Thread: Death of the Ducks

Originally Posted by niftyshaving

Individual wrappers keeps the damage confined to
one. Ventilation is a good thing as is a good oil coating.
Cool and dark slows the reaction.

Even oil offers little protection against cell rot on the individual razor.

Thanks for posting this. It is part of razor history. This is what became of the vast majority of old razors. Lord knows how many went to the war effort.
Conserving what is left is neat!

As put by Col. Kurtz "The horror,... The horror"

OK, Here is what the 6 remaining look like. Dub Duck, Burrell( Top Flight), Case Temperite, M.Jung 80, FWE Special and M.Jung 80 with scales.
I think the DD could be restored, as could the Top Flight and Case, I think the first Jung is shot, but the FWE may work as well as the last Jung.
So....I will never do it, as you know, I have been reducing my collection( down to 250). To The first person who has been following this and is not brand new to the forum and wishes to play with them they are free( would request you send the $3-4 postage after receipt). And after any restore, let us know that at least some of this mistake gets back into the shaving world. This little venture would let some of the new guys/gals know what could be done with real bad stuff.

PM sent, only asking for one.

pm sent, I will give it a try if there are any left....

For a little excitement, put on sunglasses and take your old rotten celluloid outside and burn it on the sidewalk or some other safe surface. It's as bright as magnesium! Pretty scary to think of fires in projection booths!

Ok this may be a stupid question, but how can you tell if the scales on your razor are celluloid?

Rub them briskly on a cloth and see if they smell sort of piney. Better, but slightly destructive, is to heat the end of a paper clip and press it into the scale where nobody will see. If they're celluloid scales you'll definitely get the piney smell.

Originally Posted by roughkype

For a little excitement, put on sunglasses and take your old rotten celluloid outside and burn it on the sidewalk or some other safe surface. It's as bright as magnesium! Pretty scary to think of fires in projection booths!

It's only slightly different chemically from nitro-cellulose gunpowder. IF I recall the story correctly, the original formula for celluloid was created to imitate the ivory that was used in billiard balls. After initial production it was found that in some instances the billiard balls would explode. Made for an interesting game I'd think.

It's funky stuff. I've got pocket knives that date to the late 1890's to the early 1900's with cell scales. No problems. I've had others that weren't 10 years old and never carried or used that went South.

Here's what happened to a Case pocket knife made between 1964 and 1969 with Case's infamous YELLOW scales.

Knife when I got it. Cell decomposition is evident by shrinkage and warping. I removed the scales after the pics were taken.



Odd thing about that particular cell when it goes is that it doesn't eat the steel, it dissolves the brass liners.

I placed the scales outside, in the shade and this is what they turned into in two weeks time.