Thread: My 3 Year Old Dovo Special's Scales Warped - Why?

Is your rack in the sun for any part of the day?

Originally Posted by Alembic

I don't store my 30 day rotation in a box - they are in a rack. I am beginning to wonder if it was all the AC I ran during the heat wave.

Before I got this far I did wonder if the razor was standing vertically. I don't know that standing vertically could be the culprit but perhaps. IOW, weight of the blade putting pressure on the scales. Perhaps you might discern if this is the case from the nature of the warp. BTW, if the blade can still be guided in .... it is a cosmetic issue AFAIC .... then again, it ain't my razor and I don't have to look at it.

The same thing happerned to my Dovo pearlex that I bought from straight razor designs and it was less than two years old. It was stored in a box with several other razors. None of the other razaors had that problem. They were stored in a cool dark place, my bed room.

Originally Posted by Alembic

So my three year old Dovo Special in 6/8 with tortoise scales sat peacefully in my razor rack awaiting its next turn in my rotation. It shows up every 30 days. Sometime between the last time I used it and yesterday the scales decided to warp - worse on the side that has the metal Dovo emblem inserted in the scale.

I have seen this many times in old scales on razors I have purchased - but never on one that is only three years old. Anybody have any ideas why they would warp. There is no heat source like lamps or blow dryers anyplace near the rack.

3 years old huh?

Probably George Bush's fault.

Time for a rescale! Uh, has anyone considered cheap scales might be the culprit? Something to ponder!

I've got two Dovo's and two sets of warped scales. I think that the place that they're getting their scales from isn't allowing the plastic/celluloid to cure completely before getting them out of the door. When I worked for Paradise Pen, we saw this in our celluloid pens on occasion...one day the pen was fine, the next it was warped.

Painting Dovo with a broad brush here. I've only got one of recent mfg. I bought this in September of 2008. It is the one in the center of the photo and I just took a look. Scales ....black plastic..... still straight.

Hello to All,

My 6/8 Dovo Special sits in the dark in a sealed KlipLok container, and its scales have warped over the last three (3) years.

I seem to dimly remember a post somewhere that said the scales of the Special were celluloid or similar.

On mine, the inside of the scales are painted with some form of sealer. Mr Miller also noticed this when I sent the razor to him for re-pinning.

Have fun !

Best regards

Russ

If there's a sealer on one side of the scale but not the other, the two sides will experience different humidities, etc. Just relative humidity in the air, high or low, could be enough to cause warping. My kerfed paddle strop goes out of flat in the winter, when RH falls to 8 or 9%, because it's bare wood on one side and finished on the other.