Vintage Razors: Scale Materials
I notice that a lot of vintage razors with black scales on eBay are described as being made of horn or pressed horn. I have no doubt that's true, but I see almost none being described as made of hard rubber (also called ebonite). The same seems true here on the B/S/T, to a lesser extent. And yet, I've bought a half dozen or so black-scaled vintage razors off eBay--Boker, Torrey, W&B, etc.--and all have had black hard rubber scales. Too small a sample to generalize, I know, but I wonder how many people describe ebonite scales as horn because they see a photo of a black-scaled SR that is described as horn and decide their SR is horn-handled as well.
I've never handled pressed horn, but horn itself has a grain to it, doesn't it? Hard rubber certainly does not. In photos, black scales that has discolored to a greenish=grey or to a mottled brown is likely to be hard rubber. In person, you can tell if scales are hard rubber with a quick rubbing of the material--if it gives off a burnt rubber smell, it's ebonite/hard rubber.
I've also noticed that what is often called "cracked ice" here is generally called marblized or pearlized celluloid in the vintage fountain pen world, not that they have a lock on the correct term. But here is what fountaiin pen folks call cracked ice:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v2...mell/bcice.jpg
Rather different, eh?
So, horn and pressed horn, bone and antler, ivory, ebonite, and celluloid. What other materials were vintage straight razor scales made from?
Dan