Thread: How to identify scale material?

Can anyone recommend a book, or perhaps any websites that can teach me how to tell what material scales are made of?

Heck I'd take any straight razor book recommendations you may have.

Thanks.

I would recommend the "Standard Guide to Razors" 2nd edition, by Roy Ritchie and Ron Stewart. It has a chapter devoted just to scale identification, with lots of good photos of every type of scale.

Bakelite you can run under very hot tap water and it has a nasty smell because it was made from formaldehyde. Where most Celluloid/resin compounds will smell like wet plastic or no smell at all. For celluloid/resin you can also use 100% acetone on a cotton ball and lightly rub and it will actually melt/remove the material ( so do not use this method if you plan on keeping the scales ).

I have never really dealt with horn before but I would bet it has a very unique feel compared to a celluloid based product.

I have something that appears to be either Ivory Bone or Horn, how would I figure that out?

Originally Posted by Cole19

I have something that appears to be either Ivory Bone or Horn, how would I figure that out?

Maybe this will help?

How can I tell if something is made of ivory? | Answerbag

If it's from your post earlier, my first thought on the Upper left pic was Ivory but then the last pis shows classic Bone markers. Bone is almost always porous, check the wedge side with the dark spots. Ivory is usually very thin and tends to have a different grain, like wood lines without the pits in it.

Sorry I don't have book links as I'm looking for good books as well.

Horn is quite distinctive. The black horn has a grain that runs (typically) from pin to pin on the scales, and it doesn't look like wood grain. You also sometimes see lightening around the edges of the scales, and worm/insect "bites" are common. Once you see it, it's pretty clear.

Blonde horn does not have the grain (that I have seen) but often has similar bites out of it. It also sometimes develops what I think is called delamination, where the layers start to split apart leaving what looks like air bubbles trapped between sheets of plastic. It's a smooth material, and is often dyed with dark green to look like tortoise, but even when died it's very clear when it's blonde horn.

Bone vs ivory is the pores, like Dwarven said. Again, once you see it, it's pretty easy to tell them apart.

The stuff I still have trouble with are telling the various synthetics apart from each other (cause I never bothered to learn the differences), and I'm not sure I could tell real tortoise apart from the plastic stuff cause I don't think I've ever seen real tortoise.

Originally Posted by Cole19

I have something that appears to be either Ivory Bone or Horn, how would I figure that out?

I did a post back in October of last year comparing ivory, bone, and celluloid, with close-up pictures. I'm no authority on ivory identification, but at least my post does show valid examples of each material side by side as used in razor scales, which is tough to find. That's why I posted it originally. Hopefully it will help you.

Member Scipio pointed out in a later post in the same thread that Schraeger Lines are found exclusively in elephant ivory, which was good info that I didn't know when I posted. I thought all ivory had such lines.

The "Standard Guide to Razors" book that Croaker mentioned earlier is an excellent reference on identifying razor scale materials, the only one I know of actually. It's a great book overall.

Thanks a lot for posting that link FatBoySlim, I wasn't even aware that section of the Wiki existed with all those help files, now I've got lots more stuff to read.

I've ordered a copy of the book mentioned above too. That will be lots of fun to read.

From your post I can tell right away the scales I'm trying to figure out are celluloid. They look just like the fake ivory ones in your post (except discoloured with age).

I think this will helpful.
http://strazors.com/uploads/images/H...BONES_MORE.pdf