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[Garry Probert]

Hi guys/gals a friend brought his lovely vintage Epiphone Recording tenor banjo for a neck reset ,the headstock is a very ornate pearl celluloid with fine scrolls .I have seen a few in my time but on very close inspection the relife on this one was created not with carving and black but with a soldering iron or something similar has anyone tried this method?
I,m alway rather careful with the stuff as its very flammable but i have an old 20s tenor i,m fettling and have made a new pearl celluloid headstock cover from a derelict accordion and thought it could be spruced up a bit with of detail
many thanks   

[Winston Smith]

An uneducated bit of advice would be to try it outside, away from anything else flammable.

[Garry Probert]

Hi edwards thanks sounds a good idea ,I don't have a lot of vintage celluloid left to play with I have some old "I think lino carving chisels"
that i,ve used before then ebony dusted ,but really liked the fine detail on the epiphone will give it a spin at the weekend outside with mask goggles and fire extinguisher at the ready lol   

[Theo]

It’s very common on old accordions to have patterns carved into the celluloid. They usually look cut rather than burned.
I have some old celluloid that came originally from Hohners London place.  If you would like some please get in touch.

[2rightfeet]

Having worked in an industry where we used similar materials, I would regard celluloid as dangerously flammable and a soldering iron as a bad, possibly very dangerous, idea - unless others know better from actual experience. [From Wikipedia:  Most movie and photography films prior to the widespread move to acetate films in the 1950s were made of celluloid. Its high flammability was legendary since it self-explodes when exposed to temperatures over 150° C in front of a hot movie-projector beam.]
But the stuff is thermoplastic - ie softens when heated. Is it possible it was moulded by a hot tip with a more controllable temperature? Or alternatively carved with an electric engraver type of tool?

[Garry Probert]

Hi guys..............thanks Theo will contact you ,its taking a lot longer to finish all my old projects than i thought ,now working out of a friends garage just to finish up what i can lol
I don't have a picture of the banjo but this is very similar
With my old crap eyes and a victorian magnifying glass  it looks like burns but could be some form of etching the stippling just doesn't look carved to me but my hands now shake a little so who knows

 https://jamesdjulia.com/item/lot-3159-epiphone-recording-model-alhambra-banjo-29563/

[John MacKenzie (Cugiok)]

I would think that it would be some form of engraving using a small wheel, or a rotary burr. This action, at the right speed, would melt the surface of the plastic, and produce the same effect as using heated implements.
IMHO

Sir John

[Garry Probert]

Hi john

I would think that it would be some form of engraving using a small wheel, or a rotary burr. This action, at the right speed, would melt the surface of the plastic, and produce the same effect as using heated implements

sounds spot on to me I have several dremel rotary bits will give it a try
many thanks 

[Rob2Hook]

The pics of the one at auction are interesting.  Presumably it belonged to a cigarette smoker, who tucked it under the strings on the peghead - hence the burn mark.  I noticed that the edge of that burn is a similar colour to the pattern, suggesting some heat was involved.A burr may well do it as SJ suggests, but a quick hand with an iron may also work just as pottery workers produced great work with a single pass of the brush.  What I couldn't understand myself is that the torch at the centre of the design does not look burnt like the rest!

I guess you'll have to experiment until the results make an acceptable match.

Rob

[Kimric Smythe]

If celluloid is glued down to a surface it will not sustain a fire, but man will it smoke if you touch a soldering iron to it.

Having dealt with some burn damage the burn mark will be surrounded with a little bit of char. It is possible it was embossed or carved when it was green or even vacuformed.

 Be sure to use a sharp cutter wheel if you go at it and not a grinding stone , the stone will just load up and burn the finish.