Thread: How to Identify scales material?

I did a search through here and came up empty so I'm posting. I hope it's not old hat and I just searched wrong. Anyways here goes.

How can a novice like me identify scale materials? I have a razor from a flea market that I'm cleaning up and I noticed that the scales are much sturdier than most other razors I've gotten from flea markets (such as my griffon, geneva cutlery pyramid, etc.) Sturdier as in thickness to strength ratio. It's also a heavier razor by weight in general and the balance is nice. It doesn't look to me like bakalite or celluloid that I've seen in examples, but I'm no pro either.

Here's a few pics, high rez at http://www.procis.net/Razors, look through the index and click the ones that are not "mod" or "small" etc.

Can't tell from the pics, but they look to have some grain to them. Could be bone. Lynn

Looks like bone to me too.

loooks like bone to me too and that crack is very typical of what happens to bone or ivory in vintage razors.

I'm going to say bone, too.

Hey, wouldn't it be neat to have a razor made out of human bone? Really creepy, sure -- but neat!

They could call it the Ed Gein Limited Edition razor.

Originally Posted by Blade Wielder

Hey, wouldn't it be neat to have a razor made out of human bone?

Perhaps you would be so kind as to donate your jawbone. Now we could slay a thousand warriors with that.

Thanks. I tried to get a really high def close up but the cheap digital that I'm using kept doing a fancy multi-flash, pause, then shutter release with a mega flash and the light would ruin the detail in the close up. I couldn't figure out how to turn that feature off and of course nothing in the online manual jumped out at me.

when I started cleaning it I first thought (hoped) yellowed Ivory until I saw the grain in it. But if you flash it right it looks like the grain was etched in lightly to simulate wood grain but I don't see evidence of any darkened colors to make it look like wood.

Originally Posted by xman

Perhaps you would be so kind as to donate your jawbone. Now we could slay a thousand warriors with that.

While it is true that I have a masculine, model-like jaw, I'm unable to donate it at the present time. Maybe when I'm dead.

Originally Posted by Blade Wielder

Maybe when I'm dead.

Whas that assumptive on my part? Sorry, eh.

Blade Wielder, I have a razor with human bone scales! It is a John Pitt's with the Queen Elizabeth Mark (1861-1901). An orthapeadic surgeon examined the razor scales and said that it appeared human bone was used to make them. He said that in the 19th century and earlier, cadavers were sold by very poor people to be used for utility objects like razor scales and other things. I might be shaving with one of my Great-Great-Great Grandparents' salvaged body parts!...RRR