Thread: How contagious is cell rot

Has there been any discussion/experiences about how easily cell rot jumps razors? Do they need to be days, weeks, months, years in close proximity for the other to contract the rot?

I just got my first cell rot special bought off the internet and I'm a little (well, not too much) concerned about another razor in the same package.

Dunno but when in doubt I keep the questionable razor in quarantine until I can be reasonably sure it is alright.

if you store it with your other razors it will spread. its the gas that does it.

Yeah. It will sit in isolation for I dunno how long. Quite a shame really, as it has nice Hess 42 scales on it.

I know it's the released gasses that trigger the rot, but is it triggered instantly they are placed in close proximity or does it take time to contract? I don't know whether anyone knows that...

Oh yeah. I depinned the blade and ditched the scales as soon as I saw the rot. The shame is about another razor that came in the same post package. It's unknown how much time they spent together before the posting, though.

I don't know if it is effective but I had a suspect Merkur and I washed the scales throughly (with the blade in place) with Scrubbing Bubbles and a Q-tip with the end flattened to fit into the scales. I got all the crud out and then coated the scales inside and out with Semichrome. So far I've had no return of anything resembling rot and it has been months. I still keep the razor seperate .... can't be too careful.

I did clean it with disinfecting solution, soapwater and piping hot water. But I might just as well depin the blade as it is a bit wonky. Well, count them as apprenticeship-payment, I guess.

Yep. contagious.

The other bad news is that nothing will stop it.
You can clean the scales and seal them with something, but the rot will continue to fester inside. If cell starts to rot, there nothing you can do about it as far as we ever learned. You can clean it and seal it, but keep it quarantained if you don't want it to spread.

I used to think that it was very contagious, but have revised my opinion. I had a couple of badly affected razors, classic cell-rot symptons including the pattern of the mottled areas rusted onto the blade (tortoiseshell effect scales) and so on. I had unpinned several other sets of celluloid scales and put those in my junk box (open-topped plastic ice cream container) along with the two affected razors. The box has been in my small, unheated garden shed, undergoing extremes of temperature for the past 18 months or so. Well, I looked in the box the other day - the cell-rot razors had got rustier, but the other sets of celluloid scales including some still pinned with broken blade, were unaffected. Not what I expected at all.

The rusting is caused by the acidic vapour released by the celluloid as it breaks down (there are two basic forms of celluloid - each releases different gases and each smells different to the other), and the reason that the celluloid breaks down is because of inadequate washing and stabilisation during it's formation. So maybe only celluloid prone to breaking down due to inherent manufacturing faults can be affected by celluloid already emitting gases?

Regards,
Neil

Great post Neil.

Neil, said it better than I could. The out gassing of cell rot will make the blades corrode quickly, but not make most other celluloid start to break down, The process of cell rot is not reversible.

Charlie

Thanks for everyone on your input in this. I have yet to see any indication of rot in the quarantined razor, but it still will be isolated some more. I depinned the blade for quick removal if the need be.