Thread: Scale discoloration

Hello all, just wanted to ask a quick question. I am cleaning up a Morgan Razor Works Vandium Steel SR. Nothing special about the razor except I thought it would be interesting to pull one apart, clean it up and get it back in to shave ready condition. As you can see in the following photo, the wedge end of the scales have a brown discoloration to them. I wet sanded them at 600 grit, which helped a bit, but still there. Thought maybe Fitz plastic polish with a slow dremel? Any thoughts as to how to get the brown out and return these scales to their "full glory"... May just say heck with it and pin it as is.



Any advice would be appreciated. Have a good day

Smell them first, if it's celluloid, then it is breakdown of the material that gives off an acidic gas. It will smell like vinegar or bad wine. If it does, DO NOT put your blade back in...that's cellrot (celluloid rot) and will begin to corrode any steel it comes into contact with. IF it does, throw them out they're done. If it is just a stain, carefully go w/ a 320 or 400, and wet sand up to 2k grit then buff back out. Main thing here is not to change the shape or thickness as much as possible. Most will just leave it if it isn't bleeding through to the front, or being covered by the wedge.

I find it helpful to sand them under running water, it will help get rid of the gunk and keep the paper from plugging up. It wont take long to run through the grit progression.

Use some micro mesh and spray a little WD40 as you work the grits work your way up starting at 1500 then up through the micro mesh 2K, 3K, 4K, 5K, and 6K this is where most plastics including celluloid start to get a very good shine and finish.

Excellent! Thanks for the responses. I gave the scales the "sniff test" and the "rub it like hell in fingers to generate a little heat and sniff test" and did not notice any telltale odor for celluloid. Going to pick a pack of the micromesh and get a tub of water and see from there. It will be interesting to see how much I can get off of the scales and keep the original profile.

It is surprising just how deep some stains can go in man-made scales. Usually in your situation it is a chemical reaction between the acrylic wedge and the scales, or whatever has been sandwiched between the two for decades. Sanding lightens it, but as you work back up the grades the 'opacity' given by the coarser grits gets less and less, and the stain seems to magically re-appear.

Micromesh will definitely take care of staining on the very surface, and will give a very good shine, but it won't touch anything deeper than surface defects - you need to try coarser grits then work your way back up to see if it helps.

As for cell-rot, you would have noticed the deterioration of the blade.

Hydrogen peroxide helps sometimes, too, but you need to keep an eye on the progress.

Regards,
Neil

Well, here's an update on how the more aggressive sanding went.


So, as you can see I must of spaced out while sanding and took off WAY to much at the wedge.... and/or the scales were starting to rot and "crumbled" easier than they should of. TBH, Im leaning toward me being a bonehead. So the big question is whether I pin this little guy up and shape the wedge end profile so all is flush or discard the scales (maybe get a template of the good one and save for future scale making endeavors).

I have attached a pic of the blade in question. FYI it's 5/8 Morgan Razor Works Vandium Steel with a very slight smile, one small pit near the edge at the heel and a slight nick 1/2" from the tip. There was no blade deterioration due to cell rot. Hand sanded it down from 80 to 2000 grit. wet sanding. I was not going for perfect, just needed some actual experience to get and idea what it was like.

Neil Miller: Will give Hydrogen Peroxide a try, should be interesting to see if it makes a difference.

Anyway, thanks for all the help!

I guess I'd have to say that all depends on how much you like the original scales. Sometimes the new ones are better it all depends on the point of view.

Think I'm going to get some acrylic and try my hand with a new set. More to come.