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I picked up a razor with dyed horn scales. The one scale was in great shape. The problem is the back scale has darkened to the point it is not translucent. I have sanded, used peroxide, oxyclean with no success. I even tried bleach. Is there any way to lighten them back to translucency?
The top scale is the problem. I can see the dye pattern faintly but can't get the rest to lighten. Any suggestions would be appreciated.
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The only way i know is to keep sanding, you should get there.. otherwise i would dye them both black..
That was last resort. I was afraid to sand too thin. I may just make new scales.
Thanks.
Sand them both so they both flex the same.
That is quite a nice shape... and the inlay is nice too .
are you sure they were both translucent ? maybe someone did a scale replacement at one time with what they had on hand?
Same thing I was thinking, tintin.
I'd agree.
The were the same thickness. If you hold it up to the light at the non pivot end you can see the pattern. If you hold them on an angle you can tell they had a faux tortoise pattern.
I decided to put them on the side and make new scales.
Have had a couple of razors like this which are either original or at least very old rescales as the pins looked original also
I don't know this for sure, but I've always thought that mineral oil will make horn and bone more translucent.
I was going to suggest Neatsfoot. Have you soaked them? I'm by no means an expert on horn and would defer to Mike more on this but I had a set similar to that that had darkened considerably, not quite as much as that one, but when I soaked them in neatsfoot it brought them back to almost honey color and very translucent.
Edit: See now I'm trying to remember because I may have soaked them in hot water first. Well someone else will chime in I'm sure that knows much more about it than I do.
You might to change your thinking and stain/darken the bottom scale to match the top.
