Thread: Death of the Ducks

A long time member of my church passed away last fall in his mid 90's. Yesterday his widow knowing my interest in razors passed on some he used years ago. Too Bad, a pair of Dobl Duck Satin Edge and 5 other were stored together as the one DD with cell rot affected the whole group. Hope this can show what bad storage can do and benefit some newer members. Note the cell rot DD how the rust is all over, along the edges and even pin holed has it migrated through different parts of the steel more rapidly than others. Using a new camera and some of the others are too big. I will try to learn how to corrrect.
The bad Duck is the first one on the left. The second DD, I may be able to save the blade, the others are soaking in oil for a while.

... man, that's a sorry sight!

Stop it! You're making me cry!

This may be a stupid question, but how do you prevent cell rot?

Originally Posted by Cove5440

This may be a stupid question, but how do you prevent cell rot?

Scale replacement, sadly. Not all celluloid is equally likely to break down like that, but I'm not sure I've ever seen any of those honey-colored Duck scales that weren't exhibiting some degree of breakdown. If memory serves, it's mostly the yellow celluloid that does this mean trick, but I think there might be another color that I'm failing to remember.

Close up of the rot

That's a sad traumatic sight

Originally Posted by Voidmonster

Scale replacement, sadly. Not all celluloid is equally likely to break down like that, but I'm not sure I've ever seen any of those honey-colored Duck scales that weren't exhibiting some degree of breakdown. If memory serves, it's mostly the yellow celluloid that does this mean trick, but I think there might be another color that I'm failing to remember.

That's what I thought. I just didn't know if there was another way I wasn't aware of.

Very, very sad!

My condolences for the man who passed away and for the ducks. That is a classic photo of what cell rot looks like and what it will do to a blade.

Originally Posted by Cove5440

This may be a stupid question, but how do you prevent cell rot?

You can't. It is the natural decomposition of celluloid.