Thread: Restoring a PUMA

That looks way better than I thought it would come out. Nice work!

Breadknifed the blade an an DMT 325 to remove most of the chip. Then went to an DMT 1000 with 1 layer of tape to set the bevel and finish removing the remnants of the chip. Followed with Norton 4K/8k. Finished with a coticule with water followed by Vermio with water.

Diamond on hard felt paddle strop followed by CrOx on balsa and ended with about 100 passes on a shell strop.

2 pass shave led to pretty near bbs. Just have to fine tune the edge a bit.

I’m pleased with how this blade turned out. Now if the cell rot demons will stay away ...

Originally Posted by holli4pirating

That looks way better than I thought it would come out. Nice work!

Thank you for the compliment. It was rude of me not to respond right away.

I have to admit to being intimidated by the possibility of celluloid rot. The staining on the scales and the black on the blade certainly pointed to that.

Given a fairly small investment in the both the razor and the coffin box, I decided to try to clean it up and see what time will do. I didn’t have much to lose by being patient. It’s a good thing I had a vacation planned so that I could go away and think about alternatives before tearing the old scales off. When I got back, nothing new or bad had happened, so the decision to work with the existing scales was a pretty easy one to make.

I did learn a couple of really important things. I learned a lot more than I ever wanted to know about celluloid rot (I knew NOTHING at all about it before this) and I learned to be patient when working on a restoration/clean up.

I also confirmed that there are a lot of good people on these forums who will advise and guide with great generosity. Thanks to all.

Originally Posted by cudarunner

I think you'll find Glen's (GSSIXGUN) video here very informative and helpful. I believe it's what you're looking for to be able to transfer that 'crest':

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ReEkuWzEmdM&t=8s

Do you think rubbing alcohol would work? I have put celluloid scales in rubbing alcohol in the past, and it also dissolves them.

Don’t know. Wouldn’t hurt to try.

Originally Posted by Montgomery

Do you think rubbing alcohol would work? I have put celluloid scales in rubbing alcohol in the past, and it also dissolves them.

Originally Posted by DZEC

Don’t know. Wouldn’t hurt to try.

Also works with rubbing alcohol!