I find myself being drawn to older straights, mid 1800's stuff. Looking at the ones on Ebite with original handles I keep comming up with the question "How safe are the scales?" Some look ok but others seem to have seen better days. I have also been drawn to lighter colored horn scales. How do the nearly 200 year old horn scales hold up to say weekly use?

I'm inclined to just bid on older ones with trashed scales and have someone put new horn scales on it. But that will have to wait till I'm a bit richer