celluloid

[OLDE CUTLER]

I don't know why some are so terrified of celluloid. I have quite a few, some I bought that were outgassing and the scales came off asap and get replaced. Some are old but have been no problem. I have only bought one that outgassed after I bought it, a Remington stockman. I had it in "isolation", that is in a tight zipper bag and no harm was done.

Keeping it in a tight Zipper bag may have contributed to its demize. The few I've had go bad were also confined. Since then I've kept mine sitting on a shelf in open air but nowhere near other knives (and spaced apart from other celluloids). Haven't had any problems now in several years.

Ken

Probably not. When I bought the Remington it looked like it had just started outgassing as there was a fine line of rust on the portion of the blades that were above the liners. I cleaned all the rust off the blades, then oiled it heavily and put it in a small thick zip top bag after pressing as much of the air out as possible. The experiment was to see if the vapors made the bag swell as well as containing the vapors so I could put my nose right in there and see what the scent was (got to thinking later, maybe that was not such a good idea). I kind of forgot about it for about 5 months until one day while looking for something else, I came upon the bag with the Remington in it. I opened the bag right under my nose and did not smell anything except the Rem oil I had put on the blade, There was again a fine line of rust on the blades above the level of the liners, so I pulled the celluloid covers off and rehandled it with ebony.

[tongueriver]

How about some Green Utica Celluloid
Each are a little different

Wonderful Girl Scout knives. Do you collect other Girl Scout knives besides the celluloid Uticas?

[FRJ]

How about some Green Utica Celluloid
Each are a little different

Man, those are just beautiful!

[rustyoldknife]

How about some Green Utica Celluloid
Each are a little different

Wonderful Girl Scout knives. Do you collect other Girl Scout knives besides the celluloid Uticas?

Thank You, and yes I have several, I collect all older official scout knives.

[OLDE CUTLER]

My latest celluloid, this Iroquois 3 and 3/8" teardrop jack has what I will call candy stripe celluloid that is still in fantastic shape.

[enuf]

I avoid them. Luckily I don’t find them attractive so its easy.

I do not find them the most attractive either, not that they are ugly and if they were not dangerous, I'd have some. However, since there are a few in the collective theme that I have started, to fulfill this collection without having a few of them makes the cheese more binding for sure. what to do.... I am considering getting them and shrink wrapping them, I know, they are supposed to be kept it darker conditions with airflow, but - I dunno, they cause me grief to worry about them infecting good'uns. I am torn.

[hardman]

I try to avoid celluloid. That said, I have to admit there are some old celluloid handle covers that I find attractive. In particular, the old Candy Stripe, Glitter Stripe and what Bulldog called Duckfeather.
None of the new handle materials have been able to adequately reproduce those.

I am glad to say that Painted Pony's Mica Pearl (similar to Corelon and Kirinite) version is a nice replacement for Imitation Tortoise Shell Celluloid.

[Mumbleypeg]

I agree Gary. There are some modern acrylics that mimic celluloid, and some that are outstanding on their own merit. But there are some celluloids that can’t be duplicated for their beauty - at least no one has done so yet.

I don’t avoid celluloid knives but I have a hard limit on how much I’m willing to spend for one. If I like it, before I make an offer I thoroughly examine it to be sure it has no signs of starting to decompose. I have a number of celluloids I couldn’t resist, mainly because they’re patterns I collect. You don’t have to avoid them altogether. Just know what you have and handle them accordingly!

Here’s a few of mine. Several over 100 yrs old.

Ken

[Knifeslut2]

Mumbleypeg...what is that yellow handled Case knife in the photo. Is that some sort of slide that pushes the blade out? I do not think I ever saw a knife like that before. Thanks.

I sort of quit collecting about twenty years back. Last year started going through and found about ten celluloids that had started to rot. Ones in boxes were the worst, probably as no air circulation. Had some in those high silicone content grey knife rolls. Some of those were real bad too. They did start knives rolled up next to them with about four layers of that silicone material between them that were not celluloid to start to degrade and discolor as well. I about cried!

Lost one Case Classic prototype large toothpick that had different variations of waterfall celluloid on each side. it is just junk. As the slabs go it allows the full force of the spring to start pulling on just the liners and cracks them at the pins real bad. It also ate the blade and spring up on that one too. Looked like it was stored under water. Waterfall celluloid slabs were mostly just powder.

Same thing happened to a Buck Creek swing guard slabbed with celluloid oyster shell but I rehandled that one AFTER I made all new liners for it as it was in about the same shape as the Case. Also had to build a couple new bolsters for it as I trashed em out trying to get knife apart. That was the one rolled up with eleven other nice bone handled knives and it got two of those starting to discolor on the sides nearest the celuloid knife.

Then there was pre '82 Fightin Rooster stockman that originally had the old style Christmas Tree handles on it. It looked like a green fuzzy truck battery terminal when I slid it out of the knife roll. It is now brown bone as well. All my celluloids are now sitting out where they can breathe so if they do outgas any nitric acid it does not sit next to them and screw em up.

But here is a question. Some of these had blade etches on them. Most are faded now and not near as dark as I remember them to be. A few can hardly be seen. Does the nitric acid eat up or fade out the blade etches?

[Mumbleypeg]

The slide-opener is a Case Tested PBB1050F. Imitation onyx covers. PBB is for Push Button Blade. It’s a 1050 “Coke Bottle” pattern. There is a push button that releases the blade and lets you slide it out. There are four “stops” allowing the user to lock the blade at differing lengths, or fully extended. There is a fish scaler on the back of the blade.

Sorry to hear your story about celluloids but it is a common one. I learned the hard way too. Never store them together with other knives especially not in a closed space or a roll (I never store any knives in rolls, but that’s a different story I’ve told before). If one starts to “go off” it will take others with it. And yes, the nitrous acid fumes will ruin etches - it’s acid! If you’re going to have celluloids I recommend keep them out in open air where you can see them, and not in close proximity to others.

Case Classics, Buck Creek, Fightin Rooster, and Bulldog celluloids are notoriously bad. I don’t know if they seem worse because there are so many bought by collectors that we now know how bad they are. Or if the older ones were just as bad but self-destructed before collectors got them.

Ken

[andylate]

I have a celluloid Imperial EO jack, black imitation jigged bone. It has a loose scale pin, so it will be re-scaled as soon as I brave and ambitious. It's too bad, the scale pattern is gorgeous!

Andy

[Knifeslut2]

The slide-opener is a Case Tested PBB1050F. Imitation onyx covers. PBB is for Push Button Blade. It’s a 1050 “Coke Bottle” pattern. There is a push button that releases the blade and lets you slide it out. There are four “stops” allowing the user to lock the blade at differing lengths, or fully extended. There is a fish scaler on the back of the blade.
IMG_20150408_210402~2.jpeg

Sorry to hear your story about celluloids but it is a common one. I learned the hard way too. Never store them together with other knives especially not in a closed space or a roll (I never store any knives in rolls, but that’s a different story I’ve told before). If one starts to “go off” it will take others with it. And yes, the nitrous acid fumes will ruin etches - it’s acid! If you’re going to have celluloids I recommend keep them out in open air where you can see them, and not in close proximity to others.

Case Classics, Buck Creek, Fightin Rooster, and Bulldog celluloids are notoriously bad. I don’t know if they seem worse because there are so many bought by collectors that we now know how bad they are. Or if the older ones were just as bad but self-destructed before collectors got them.

Ken

MAN, THAT is one cool knife! I had noticed the little round "stops" in your previous photo and figured that was what their purpose was. THANKS for the second photo! Now I can't stop drooling!

In my first post after the picture of YOUR rotted out Buck Creek I mentioned that MY rotted out Buck Creek was stored in a knife roll with 11 other knives. It was the only celluloid knife in that roll and when it went, it trashed out the two knives rolled up on either side of it through about four layers of silicone material that the roll was made of. It was a big hefty roll of blades and the BC left dark rust colored deposits on the slot where it had been stored. Am scared to even use that knife roll again even if I were to wash it! The Buck Creek was not expensive, but was pristine till it self destructed. What really bummed me out was the knife next to it was a fancy Weidmannsheil that has one of those trick lock mechanisms where you squeeze shut the secondary blade to release the main open blade. It cleaned up pretty well but can still see signs of steel degradation on the secondary blade if you know what to look for. And as you mention NOW no celluloids go into knife rolls or closed boxes for that matter. I may be slow, but painful lessons teach me well.

[Knifeslut2]

Whoops! Also meant to add that I am a Machinist and worked at a major lab most of my years that did LOTS of metal etchings as well as anything and everything else you could possibly imagine with just about every material known to man. I am real familiar with etching and what it takes to do them, but am still amazed at how the Nitric acid faded out the blade etches on several of these blades. Can still see them but it just ate the dark black coloring right off them!

[enuf]

Wife and I went running around this weekend and per her request we stopped at some flea markets and antique shops. One flea market, that was more set up like an antique store, but fleaie also, a guy had a large glass case and had some new Remington's and a Winchester, which I ended up buying the Winchester. One of the Remington's was the 2002 Bullet with the box, has a good price on it but I took a hard pass because the scales were not touching the bolsters, had a small black gap there and the edges of the bolsters were turning grey working its way toward the outer ends. So, I rescued the Winchester and got it out of there.

[OLDE CUTLER]

Celluloid on a Winchester cattle knife that was used hard, but the celluloid is still good.