New Baking Soda & Aluminum Foil Trick Photo Tutorial for Restoring Silver Razors

Ski-Patroller said:

Do you think there is any reason you can't use an aluminum pot or pan, instead of aluminum foil??

It seems to me that the chemical reaction would be the same.

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Indeed. If you were happy to ruin the pan. The aluminium foil is a sacrificial component.

By the way OP, I think you are supposed to add water softener to the mix too. Or has this been left out for a reason?
Edit> I guess not, the baking soda is an alternative to the water softener.

Edit 2> Interesting read here.

Summary as I see it:

You need an aluminium plate or foil.
Use hot or near boiling water.
Use either washing soda, baking soda or salt (in decreasing order of effectiveness?)
Also use water softener (optional, especially if your water is not hard?)
Silver item needs to contact the aluminium.
Only silver submerged in the liquid will have tarnish removed, and parts closest to contact points with the aluminium will be acted on fastest.

Guys is there a similar method for nickel plating?

Have a few questions for anyone who knows:

1) Tap water vs. distilled. Do the ions in tap water interfere with, or facilitate the reaction, or no effect?

2) Has anyone had any experience with the super hot water damaging parts of the razor that are nickel plated? I have several razors where the bulk of the handle is silver plated, but the top parts, attached to it (they're single ring clones) are nickel plated.

3) If you put about three razors in the aluminum foil vesicle at the same time, would that be just less effective, because there are more particles to take off of more silver, or how would that affect things?

Anyway, thanks much for the original post. Have generally had great success with this on several razors.

Thanks so much! I'm looking forward to applying this method to my newly acquired 1904!

Wow that's really cool, like night and day!

Has been applying this method for my past few silver-plated razor.

So how many razors actually have the silver plating? I was under the impression that most would be nickel or chrome.

Is there an age range or manufacturer that is more likely to be silver-plated, and are the silver plates more or less collectable in the market?

JustAnotherDude said:

So how many razors actually have the silver plating? I was under the impression that most would be nickel or chrome.

Is there an age range or manufacturer that is more likely to be silver-plated, and are the silver plates more or less collectable in the market?

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Many earlier razors were silver plated, then the nickel was adopted later.

alex2363 said:

Many earlier razors were silver plated, then the nickel was adopted later.

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so generally speaking I should see silver plate as a sign of age, and when spotting one in the wild, should pay attention to them.

Excellent step-by-step tutorial! Thanks for this helpful post. Now I fully understand how the process works.

Ozgun said:

Guys is there a similar method for nickel plating?

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This. I was wondering the same thing. Hoping someone can come up with a solution.

Any way to tell if a razor is silver or nickel?

Does this negatively affect the nickel plated razors or just do nothing?

Edit:It looks like this was asked and not answered above. Or I missed the answer and I apologize.

No similar technique for nickel or chrome. When silver tarnishes, the silver is still there but blackened. When plated brass goes green, the plating is gone from that spot.

I think the foil treatment would be harmless to chrome or nickel, but if you do not see any tarnish, why bother?

Also, this needs to go in the sticky, in my opinion. This is an awesome photo laden tutorial and should be seen by all when needed.

+1 on the sticky . . . I've quoted (and linked) Brian's work many times!

When I used this method I did KC, not being a chemist, I'm not certain of the answer though. Interested to hear the replies

Stupid question: Does it matter whether the razors are in contact with the shiny or flat side of the foil?

Chemically there is no difference between the two sides of the foil. Aluminum either way!

Don't be afraid of using this method. It works great, it's easy, can't mess it up.

edit: this took four baths and a mild polish.

Wow!