doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com White bloom?

Sitting in the safe, a couple guns with hard black plastic buttplates, 40-50 YO guns, have developed a white film on the buttplate. Not mildew.

What is it?
Correct way to remove?
Prevent?

Some buttplates were made of a black plastic called tenite.Tenite is made from cellulose acetate which is a byproduct of wood. It is also subject to a white mold which feeds on the cellulose. This mold is also often seen on very old black telephones which were molded from the same material.

If that's what is going on, I'd think that a bleach or Lysol solution to kill the mold should help, followed by rinsing and drying. Rubbing alcohol might even work better and dry much faster. However, alcohol would soften or even remove the finish if it happened to be shellac. Care is needed, and it might be best to just remove the buttplates if you have the correct tools. And you'd also want to clean and carefully dry your gun storage space to kill any spores to prevent reoccurance

I concur with Keith's reply. I will add that tenite with the white powder on it takes on the smell of sour milk. I have used warm water and dishsoap, scrubbed with a soft brush and then waxed with furniture or car wax. If a hollow stock, as was the Stevens 311, make sure you attend to the inside as well.

John

Interesting! Thank you!

Following suit to what Keith said, Oxiclean is a renown mold killer as well.

MMm,
I better check my old Stevens .22/410 OU as the stock is Tenite.

Baking soda in water & wash the piece with it cures all mold blooms
O.M

Eastman Chemical (Tenite) wasn't the only mfg of cellulose acetate plastic though they were the largest.

It is the wood pulp, and sometimes cotton fiber pulp ingredient that causes the white age marking and bloom on the items made from it as Keith points out.

Plastic eyeglass frames were/are another common item made from it and another one that often suffered the white plague especially on the temple pieces after some age and use.

I've noticed many 50's and 60's Winchester 22's with their plastic butt plates have the white powdery stuff clinging to them if they've been hanging around untouched for a while.

You can usually clear the piece of the stuff with most any of the procedures above. But it will come back again later it seems. Temp and humidity conditions can help or hinder it's return of course.
The wood pulp ingredient and the acids and acetone used in it's mfg'r are all part of what it's made of, there's no getting around that.

A buddy of mine growing up had a single shot with a Tenite stock. The certainly had attractive grain, even though fake...Geo