Thread: Doin the turtle dance !! (no I don't have to poop)

Originally Posted by Croaker

Jimmy, I know you will never part with that swayback. It is one of the coolest blade shapes I have ever seen! Is it tricky to hone?

Yes it was. The rolling x was what it took but I got it there. Same story with this this RW custom and this Engstrom red devil.

Every razor in this thread is interesting, pretty, cool, or some combination of all three. I agree with Glen that the definition of tortoise shell varies widely among viewers, and I won't argue with anyone pro or con. The creature with the most knowledge of tortoise shell is the poor turtle, unfortunately, and he got robbed! The reason that tortoise shell is now illegal, BTW, is that the practice of collection involved using very hot water to soften and remove the shell from the living turtle, then release him, buck nekkid, back into the water to grow another one.

Aw yes! Cruel! Much nicer turtling around in the sea.

Croaker, those scales are out of this world!
The first genuine ones I've seen yet,

Can you imagine that a neighbor trashed this one here?
Somebody found it in the container and brought it to me cause they have seen my antlers and skulls.

OMG, Olivia! Is it alive? What kind of person would throw an animal in the trashcan?! Here we have the Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Animals to report these kinds of things to. If a pet dies, we take it to the Humane Society or Animal shelter, where they are usually cremated. Is there anything similar in Germany?

Croaker its taxiderm. Stuffed with seaweed, but everything else preserved.
It must be old and its fairly big (2 feet).
Difficult to deal with though. I have offered it to a museum but they said its going to end up in the basement because there are so many, so I kept it.
Can't say that its really good looking on my wall in the hall, but I have no other way to do anything with it.
Maybe one day I'll make a Terry Pratchett type of disc world construction out of it. This way I could leave it intact.

I hate those trophy hunters. And even more their pc offsprings who find such a precious item so disgusting that they have no other idea than trashing it.

Whew! Glad to hear it was not a case of animal cruelty, at least new cruelty. I am sure there are some tricks of the trade to bring out the shine and polish the tortoise shell that you could use if you wanted to, although is illegal to sell it nowadays. Poor turtle! I have a desert turtle that lives in my back yard somewhere, although I can't find him or her lately.

wow check out this pattern !
looks like the first turtle



yeah yeah poor turtle......

Olivia.... perhaps you should try finding a boat shop at a wharf, or a sporting goods store, or something related to fishing.
Someone will take that turtle off your hands.

I'm quite happy to have had so many replies and I was the only doubter.

Well actually I just did not want to fall into the house together with the door but your's is not turtle.
Its mottled horn (painted) You'll see when you sand it off.
Not sure about Jimmy's either. Looks more like Celluloid to me.

The problem about the turtle is - you can not sell it.
I'm not even sure if you can give it away for free.
Usually people are happy not to have items like these in shops cause it just raises authority's attention.
The chest is nice. Odd shape!

Originally Posted by 0livia

Well actually I just did not want to fall into the hose together with the door but your's is not turtle.
Its mottled horn (painted) You'll see when you sand it off.

I have several of those razors (painted horn)

I've sanded it off, learned what chemical to use to put it back on, sanded it back off again.

hopefully I've seen it enough times to know what isn't it

we shall see

Originally Posted by 0livia

your's is not turtle.
Its mottled horn (painted) You'll see when you sand it off.
Not sure about Jimmy's either. Looks more like Celluloid to me.

I agree with Olivia that your's is probably mottled horn or horn dyed to resemble tortoise shell. As for mine, I got it from a collector through the internet. He did not say that it was genuine tortoise and I didn't expect that it would be.

Upon receiving it I noticed a couple of spots along the edges of the scales that appeared to be delaminating. I examined these areas with an eye loupe and that is what it looked like. Meanwhile I did a google search for tortoise shell.

I found this here which describes the method of processing the shell for use as laminating thin strips by applying heat. Since I've not seen celluloid delaminate in this fashion I have come to the conclusion that the stuff is indeed genuine tortoise shell. I may be wrong, I was wrong once before.