Wanna shine up an old razor.

L

leigh44

Member
Hey guys, my mum just recently passed on my grandfather's old Gillette ball end tech safety razor which was made in the 1940s sometime so it's looking a little tired and I wanna get is revived. Where in Melbourne would I be able to have that done?
 
leigh44 said:
Hey guys, my mum just recently passed on my grandfather's old Gillette ball end tech safety razor which was made in the 1940s sometime so it's looking a little tired and I wanna get is revived. Where in Melbourne would I be able to have that done?
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If it's just cleaning and putting a shine on it, I'd do it myself. If it's to have it replated, then very few places in Australia do that.

Cleaning it is to simply add the razor to a cup of boiled water and dish detergent. Leave to soak for an hour. Then take out and scrub all over with an old toothbrush and a smear of normal toothpaste.
Repeat the boiling water and deterrent.
Then rinse and put it in a cup of boiled water and about 2-3 tablespoons of vinegar. Leave for only 5 minutes. Leaving a razor in vinegar is a recipe for disaster.

After drying, use a specific soft metal polish like Maas, Flitz or Autosol. Polish with a soft cloth to achieve a nice shine.

Others may have their own way, but that's mine. [emoji4]
 
I soak and rinse in detergent too, and take to it with an old toothbrush. This will remove all the crusty soap scum that has accumulated.

I have also used a brass brush to remove some stubborn corrosion. You want to be gentle with this though, and make sure it is brass, as steel brushes will scratch the crap out of your razor. Bunnings sell a pretty decent 3 brush set, containing nylon (good to use instead of a tooshbrush), brass and steel. I don't use the steel, but the nylon and brass are great.

Then, finish with autosol (also at Bunnings) to bring back the shine.

I've heard of some using superfine steel wool, but I haven't used that myself.

If the plating has gone, then there is nothing that can be done besides a complete replate, but that isn't worth it IMO.
 
Thanks guys. Yeah the plating is all good, just needs a good clean so I'll definitely give this a crack. Really looking forwards to bringing it back to life. Cheers
 
How about some before pictures ?
 
First pass, just use an old tooth brush and some tooth paste.
 
Upload to an image hosting service and link it with the IMG tags.
 
Try uploading to imgur.com and then linking to it here
 
Good idea.... Actually doesn't look too bad in these photos

jQ8250D.jpg
 
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It looks like it will clean up quite nicely actually.
Not sure if it's tarnish/dirt of plate loss upon the edges though...
 
It is light? Aluminium handle? If so it will not 'shine' like other plated handles

With cleaning and polishing go gentle!

Step One: clean off soap scum. Soaking in hot water and scrubbing with toothbrush should be all that is needed and is gentle on the plating.

Step Two: polish if desired. Any polishing will take off microscopic amounts of plating so the gentlest polish that works is the best. Toothpaste has a mild abrasive in it so a good start. Brasso and Silvo are very abrasive and specialist polishes are somewhere in between.

Note: Do not use vinegar! Sorry @filobiblic but even a small amount in a very weak acidic solution with water can react to the underlying brass if there is plate loss and make things worse - so don't go there.

Different methods also apply to silver and gold plated items :)
 
Mark1966 said:
Note: Do not use vinegar! Sorry @filobiblic but even a small amount in a very weak acidic solution with water can react to the underlying brass if there is plate loss and make things worse - so don't go there.
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Ok. Good to know from the expert! [emoji6]

So is vinegar ok to use for the modern chrome razors then?
 
filobiblic said:
Ok. Good to know from the expert! [emoji6]

So is vinegar ok to use for the modern chrome razors then?
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Well I'm not sure about expert - just say I've learnt some things the hard way!

I don't know about modern razors - the problem is always if the plating is penetrated and you have something acidic or alkaline come in contact with the underlying metal. Brass reacts badly I'm not sure about the underlying material in modern razors.
 
borked said:
Such as ?
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With silver plated you can use the aluminum foil and baking soda method to convert tarnish to silver again.

Gold plating requires gentle care - the earlier ones were plated OK the more recent ones the plating is thinner and usually covered by a lacquer coating - a challenge in itself.

While the wiki YKW has good info it is best done on a case by case basis with these
 
Razor rescue to the rescue indeed :)
 
Mother Metal Polish is my favorite compound, I've cleaned a 'few' razor with that stuff. (Not recommended for gold plated razor)
 
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