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Solingen Safachat

Matt

Matt

Well-Known Member
Just wanted to share. I was given this razor by my co-worker, it was her grandfather's razor. It's a Solingen blade - the majority of my collection - the shank says "Safachat" on the main side, and Klihaso Works Haas on the other. Scales, although not overly attractive, seem to be original. It was quite rusty when I got it, so unpinning and some work was necessary. There are still some flea bites, but even if I wanted to get rid of them, I lack skills/experience to fully remove all dark spots and put a flawless mirror finish to a blade (yes Robin, that one was actually mirror finished right from the start).

What I particularly like about her is size - didn't measure, but I estimate 6/8 at least - and shoulderless design, for which I'm a real sucker. Due to its width it requires a longitudinal stabilizer, which, if you look carefully, can be seen in the reflection, somewhere around 2/3s of the width from the spine.

Shaves just fine. :thumbup:

Thanks for looking (oh, the quality sucks, phone camera).

regards,
Matt

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Safachat.jpg


Safachat2.jpg
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Thats a nice one:love:
For some strange reason all the razors i buy is shoulderless:sleep:
Did the rust match the scales? are they celluloid?
 
That looks like a real beauty Matt :thumbup:

And reminds me of one I have thats very similar, I must check it out when I get home

Thanks for sharing my friend
Regards
Ralfson
 
janivar123 said:
Did the rust match the scales? are they celluloid?
Click to expand...
Do you mean if rust spots were at the places of contact with the scales? Not quite, there was a pretty large area at the upper part of the point, the tang was also rusty. I believe they are celluloid, I think a rescale in black buffalo horn which Ray had sent me a while ago (where are you, Ray?) would help it tremendously.

cheers,
Matt
 
That is one very cool razor. I really like shoulderless even more so when the grind extends well into the thumb placement of the tang i feel that I get a better grip and have more control.
I don't think he meant where the blade touches the scales, but rather if, when closed, did the rust follow the same shape as the scales. I believe he was suggesting cell rot. Anymore if I get a razor with celluloid and question the rust at all I just rescale it. I know many people don't like that, but I prefer the look of wood scales and I don't rescale as a business therefore I only have to please myself. :)
 
Uhhh... What exactly is a cell rot, sirs? And what's celluloid got to do with it? :confused:
 
celluloid is a netural product. As it decomposes it produces a gas. This gas will rot the steel. The only fix is new scales.
 
Cell rot is a decomposition of celluloid. It happens to the old film stock also that is why so many movies were lost in the archives. When it decomposes it releases a gas that causes deep rusting of the blade. I received a 90 piece collection a few years ago and there were 7 DD's destroyed by this process. If you receive razors that show a crystallization of the scales and the starting of the rusting process they should have the scales removed ASAP.
 
Thank you gentlemen for all your help and, yes, a picture speaks a thousand words. :thumbup:

mysteryrazor said:
Cell rot is a decomposition of celluloid. It happens to the old film stock also that is why so many movies were lost in the archives. When it decomposes it releases a gas that causes deep rusting of the blade.
Click to expand...
Well, that maybe could explain an odd smell I'm having from one of my razors - something a little resembling a burnt tire (no, they're certainly not rubber). I haven't had any issues with the blade, but I protect the blades with vaseline on regular basis.

regards,
Matt
 
normally you don't notice this if store the razors in a open well vented place , if you store them in a box on the other hand you have this problem because the gas can't escape

kind regards
Stijn
 
That surely explains the razors I have seen rusted up to the top of the scales that were kept in their original boxes. The poor guys probably thought they were taking special care. I store my razors in a mug and now I am glad I do. Who found out about these gas releasing bastards. Pretty crafty.
 
Cell Rot or Celluloid Rot.
Celluloid was, and still is, one of the best plastics ever invented by man, and in my opinion, better than modern Acrylic, if not anything else but for its toughness, workability and versatility. But it has one small flaw, it disintegrates releasing an acidic gas that attacks the steel.
However the speed at which Celluloid decays is the deciding factor of what is celluloid rot, if it is fast, then it "the rot", if slow, then there is nothing to worry about. Polish the blade (or simply remove tarnish) and put it away in a box for a month or two and see if the stains come back.

As for weather Celluloid Rot is contagious?... think about this little example…

We have a collection of razors all in the same container. However, the scales on one razor starts to decompose rapidly, the gas attacks the blade installed in that scale, the gas slowly spreads out to attack the steel of nearby razors, nearest will show advanced tarnish and those further away are much less…
Several years later… We open the container and see the one razor badly tarnished and the razors further away much less… perhaps because we could not see the gas from only one set of scales as it was spreading and thinning out within the confines of the container… we assume “the disease is spreading” to affect the other scales.
 
Actually the gas released while the celluloid decomposes, really promotes its further decomposition, and thus also to some extent that off other celluloid objects in the same container. But not all celluloid is equally eager to decompose. We can even observe in faux tortoise scales that specific colors are more prone to decompose than others, and that shows up in the location of the corrosion on the blade.

But I don't think it spreads like a disease. It's not as if once the gas affected a "healthy" object, it has now become "ill" and there is no stopping it. Yet I'd still advice to remove a rapidly decomposing celluloid object from the neighborhood of others.

If you google "celluloid decomposition" there is more information to be read.

Kind regards,
Bart.
 
Matt said:
Well, that maybe could explain an odd smell I'm having from one of my razors - something a little resembling a burnt tire (no, they're certainly not rubber).
Click to expand...

I don't think that burnt tire smell is celluloid rot. I have some vintage razors that smell like that and I haven't seen a corrosion problem. Also, actually many of the old, black, vintage scales are made of a hard rubber compound.
 
On the "Safachat" razor in the photos, maybe there is some confusion caused by the reflection of the table top grain pattern on the sides of the blade. The only corrosion I see is along the spine, and that doesn't look like it was caused by cell rot.

Nice razor by the way.
 
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