Thread: Celluloid drastic color change

Hello all !

First off, please allow me to mention how delighted I was to find a place like SRP ! I'd been collecting razors (both straight and safety) for over 20 years, kinda on and off, but now I'm seriously back into it !

So here I am, with my set of 4 Norton stones, honing a few of my pride-and-joys, including a black celluloid H. Bowker. My hands are wet, it goes without saying, including the one holding the scales. To my greatest dismay, I realized that the dark (dull) black celluloid scales are gradually truning olive green. And in a very uneven fashion at that. What the hell !?!? You guys ever saw that ? Anything I can do, or the scales are just toast !?

Thanks and best regards !

Vintage Smurf

Was there anything in the water to act as a catalyst??? Normally someone uses Barbercide or Alcohol etc: to bring out this reaction... But I have some sitting here from one of the guys, that the same thing happened, same way, real quick...
I have seen a few of the Bokers do this, some were not so bad and I sanded and polished them out, the Tree is a pain BTW, the rest I just tossed and made new ones...

Does the color recover when they dry?
Hand lotion?, Lather?, sanitizer....

Perhaps a light visit from an old soft
tooth brush and gel toothpaste followed
by a good rinse and a light waxing/ oiling/ WD-40

Welcome to SRP. As a tobacco pipe smoker my guess is that that particular razor has scales make of 'vulcanite' which is what most pipe stems were made with before lucite came along. Water will turn them an olive green and we pipe smokers see that on the ends of our mouthpieces quite frequently. Sunlight and fluorescent light will also have an effect. They can be buffed out either by machine or by hand with compound and elbow grease if I am correct and that is what it is. Once polished a good wax, carnuba with pipe stems, and Renaissance with scales, can protect the finish to an extent.

Originally Posted by JimmyHAD

Welcome to SRP. As a tobacco pipe smoker my guess is that that particular razor has scales make of 'vulcanite' which is what most pipe stems were made with before lucite came along. Water will turn them an olive green and we pipe smokers see that on the ends of our mouthpieces quite frequently. Sunlight and fluorescent light will also have an effect. They can be buffed out either by machine or by hand with compound and elbow grease if I am correct and that is what it is. Once polished a good wax, carnuba with pipe stems, and Renaissance with scales, can protect the finish to an extent.

Jimmy is dead-on here. You'll know they're vulcanite by the wretched smell when you clean them up!

I just recieved a " Challenge Cutlery Co" Celebrated Rifle Razor with the olive hue to the black scales. Ya it just cleans right off with a soft cloth and MAAS

Did it look anything like this?

Good morning all ! And Thanks LOADS for all your quick replies !

Yes, Otto, that is EXACTLY what mine looks like. Especially the top pic.

So that would be vulcanite. Hmmm ?

Good news is, if I read Jimmy correctly, it could be saved with lots of arm grease. If I am succesful, trust me, l'll refrain from putting this pup anywhere close to water after that ! Lol !

Regards !

Originally Posted by Otto

Did it look anything like this?

I see where yer going Otto, and I just tried it, the really bad side has a shiny off color now, and the back side is still a shiny Grey not black...

I took off a bit of the brown oxidation on the white rag but there is no color change...


600 grit followed by 1000 followed by 2000 then polishing compound twice brings back a black shiny spot... there are still traces of the gray/green color if you look really close in daylight.
We're talking real work here not just a quick rub down to get them back...



Of course these could be a different composition then the Boker ones, which I believe are Bakelite...

And as always with this hobby YMMV mostly because all these things are different..

I would try some Turtle-wax Polishing or rubbing compound I have had good luck with those when buffing out old scales...

Originally Posted by gssixgun

We're talking real work here not just a quick rub down to get them back...

It sure is real work if it is the same stuff they made the old pipe stems out of. A Royal PITA and TBH I stick many shiny black stems in my gob with olive green ends.

Talking about pipe stems, if you take a really discolored stem and put it in bleach for half an hour to forty five minutes it will take the olive green color off and leave it black as coal. This will also leave a rough surface on the material. That is where the 1k/2k grit paper and the buffing wheels come in.

Some guys say the bleach weakens the material and maybe so but I've done this on really bad ones and never had one break in use. Of course if this method was used on a razor scale it would have to be unpinned from the blade as you don't want to get chlorine bleach anywhere around it.

You can also get the shiny black back with the buffing wheels and compounds but you have to know what you're doing. Not a problem for Glen but for neophyte restorers something to keep in mind.