Thread: found a brother to one of my GREAVES

Is all Keritin John,just like your fingernails

Like I said in another post, I don't know it all. I learn something new everyday!

I'm generalizing, I don't know about your specific razor, but the recipes for some of the horn darkeners are published and many are quite nasty/caustic, I could believe that over time the area of the horn that was dyed degraded and was able to flake off (I've experienced this flaking myself on a few scales). The depth of dying often wasn't very deep so it could appear to be a coating. In one set of scales certain areas flaked off easily and others were well bonded, supporting the degradation idea. I would need Zak to chime in but I'm not aware of any documentation of scales being thickly coated with blackeners. Typically they would have been dyed a uniform dark and hot-pressed into shape.

Here's an example: https://books.google.com/books?id=fy...dyeing&f=false

O.K.,,, this I can run with,,, I just know that the coating/dye seems to not have penetrated the horn/shell.
The olny clue that put me into the shell arena & not the Horn arena , was the pattern /design underneath the black.

Either way, when a set of these scales come into my hands,,,, I know there is a more beautiful surface underneath.

Thank you for the reference.

Originally Posted by Hirlau

O.K.,,, this I can run with,,, I just know that the coating/dye seems to not have penetrated the horn/shell.
The olny clue that put me into the shell arena & not the Horn arena , was the pattern /design underneath the black.

Either way, when a set of these scales come into my hands,,,, I know there is a more beautiful surface underneath.

Thank you for the reference.

Horn can have very beautiful mottled and swirling/streaking patterns. Unfortunately for some, the aesthetic for mass production was often a uniform shiny black

I figured they were horn at first (mine at least) but a blond streaked horn after cleaned as mine do not have the coloration of John's but are more blonde at the wedge and black at the pivot end .. (which again made me happy I have some streaked honey horn coming to rescale with to sorta match) , but I do admit that the turtle idea after John's post (maybe a diff type of turtle I thought )made me wonder cause they are smoothest natural scale I have ever saw ..
either way I just cant wait to put them in the new scales

Originally Posted by gooser

I figured they were horn at first (mine at least) but a blond streaked horn after cleaned as mine do not have the coloration of John's but are more blonde at the wedge and black at the pivot end .. (which again made me happy I have some streaked honey horn coming to rescale with to sorta match) , but I do admit that the turtle idea after John's post (maybe a diff type of turtle I thought )made me wonder cause they are smoothest natural scale I have ever saw ..
either way I just cant wait to put them in the new scales

I just got some honey ox horn in a few days ago. I've had a hard time finding honey buffalo horn.

Originally Posted by engine46

I just got some honey ox horn in a few days ago. I've had a hard time finding honey buffalo horn.

I found it but it was a minimum order so I was waiting , but then I found more ..

Is this EZ-Off Oven Cleaner were talking about her?
If so I'm going to get some right now!

CMP

This is what lies underneath that "black coating" on those scales. I believe the scales to be turtle, as many turtles are seen wth the black coating in the wild, such as those swamp , water turtles,, that coating is removed to get those nice combs & such you see. I could be wrong, but maybe not,,,
45 minutes of EZ-Off Heavy Duty on the entire razor, ate the black off,,, brushed off with a toothbrush & dish soap,,, loosened the surface rust, left the washers shiny,,, the blade was wirked with steel wool & 3m paper,,,,

Excellent work, John