Thread: I just wanted to show off my new TI... sorry

I found this on ebay - see earlier thread. I think it was an excellent find at a fantastic price! This is how it arrived out of the box. Sorry for the indulgent shots but I felt like practicing my photography

A few questions, can anyone tell me if the scales are celluloid or plastic? If it's any help they kind of smell of old books, but not in a bad way.

Also, there's a small amount of black tarnish (looks like it might have developed from a finger print). I'm not terribly worried about this but wouldn't mind getting rid of it. The black tarnish is starting to turn into a very slight patch of rust in one place, how do I best get rid of this?

Finally, does anyone know when this might have been manufactured? The blade is stamped with the numbers 09 and 188. The blade is engraved with the words, "Sheffield Best Silver Steel Guaranteed". The tang is engraved with the words "*e Daille Argt. Thiers-Issard"

Apart from that it seems to have the beginning of a nice edge on it. It looks a bit rough to the naked eye but it's certainly starting to pop hairs off my arm. Unfortunately there's a small nick towards the toe of the blade which should be visible from some shots. I haven't got a 1k but I've put aside an hour later so will see if I can hone it out with a a few circles on the 4k norton before going to a pyramid... Can't wait to shave with this one!

Regards