Thread: age of heljestrand pins and a possible celluloid rot

Hi
I got some heljestrand razors and some of them got washers on the pins and some dont. My thought was that the ones without washers was older and the newer got washers.
Is this how it is and if thats the way, when did they start to use washers? I post a picture with the different pins.
I also got another question, do you guys think the mk30 on the pictures got celluloid rot? should I remove the blade and discard the scales?
Thank you for your answers

Not sure of the age, but the scales without washers are real ivory, Enjoy!

IMO the pins without the collars are in ivory scales. The corrosion could be cell rot or maybe just really neglected. The fact that the pins are also corroded might lean towards cell rot though. You could clean the blade up, quarantine the razor from your others, and see if the corrosion comes back. Or, if you'd rather not go through all that just replace the scales. IMHO.

On some natural scales (bone and ivory) washers were not used, I believe the razor you have without washers is ivory.
The razor with washers has a bad case of cell rot, I would discard them asap.

Eric

Agreed with all above. ivory and rot

Holy smokes you guys are fast!

Maybe cell rot. Do the sniff test.
Love the Ivroy

thank you guys for the fast answers, I will remove the faux ivory scales and try to save the blade. The heljestrands i got with ivory are without a washer and the ones with manmade material are with a washer so you are probably right with that. Anyone knows why its like that? I thought it would be easier to break the fragile ivory when you pin it without a washer?

I am inclined to think that is not cell rot, but I could be wrong. I don't think I've ever seen cell rot on scales like that. Also, it looks like there is crud inside the scales, and I would guess that is what caused it. But, take a look inside the scales and see what you can see. If there is stuff caked in there, I'd say that's probably what caused it. If there is discoloration that matches the marks on the blade, then it probably is cell rot. Either way, you'll probably want to keep the blade open and store the razor away from the rest of your razors.

I agree that it doesn't look like cell rot. It almost looks like someone tried to remove the patina, but didn't remove it all. Hard to tell though from the photos. I think most of the cell rot I have seen was on faux tortoiseshell scales, marbleized looking ones, or transparent ones or any combination of either. That is IMHO, but I haven't seen thousands of razors either.