This is the color of most of the Streamlines I have found over the years, although I found at least one with a black composite handle.
As you can tell this color of celluloid tends to off gas pretty badly. This one is actually in better-than-average condition. When I get these knives I remove the handles, disassembled them and wash them with water and baking soda to neutralize any asset that may remain on them from the offgassing process. I have collected a fishing tackle tray full of Streamline parts, and usually takes me parts from three or four knives to restore one halfway decent knife. This knife is the finest example of a Streamline I have owned; it had dark handles with cream-colored stripes through them. I owned the knife for several years and watched closely to see if it showed any signs of offgassing. A few years ago I detected some early signs of offgassing and removed the handle before any serious damage was done.
This is a picture of the knife shown below that I restored. The pictures taken shortly after I got it and before before it began to off gas – Because I caught this knife before the offgassing became too serious, it was mainly a matter of cleaning up the brass liners and finding some nice handle material. This handle material I purchased from Mister Ron Lake at the Oregon Knife Collectors Association show this last April. He had several sets of stag that he wasn't going to use and decided to sell them. I was fortunate to get a few sets from him.
This whole restoration went fairly easily without any great problems, aside from trying to take pictures of a shiny knife indoors.
I will try to get better pictures tomorrow if it’s not raining because this knife is so shiny it’s almost impossible to get a good picture indoors under artificial lights, with my photographic skills and equipment (read lack thereof).
I need to etch my name on the back of the blade and do the final polish yet, and then get some better pictures for my store.
Thanks for looking and I hope you enjoy the pictures.
