Thread: Left Silver Steel razor unattended for 2+ years

One of my prized NOS razors w/ immaculate scales suffered rust from sitting in between two layers of bubble wrap. It was not sealed in any way. Reminded me of how important it is to check on carbon blades as well. My fault completely. Been attacking it w/ simichrome polish to remove as much as possible in 15 mins time. These pics are from before the latest round of polishing.

Will continue working on it. I should leave razors made of amalgams like this within arms reach to check on them periodically. Hope the rust has not eaten away at the edge. Luckily none of my other razors suffered any oxidation. Really bumbed me out ystrdy Can it be salvaged?

It could be celluloid rot from the scales and nothing to do with the bubblewrap

Gorgeous blade, I hope you can get it back in order. You may try 1k wet dry sandpaper if the polish isn't working well, easy enough to go through grits and back to perfectpolished if there's no pitting

That looks like the beginnings of cell rot.

Try using the metal polish with some #0000 steel wool. If that doesn't get it, then go to some high grit sandpaper (2500 grit or higher) and work back through the grits.

I am with Rod

This looks like cell rot. The pitting along the bevel is very similar to a blade I just trashed. The metal would flake just using a thumb nail.

I hope it is not but I have a bad vibe on this piece.

If it is cell rot get it out of those scales.

Originally Posted by rodb

It could be celluloid rot from the scales and nothing to do with the bubblewrap

so should they not be stored in the closed position to prevent this from happening?

That would probably help, but once the scales start to go there is not much you can do to save them. I use Barricade gun oil preservative on my long term storage blades, but I'm not sure that would help with cell rot

That's cell rot for sure. Since the gas is caustic there is no protectant I can think of that would shield it.

I'd get the scales off pronto. Once rot starts it progresses very rapidly and the bubble wrap probably made it worse by concentrating the gas.

Another vote for the dreaded rot. Too bad, maybe you caught it in time to salvage the blade.