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

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. :thinking:

Are the scales plastic or celluloid. If they are celluloid they could warp for no reason. If they are plastic I can't see it just happening by itself without some temperature change or other environmental factor. Are you sure they weren't like that when new and you just noticed it?

Are those original scales or restore?
Almost all warped scales I have seen on vintage blades are results of bent pivot pin. the rest probably temperature differences that favored warping.

Depending the acrylic/plastic type/quality it is the accumulation and absorbtion of humidity that will make them warp. An environmental change in your storage box has initiated this behaviour. Change of temp/heat could be a factor too.

Differential expansion. If the metal inlay was not there, then the scales would expand and contract at the same rate. Metal expands and contracts more readily than the scale material, causing a larger bow or bulge in the scale that has the inlay, and the other scale has to accommodate this, usually by warping.

If the scale material is sound (chemically - which it should be in a new razor) then the storage box has been subjected to heat - maybe left in direct sunshine or something like that. The Dovo synthetic scales that I have seen - and I stress that I have not seen them all - would not have taken on water. One new(ish) synthetic that does, though, is casein-derived, and that is used for both mock ivory and mock tortoiseshell.

Regards,
Neil

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Originally Posted by thebigspendur

Are the scales plastic or celluloid. If they are celluloid they could warp for no reason. If they are plastic I can't see it just happening by itself without some temperature change or other environmental factor. Are you sure they weren't like that when new and you just noticed it?

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They are plastic and were fine 30 days ago - something happened since then.

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Originally Posted by mainaman

Are those original scales or restore?
Almost all warped scales I have seen on vintage blades are results of bent pivot pin. the rest probably temperature differences that favored warping.

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Original scales - the razor came from SRD about 3 years ago. No pin issues.

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Originally Posted by Maximilian

Depending the acrylic/plastic type/quality it is the accumulation and absorbtion of humidity that will make them warp. An environmental change in your storage box has initiated this behaviour. Change of temp/heat could be a factor too.

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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.

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Originally Posted by Neil Miller

Differential expansion. If the metal inlay was not there, then the scales would expand and contract at the same rate. Metal expands and contracts more readily than the scale material, causing a larger bow or bulge in the scale that has the inlay, and the other scale has to accommodate this, usually by warping.

If the scale material is sound (chemically - which it should be in a new razor) then the storage box has been subjected to heat - maybe left in direct sunshine or something like that. The Dovo synthetic scales that I have seen - and I stress that I have not seen them all - would not have taken on water. One new(ish) synthetic that does, though, is casein-derived, and that is used for both mock ivory and mock tortoiseshell.

Regards,
Neil

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No storage box involved - the razors were in a rack. I think thermal expansion differential between the scale without the logo and the one with the logo is the culprit. My wife kept turning off the AC and I kept turning it back on.

I would have thought the scales were plastic - maybe as you pointed out they were another synthetic.

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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.

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IMO it's still a humidity/temp issue. Those are one of the main causes acrylic will/can warp. Especially the extruded kind.

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

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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.

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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.

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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. :thinking:

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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! :confused:

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.
Attachment 104290

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.