Remove oil from bone scales

Hi guys,

Anyone have suggestions on how to remove oil from bone scales? I oiled the pivot on my old Wade & Butcher and now the scale material there is more translucent than the rest. Tried soaking in soapy water, but doesn't look like it's going to work... maybe try ethanol? Doing a repin to tighten her up and thought now would be a good time take care of it.

Also, I have done a few repins and noticed that my blades tend to center towards the back scale a bit, I am spening to much time peening one side?

Thanks in advance,

Jason

CrazyCloud,

You culd try soaking the afflicted part of the scales in lighter fluid (I use Ronson) ?

I have also found that 'Swarfega' type hand cleansers are quite good at removing oil from such materials.

Have fun !

Best regards

Russ

Wrap the scales in tissue and put them on a warm radiator for a day or two. The heat will sweat the oil out of the scales and hopefully clear it up!

This might not get all of it (depends on how much is in there), but it will definately help a lot and wont risk any further staining or marks.

Give it a try first as its the least aggressive approach and then move onto chemicals and whatnot.

Hope that helps! :)

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.

Thanks for the replies fellas. I'll give your ideas a try and let you know what works. If the stains don't come out I may go for the translucent look, does anyone have pics of 'translucent' bone scales?

I'm pretty excited about finally doing a restore on the first razor I bought. It has needed it for a long time, but I wanted to do a couple of others first before tackling one of my favorites. Thanks for your help with the project!

well if its translucent the scales are horn. Stay away from excessive water and heat as you will probably warp your scales. Treat the entire set or scales with neatsfoot oil or mineral oil and let it soak in a zip lock bag for a day or 2, buff off excess oil with soft cloth and all will be uniform.

As for your blade not centering, pean the oppisite side that the blade is leaning to, do light taps you do not want to bend the pin

White corn meal will absorb the oil from leather, I know bone is not leather, but both leather and bone are made from natural fiber. I also used baking soda to absorb oil from leather. None of these material are abrassive or chemically to damage the leather, bone or horn. They are safe to use. If you try it let us know. Juan.

Thanks for the tips Brando. The scales are white, with brownish pores. They just turned a little transparent with the oil.... so I think they are bone. Heated them just a little with a hair dryer and the smell was more bone stench than horn stench.

I attached some pics, someone let me know if you think they're not bone.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Brando

well if its translucent the scales are horn. Stay away from excessive water and heat as you will probably warp your scales. Treat the entire set or scales with neatsfoot oil or mineral oil and let it soak in a zip lock bag for a day or 2, buff off excess oil with soft cloth and all will be uniform.

As for your blade not centering, pean the oppisite side that the blade is leaning to, do light taps you do not want to bend the pin

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Looks like bone to me.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by CrazyCloud

Thanks for the tips Brando. The scales are white, with brownish pores. They just turned a little transparent with the oil.... so I think they are bone. Heated them just a little with a hair dryer and the smell was more bone stench than horn stench.

I attached some pics, someone let me know if you think they're not bone.

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Now seeing the pictures I will have to say they are bone, and definately the nose knows, horn and bone both have their own distintive smells when being worked on.
Back to your dilemma wit the oil, Im not exactly sure you may be able to remove the oil 100%. Personally I would still treat the scales entirely with neatsfoot oil or mineral oil to get them uniform again
Hope that helped
Tony

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!

Quote:

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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.

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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.