Thread: Cast aluminum scales?

I have a razor with (I think) cast aluminum scales. They're very fancy. Are cast aluminum scales unusual? I don't see much about them on the web or in books. Is there an obvious way to differentiate them from sterling silver? I understand after 1906 anything sterling would have been marked as such. Basically, anything you can tell me about cast aluminum scales is appreciated.

Aluminum was never really popular. They tend to tarnish and when they do they don't look so great. Silver is much heavier and the tarnish is black and of course it's much softer than aluminum and the tarnish comes off much more easily than aluminum.

Have a picture?

Most silver scales are very ornate.

Here's a T Hessenbruch& Co. One of my favorite makers and razors.
Very ornate.

They polished nicely with Simichrome, but they weren't that tarnished to start with. And I think sterling would have been tarnished. The material's pretty thick, and inside the scales you can see that they're slightly hollowed out. I thought aluminum would be light, but the razor weighs an ounce and a half, and feels normal.

Interesting I have the woman on the back side but the famous Hessenbruch Bear with the staff on the front.

Yeah, that definitely looks like the same woman. And your scales are aluminum?

Yes they are aluminum. Its funny that your front face is different then my front face but the backs are identical.

Check out this beauty from another member

Click link below
http://straightrazorpalace.com/custo...um-scales.html

Some folks say they were stamped into the same molds as the celluloid ones. There was a theory that they used electrodeposition to make them from the female molds; a fancy name for thick electroplating. Some say they were cast into said molds. Lost wax casting is also a good method, the wax masters being cast at low cost into the female molds the backs hollowed, and then invested in plaster and burned out and the metal poured into the cavity. Or with that process, they could have used the celluloid scales themselves.( CAREFULLY!) From being a life time metals man, I would suggest that any of the above, or all, may be true. Same goes for the silver ones.

Me, I do not know as i don't have any but the simple stamped out and machine engraved 1mmk thick ones to compare.
Cheers
~Richard

That's a beautyful razor starling. I'm a big fan of aluminum scales. Here's one of mine.