Bad Cellulod handles

jljr1944 · Post by **jljr1944** » Sat Nov 10, 2007 4:51 pm

I noticed that someone brought up the subject of bad Celluloid handles so I thought I would post a couple of pics and share what information I have.
There is debate among collectors as to what causes celluloid to go bad,but the bottom line is that no one really knows. You can have a knife in your possession for decades and nothing will happen and then it will start to go bad. The only thing known for sure about celluloid is that it is a highly unstable compound. Celluloid dust can be explosive.
It was used for knife handles starting in the early 1900's and is still used on some knives such as Bulldog and Buck Creek to name a couple. No celluloid has been made in the United Statres for 50 years. It all comes from overseas.
If you Google on "the trouble with celluloid" you can read some very good information on celluloid

useem · Post by **useem** » Sat Nov 10, 2007 5:10 pm

Great post

Even though the pictures were painful to look at!

Hukk · Post by **Hukk** » Sat Nov 10, 2007 5:49 pm

Yeah, I am a Bulldog collector, I noticed that S&D CUT CO on the tang right away. I just "won" 2 Bulldog knives from ebay, both suffering from the ravages of celluloid degradation, I bought those because they are rare and salvageable. I also have another with a broken backspring that is a salvage project. Not to bad to make one, I may use titanium, but I don't know, that's looking fairly far into the horizon.

EDIT: They were both Tortoise

olderdogs1 · Post by **olderdogs1** » Sat Nov 10, 2007 8:57 pm

That handle color was "tobacco brown" and was the worst of all of the handles bulldog put on a knife. Hardly any survived. The 2nd worst bulldog put on was "tortoise". Few of these survived either but more than the tobacco brown. I have however owned a couple that were nice, why I don't know.

Tom