Thread: Black hard rubber "ebonite" as scales????

Was hard black rubber, AKA ebonite, ever used for scales on straight razors? I know it was used a lot on vintage fountain pens and it was used a whole lot for tobacco pipe stems. I'm not sure of the timeline of Black Hard Rubber as far as when it was commonly used.

It tends to have a sulfur smell sometimes when working it so I don't know if it is a tarnish hazard or not on carbon steel. Any insight out there???

Ray

Hi Ray and welcome to SRP.
I have a razor that smells like burnt rubber when the scales are rubbed which could be ebonite.
Perhaps a search through the WIKI might shed some light for you 'cause I know there is an article on identifying scale material in there, somewhere.
Geoff

If it's the same as vulcanite, then yes.

Does Vulcanite get a brownish green "tarnish" on it as it ages? (like an old pipe stem does) If so its probably the same stuff.

Ray

Originally Posted by RayCover

Does Vulcanite get a brownish green "tarnish" on it as it ages? (like an old pipe stem does) If so its probably the same stuff.

Ray

Yes. And the vulcanite scales I had were so brittle that all I had to do to unpin the razor was to squeeze and they basically fell apart.

This material may go under several names. I am no chemist, but I have always known it as bakelite. It was used for hundreds if not thousands of different items. Razor scales is only one of them. Yes, it stinks when worked,breaks when old, will turn colors, and form a powdery substance on its surface. As far as I know, it will not rust metal as will celluloid when it starts to break down. Very Best, wildhog

Ebonite and bakelite are not the same thing. The Black Hard Rubber (ebonite) will burn with a cig lighter, bakelite won't. They used to make ashtrays out of bakelite because it was hard to burn it. Bakelite is also much harder and brittle than hard black rubber (ebonite).

Ray

It was always my belief bakelite was one of the first true or modern plastics. Ebonite was rubber and mostly used in the late 1800s and very early 1900s for scales. They seem similar being hard and brittle and heavy but they are different.

I believe that the hard rubber used to make scales in the 1800's was called "Gutta Percha" .

The reason I ask is that some of the fountain pen restorers have a liquid that "restores" the surface of hard rubber without having to do a bunch of sanding. You put this stuff on and polish the surface. On plain scales you would probably be better off just sanding the surface and polishing but I thought this stuff might be good for checkered or embossed areas you would not want to sand on.... but it only works on Hard Rubber/ebonite.

Of course it only restores the surface. It won't do anything for structural integrity. I will do some more checking and see what I can find out. I have a few razors here I want to clean up and I am pretty sure that the scales are hard rubber. I was hoping for a confirmation that scales were once made of this material. It sounds as if they were made of some version of hard rubber at some point in time.

Ray