing that putting it in bag will accomplish is to segregate the scales from other celluloid scales. The offgassing of the cell rot sets in motion a chemical chain reaction that effects the other scales and they will develop cell rot where it might not have been present before.

This is common with some of the Ducks and many here have lost numerous razors in their collections because the chain reaction of cell rot. Not all Ducks have cell rot and cell rot isn't limited to Ducks. Listen to the voices of experience found on the web site. Most of that experience was hard earned.

I have about 12 ducks and have been lucky so far on the bay. I did just buy 1 with the same color scales you have but my blade came looking like new almost after I polished it some. If it were me,,and I had polished it to see more,,,, I would separate that blade from the scales yesterday. Looking at the picture you posted I would bet on cell rot or at least the beginning stages of it. Of course you still have a lot of work ahead of you but you can save what you have. If the pits are not real deep you may be able to sand them out and maybe just polishing will make them less visible. Is the bottom of the blade pitted deep all over or is it just stained ?
As for the shave .. I would hone on a 4k until the pits were at least half way up the bevel if possible and try it out. It doesn't look so bad that you can't save it although it may be an ugly duckling if you can't sand/polish it out. If you don't want to mess with it I would PM GSSixgun and ask for a restore job. If it's throwing good money at a bad idea he will let you know.

Rex, (workshop thread!) I would say all the signs are there. After all, those are famous for the affliction. I gave a set of new ones to a fella a while back and Glen is fixing it up. Lessee how it turns out. Not as fancy, but I MIGHT have another set. I shall dig around.

I do believe I see some corrosion along the bevel. The blade may still be good but remove the scales, and save them in box away from your razors. ( There are guys that reuse the bolster parts to make new scales.). Tape the spine and hone the raw blade and then inspect the bevel. If there is no corrosion you are good to clean and ready it for new scales. I have one that took almost a 32nd of an inch honed off to reach good steel and shave quality edge. It became a good shaver though!
~Richard

I will keep working at the blade and it will be quarantined away from my other razors. I believe it must be cell rot, however I would be willing to bet that if it is stored away from sunlight with good air circulation in the same position as shown in the photo, the rust won't come back. There is a really strong correlation between the rust pattern and the areas of the blade that were right next to the scales, which is how I assume it sat untouched for a very long time. The rest is nearly pristine. But I could be tempted to replace the scales if you come up with a better set, Sharptonn :gl:

I was working today on a Goldedge (thankfully it arrived it pretty good shape) that I took up with hand sanding from MicroMesh 400MX, 1200MX, 8000, 12000, Cape Cod cloth, and Flitz. It looks great. Hopefully this one will follow soon. The reason I could skip from the 1200MX to 8000 was that I nearly wore it out polishing up an Elmax blade. That's some shiny, tough, and really abrasion-resistant steel!

If you leave the scales on that razor they will continue to rust the steel in some way.

Rex, the Ducks became legendary in their day. Awesome hard steel, nice grinds, and scales that were lacking for the long run, unfortunately. The things are rotting away everywhere. I feel Geezer is correct in saying your bevel will require much work.
Some old cell stands up great. Ducks don't seem to (in many cases). I often wondered how I came across several old Satinedge replacement scales in a different design and material. I think they had issuses, even back in the day.

I am no expert and from the research I have done it does look like cell rot in the early stages,

I would wager with a little love and attention you can get it shaving again in fairly short order.