Thread: Cloudy Scales

I have a nice old Wade & Butcher with what I believe to be transluscent horn scales. Being an old razor, the scales have become cloudy. Is there a way to clean them or is this likely to be clouded throughout. I've heard of ammonia being used on old yellowed glass, but before trying something like that, I thought I'd check and see if anyone knows something about this.

Can you post a pic?

I've had great success with sanding down those scales and polish/buff em back to life. I have a tendency to like and start with 220, 400 dry and follow up with 400. 600 wet sandpaper. From there it goes on the buffing wheels but if you don't own one you could easily continue into the higher wet sandpaper grits all the way to 2 or 3000 grit.

Biggest issue I always see with those translucent scales are cracks and peeling of the horn. Try to soak and clean the scales with neats foot oil. This will also clear them up before you start the sanding process if that is needed.

I had a similar issue. Found an old Rodgers in an antique store and wanted to clean up the scales. Spoke with Max about it in the SRP chat and he suggested the same info as in his above post.

I soaked them in mineral oil for a day first, used wet sandpaper on them from 400 to 2000 grit, then finished them with my Dremel using red polishing compound on felt. As always, if you use a rotary tool then be very cautious or else you'll damage the horn.

Unfortunately I wasn't planning on documenting my endeavors but I do have a before/after pic which should show how well it can turn out. Some discoloration around the pivot pin was too deep to get out entirely, but otherwise they look great for a noob.

Before (scales were almost opaque):


After (you can see the razor clearly when closed now):

Originally Posted by Visibility

Can you post a pic?

Here are some pictures. The light was a little harsh, so the surface doesn't show quite the degree of cloudiness, but close enough. I'll try some of these suggestions. Thanks all.

Originally Posted by leadduck

Here are some pictures. The light was a little harsh, so the surface doesn't show quite the degree of cloudiness, but close enough. I'll try some of these suggestions. Thanks all.

Exactly the scales I had in mind. My suggestion and workflow still stands. Good luck and please keep us updated.

Originally Posted by leadduck

Here are some pictures. The light was a little harsh, so the surface doesn't show quite the degree of cloudiness, but close enough. I'll try some of these suggestions. Thanks all.

Looks almost identical to the Rodgers I posted. Mine didn't have a separate wedge as each scale fit together and created the spacer.

In addition to the advice about cleaning them up, if you have any sort of peening skill then try to keep the washers. You can probably see my "before" picture was taken after I had filed mine down almost entirely to unpin them. I don't have any peening materials, or skill, so I figured I'd just dispose them and slap on my microfasteners. In retrospect I wish I had kept them as the washers were large like on yours and would probably look sweet if they can be salvaged, polished, and reapplied in a restore.

Good luck and keep us posted!

I just recieved this eBay special in the mail yesterday. The scales are in shocking condition but after reading this thread I'm thinking i should at least try to save them. If i cant do it, no great loss i picked up the razor for 8 bucks and the blade is in pretty good shape, but i cant throw them in the bin without trying. thanks for the tips.
G.

Yeah yeah, I know

Here's the pic