Tortoise shell scales

I stopped by an antique shoo and the lady had a razor that was pretty rusted that she was asking $40 for. I questioned her why so much and she claimed it was tortoise shell. The scales were pretty and in good shape.
The question is: how can you tell real tortoise shell? I have never seen it in person so excuse. My ignorance?
Another question would be that I'd the blade is shot is it worth trying to salvage them for use on another blade?

Personally that sounds too much cash no matter if it's tortoise shell of not.

If you're not familiar with the real deal it can be somewhat tricky. Even with photographs at times.
one thing there is a lot of and seen regularly is blonde horn that has been painted to took like tortoise. Some of it is quite good and as I said this is the most common thing you come across.
Can you swap them to another razor? Sure you can. I do it all the time. And to me. If they are genuine tortoise I'd pay $40 for them in a heart beat as long as they aren't delaminating or have big chips missing.
the stuff is relatively rare.

Here are a few examples of fakes. 2 celluloid on the top and 2 painted blonde horn on the bottom.
you can tell the bottom two aren't real because the dark areas don't go through the scale. A side view shows the pattern is just sitting on the surface. If I'd try to polish the to any extent
the patterns would fade if not disappear.

3 W&Bs and a Kinfolk.

Go to a sunglasses shop and look at a pair of Persol acetate sunglasses. Real tortoise looks and feels almost exactly like the frames of the faux tortoise Persol.

I salvaged these scales and I believe they are painted horn scales as the painting is on the top surface but not on the inside surface of the scales.

Thanks for the info. I'll pass on it though. I'm not sure what it is and she is. This don't leave any wiggle room on either side. But whatever it is it is pretty.

Real tortoise looks like nothing else. The real thing is as thin as ivory most of the time.

The inside of the scales are not "smooth" there are waves to it.

I would pay $40 for a set of genuine tortoise scales in good condition

So what does real tortoise shell look like (PICS). After seeing these fakes, I'm not sure if I ever have seen the real thing.

I'm betting they're not real tortoise. As Mark (mycarver) said above, blond horn used to be painted to look like tortoise and some people know enough to tell the difference between celluloid and a natural material, but not the more difficult difference between tortoise and horn-two natural materials.

TheVez2 said:

So what does real tortoise shell look like (PICS). After seeing these fakes, I'm not sure if I ever have seen the real thing.

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Both the razor pictures I posted above are of real tortoise.

Oh, I can't see them. Stupid work filter blocks some host sites.

They're real and they're spectacular!

Doc226 said:

Real tortoise looks like nothing else. The real thing is as thin as ivory most of the time.

The inside of the scales are not "smooth" there are waves to it.

I would pay $40 for a set of genuine tortoise scales in good condition

Click to expand...

Sorry Doc, my offer was there first!

mycarver said:

Sorry Doc, my offer was there first!

Click to expand...

$45 then

I'll dig deep,,,,

$46.00

Hey, go to some sites and their asking $75.00 for some cr*p plastic ones .

So, I sould start saving these dead turtles that wash up on the lake in my front yard?

Not if they're Leatherbacks you won't!
Naa. They're only in the oceans . They're protected ( tell China that) and you'd be fined/imprisoned.

A pretty famous razor value guide has quit a few examples of what they call genuine tortoise, and they are clearly celluloid. I have the exact same razor that they have pictured as the example. They also say that they are quit common, and with that I strongly disagree. I guess if you think that celluloid scales are real tortoise then they are quit common. Lol

I'd love to have a set of real tortoise shell scales on any blade. They are beautiful.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gopher_tortoise

These guys are all over the place here, I'm not killing them, but find them every now and then washed up. They have shells.....