Thread: What are you working on?

Originally Posted by Montgomery

Not sure what is going on here, anyone on the board seen this before?

Attachment 315177Attachment 315178

These are the original horn scales from a John Heiffor 'Army' razor. I put them in some warm soapy water to give them a clean - they were filthy - and a layer has started peeling off. Is this a lacquer layer? Or years of dirt? Or just a layer of the horn?

The scales seem to be nice amber horn underneath. The dark layer extends over much of, but not all of the scales. Notably, it is not present where the scales were next to the wedge.

Knowing will help in deciding how to deal with it.

Many thanks!

Take them apart, sand with 220, 400, 600, 000 steel wool, then soak for up to a week in 100% neatsfoot oil.



If you want them black again, put them in hair dye before the oil.




Once out of the oil, then polish/ buff.


Works for scales as far back as the late 1700s.

Looks like a Chupacabra to me…

Maybe someone is trying to tell you something. Better start swinging that chicken over your head.

Originally Posted by Euclid440

Looks like a Chupacabra to me…

Maybe someone is trying to tell you something. Better start swinging that chicken over your head.

Spooky, I was already thinking that this razor might be haunted, and that sanding the scales might liberate a demon trapped inside with brown dye by a malevolent Sheffield horn worker...

Originally Posted by outback

Take them apart, sand with 220, 400, 600, 000 steel wool, then soak for up to a week in 100% neatsfoot oil.

If you want them black again, put them in hair dye before the oil.

Once out of the oil, then polish/ buff.

Works for scales as far back as the late 1700s.

Many thanks! That was essentially the plan, good to have it confirmed.

Never herd of that creature. But now i got to google some pics.

Yea we have Chupacabra's running around down on the south side of town here! They come up from Mexico to steal newborn babies and pets.

The dreaded goat sucker!

When I lived on the Mexican border, they were quite common.
You never saw a stray dog in Laredo

Originally Posted by Euclid440

Looks like a Chupacabra to me…

Maybe someone is trying to tell you something. Better start swinging that chicken over your head.

Nah...this us a chupacabra.

Obviously, a very young one.