Thread: Remove oil from bone scales

Bone indeed.

I have a remainder of scales like that (I kinda ... broke them ... when trying to rescale). If you can wait a few more days, I can soak them in neatsfoot over the weekend and let you know how that turns out. Never tried to soak bone in neatsfoot oil before.

Just an update for anyone interested: I did decide to remove the oil, mostly because this was the first straight in my collection and I want the scales to look like they did when I bought it (I'm a sentimental fool!).

Here's what I found: applying light heat with scales in (and out of) tissue had no effect, cornmeal had no effect, but the lighter fluid removed about 98% of the staining/translucent patches using an overnight soak. No warping issues at all. Special thanks to PhatMan for the sucessfull idea!

Thanks again for all the tips, the scales look very close to how they were when I first bought the razor again!

Originally Posted by decraew

Before you try to get the oil out, are you sure you don't prefer the scales to be translucent ? I'm asking because I've had a couple of old razors with bone/horn scales, and I soaked those (in neatsfoot oil) to get them shiny again.

I have most of my heavy wedges rescaled in bone. I made the choice from the moment I put them on, whenever I oil down the blade, I would oil down the scales too and let them change and not fight it. So that is kind of like your idea. I am very happy with the look of them as they mature.