Is celluloid that bad??

[Westflorida]

I just got a really nice old winchester knife, but the knife has a celluloid handle. The celluloid looks great but I have heard it is destined to turn to ****. Is this true?

 

[T. Erdelyi]

Yes eventually it will all celluloid will eventuall self destruct, and once it starts there is no stopping the process, and the gas given off by the decomposing celluloid will affect the steel on other knives stored with it

I have celluloid handled knives and I watch them very closely, so far none have done more than shrink.

 

[BurkStar]

I've got some celluloid knives dating from the early 1900's and so far I've had no problem at all, even though I've owned them for over 3 years. But living in Phoenix Az (lack of humidity) might be making the difference, that and I keep them out of the sunlight.

 

[Evolute]

If you want to see what happens to celluloid, check out the exhibition of Ricky Jay's Failing Dice, at the Museum of Jurassic Technology, in L.A. (Or check out Ricky Jay's book on the subject. I forget the title, but it shouldn't be hard to find.)

 

[Keith Montgomery]

Here is a great article on celluloid.

http://www.knifeworld.com/cefimabydeel.html

 

[Don Luis]

The celluloid I know and have used often is in ping-pong balls, they do decay. I´ve seen some catch fire, it´s impressive, and you don´t want to be nearby when that happens.

 

[Mark J]

So is this true for current production celluloid knives too? Or have they changed the composition to eliminate this problem?

- Mark

 

[Gollnick]

Nobody really knows exactly what the problem is, what the chemical mechanism exactly is. And with the new focus on a manned mission to Mars, we're unlikely to secure a multi-million dollar federal grant to study it. There just isn't much monied interest in studying or trying to solve this problem.

Practice has taught us that this decay can be slow or rapid. There are reports of collectors who have inspected their celluloid-decorated knives and found them in excellent condition, then returned a few weeks later and found them hopelessly destroyed.

One bit of practical advice that does seem to hold in many cases is that if one celluloid knife in a container goes bad, others will often follow. Apparently, the gas released by the first can accelerate its own decay and trigger the others too. Apparently, this can lead to a sort of cascade effect and they all end up bad. Sunlight seems to accelerate the process but keeping celluloid out of sunlight is no guarantee.

There's no way to know for sure about modern celluloid since the problem takes decades to surface. So, ask me again in about thirty years.