Marked Schrade Walden the jigged delrin was made no later than 73 ( approx ). It was made after 56 most likely late sixtys. You are quite correct to be a bit leary about celluloid.
Celluloid is made of camphor and nitrates. It is quite flamable and may become unstable for many reasons. If this happens and the knife or other celluloid material is in an enclosed area it will besides destroying itself by a rather gross looking deterioration also cause any exposed knife blades ( in the immediate area ), to rust.
Celluloid poisoning can happen due to changes in light, temperature, not having been correctly washed when being made or simply by being in an enclosed area since this material naturally gives off a corrosive gas which if not allowed to air often begins to self destruct for this reason alone. You should have no problem cleaning the cell knife however I would try not to let the cell come in a prolonged contact with the flitz. By the way Flitz should work well on the blades since it is one of the more aggressive polishes. The cell handles look fine so there should be no problem just try to keep the knife in an airy area, unwrapped ( not in a case ) where the temperature stays fairly constant between 65 and 90 degrees F and out of direct sunlight.
A year or two ago I did an article for a magazine about celluloid. I called it Celluloid thou art a woman. The reason for this is that it has many of the qualitys possessed by the fairer sex. It is really one of the most beautiful handle materials ever used to make knives however it is totally unpredictable. It can turn bad for reasons no one will ever know. When it does go bad it is as ugly as it was beautiful. Any thing can make it go bad temperature, light, time of the month, no one knows for sure. Seriously sometimes cell goes bad just for the hell of it. When it does go bad it destroys anything near it.
They started making the K horn ( delrin ) version of the cell, butter and molasses in the 60 tys for all these reasons ( also because they were making delrin versions of all there materials.) Like I said they were never as pretty as the cell versions but they sure were a lot more predictable. I guess the delrin versions are the stepford wives model.
In the old days every knife company had a celluloid building which was always outside the factory away from everything else. These buildings had floating roofs which were hinged so that the wind could blow through and air the place out. In spite of this I do not know of any companies that did not at least once have the stuff catch fire and burn the building down . This stuff would go up if it simply got hot when it was being cut to size. It is made mostly from the same kind of stuff that gunpowder is made from like I said it is a lot like a woman. Don't mess with it to much or you might get burned. I know I did. By the way for the older members of this forum ping pong balls are made of celluloid. Which is an appriopriate analogy if you remember the original posting which made reference to various uses of ping pong balls. LT
