Thread: Cleaning and Polishing Old Scales?

I know it is right in front of my nose, but somehow I cannot find information about how to clean up and polish old celluloid or bakelite scales. I have several razors, most Bokers, that have the plain black scales. The scales are sound, and I want to re-use them, but they're scuffed up.

I'd appreciate a steer or advice on how to shine up those scales so they look nice enough to go with the clean and shiney blades I hope to put back into them.

Sincere advance thanks, and my apologies if/where I"ve overlooked painfully, blindingly obvious links or wiki's.

I seem always to get lost in wiki sites…entered one a few years back and by the time I'd found my way out, I'd lost 12 pounds…

Clean:
This is for stuff that is just slightly scuffed and dirty not for major restore...

Comet or Ajax, old soft toothbrush, running water...
Put some cleanser in palm of hand, wet toothbrush, dip in cleanser and gently clean scales in and out...
This will clean them and even up the scuffs at the same time...

Polish:
Use MAAS, Novus 1-2-3, Plast-X, or Blue Magic and a rag and polish them back up,,, there are other polishes that I am sure work great too...

Copied from this link. You need to scroll down to the scale restoring. It's all I could find, but seems straight forward. Cheers

Restoring a straight razor - Straight Razor Place Wiki

In the first photo you see the polished scales and wedge piece. As said previously, the scales were in excellent condition, they were un-warped and only needed light wet sanding, starting with 2K grit w/d paper to remove light scratches and then a final polish to bring out the shine… about 10 minutes work…. Bakelite scales are very easy to sand and polish by hand so power tools are often not necessary. Incidentally, if you decide to use power, be cautious when using the Dremel, the supplied wheels are small and the tool spins at high RPM, if you “linger” on one spot, heat will quickly burn the bakelite and you will have to re-sand the area, a low RPM buffer with a large wheel to spread the load works better.

I lingered to longer with the dremmel and polishing wheel and left divots. Best advice is to stick to hand tools.
Dont be like me. Learn from my mistakes