Thread: Restoring horn scales?

Hi

I recently acquired a big old W&B chopper with horn scales. my initial intent was to rescale it in ebony, but since the scales are in such good condition with no bug bites, cracks or any damage other than aging, id like to keep them. problem is they look very tired and i remember reading somewhere on here that with the correct treatment and persistence, horn will 'gleam.' Whether thats sanding and buffing with neatsfoot oil i am not sure as i have never done this..i can put the shine on ivory with a rubbing compound, but have never tried to restore horn.

I have a modern TI in blonde horn and a rescaled W&B in figured buffalo horn (thanks blueprinciple) and they look so shiny and lustrous compared to this which looks like old wood now, I just cant ever see it competing without a rescale.

Any advice on how to achieve this? Many thanks

That is a LOVELY razor! WOW!

I believe that soaking the scales, probably overnight, in neatsfoot oil will rejuvenate them. If you want to sand and buff them to a mirror finish, that's up to you, but the oil soak should soften them back to being good and flexible, and give them back their youthful lustre.

Like Ben said, the neatsfoot oil treatment.

The way I restore the horn is first soak and clean with the neatsfoot oil. Basically you can sand them just like wood. To get the final high shine on horn I use ruby polishing powder.

I've seen worse come up with a glass-like gleam. Sand to even out the surface - up to 600 grit will do if you have a buffing machine, in which case a tripoli bar on a stitched mop will make them gleam. If not, you will have to use progressively finer grits, perhaps finishing with rottenstone or tripoli powder. Making good around the bulls-eye pinnings will be a bit of a headach with sandpaper, though - the buffer eliminates this problem to a large extent.

Max - that ruby polishing powder, what is it and how is it applied? can it be done without power tools?

Thanks

It is initially intended to be used with hand buffs, felt, brushes,...

You can mix it with water or oil so it becomes a paste.

It's that paste that you use to hand buff or wheel buff.

You can buy smaller 1oz powder.

Thanks for all your help guys.

Neatsfoot oil is difficult to find in the UK! But this morning i found a horse riding accessory shop a couple of miles away that stocks it for saddles. So now its soaking in the oil...

After a day or so do i rub off the excess and then proceed to progressively sand and then use the ruby compound?

Thanks

Scipio;

It is my experience that old, worn-looking horn scales often buff up surprisingly easily and never needed a lick of sanding. Before you start getting all hot and bothered about sanding the scales, go for the easy approach first.

I have found that the oddest things seem to make horn polish up well. Sometimes I hit it with the same metal polish I use on the blades. At other times I just use a fine, everyday polishing agent: toothpaste !!

So see if a bit of rubbing doesn't bring about a change. You can always decide to start with the sandpaper later if you can't get the scales to buff up properly with the light stuff, but it is much more work if you immediately dive in with sandpaper if it wasn't really necessary.

- ignatz

PS That is going to be one lovely razor when it is restored. (You lucky guy)

It isn't that hard at all to sand horn, Scipio - it is very soft indeed compared to silicon carbide paper. If there are lots of marks and ridgesn not just minor surface scratches etc, and you don't sand them out, they will still be there after buffing - but shinier!

As Ignatz rightly points out, they buff up to a high degree very easily without any surface prep - that's because they are so soft.

I must have done at least 40 or 50 pairs of horn scales and although they come up passable with buffing alone, with some prepping they come up like glass.

Regards,
Neil.

You can use some red jewelers rouge or if you can get some Cape Cod Polishing Cloths they will make the scales look like new.