Thread: Need help on this West German Dovo

Picked up this dovo special today. It looks like it never touched a hone besides the ones at dovo. Now the corrosion is mostly localized to the face with the etch(!!!). Anyway, faux tortoise makes one expect the obvious culprit, so I did some non-destructive id tests for celluloid and it failed to give off the telltale odor. Plus, they are not warped or discolored or shrinking in the slightest which when coupled with the wretched moisture trap those cases are make me hopeful. Anyway, they are in a Ziploc with a scrap razor I have sanded to mirror for this type of test. I actually shot dovo an email on the subject of when celluloid was shunned as well. I think I might be able to save the gold on this one If I tape it off and tread carefully. The corrosion seems relatively superficial. I suppose my questions are, was dovo still using celluloid scales in the 80s, give or take a couple of years around that decade for good measure? I actually have a bit of the faux tortoise celluloids around from the early 20th century in stable condition and the feel is not quite right vs those, though I must acknowledge that there were a lot of recipes for celluloid. How would you guys approach cleanup? I made a panel with electrical tape just so I could knock off the active rust before. The photo with the flash makes the face look a lot worse than it is. The area with the wash/etch was pretty much left unharmed. I'm actually confused with this one and I have more experience with cell scales than anything by far. No camphor smell can be coaxed, can't get a mothball smell, there should be a border or a greater concentration where the blade rests in the scales and spots where it is worse in the clear areas, but no. It'll be interesting to check the bag in a couple of days. For the record, not usually big on dovos, but this is a very handsome razor.

I think I would trust your own tests rather then a possible date from the factory

I my experience most people "Use" up any old supplies as a change over occurs if at all possible, I would think a gradual change over from Celluloid to actual Plastic would be pretty possible

Also for what it's worth keeping in mind one of the most insidious aspects of Cell Rot is it shows differently on many razors that looks more like bad care in the past rather then Cell Rot.. Your Plastic bag test is a great way to proceed..