My first before and after, with a few questions

I just received this razor in the mail today, so after going shopping for all the necessary cleaning items I went to work on it. The razor looks much better now but I have a few concerns. If you notice where the green was it is now brown. And the polishing didn't really work all that well. I'm wondering a.) what caused it to turn brown? b.) why it didn't come out looking as shiny as others I've seen?

Here's what I did:Soaked in CLR 1st, Then 3 rounds of scrubbing bubbles foam, then 2 rounds of metal polish with a toothbrush and rag.

Also I don't see a date code on this razor anywhere, where would it be located? or could someone I.D please?

Think I can help. The brown area is what some call brassing, I believe. What happened is at some point the nickel plate wore off and the brass underneath turned green. when you cleaned of the green(corrosion) it exposed the brass. When polishing I use Qtips and a microfiber cloth. Sometimes it takes a couple tries to get them to shine, other times they stay a little dull. As to the date it should be under the head close to the handle, a letter on one side and a number on the other side. Should still be a good shaver, nice score!!

Jay

The date code is located on the underside of the base plate of the razor head. There should be a single letter and a single number spaced apart near where the shaft attaches to the head. The razor is a Slim adjustable.

Using CLR and Scrubbing Bubbles is redundant since they both do the same thing. In the future I would use Scrubbing Bubbles first since CLR is quite a bit stronger. 2 cycles with Scrubbing Bubbles is usually more than enough for most razors.
Use your toothbrush with Scrubbing Bubbles to get rid of the stubborn scum. A Q-Tip can also get into tight places. Toothpaste and a toothbrush also works.

Which metal polish are you using? There are some such as Brasso that are more abrasive than necessary.

It's a little hard to tell from the picture, but it looks like you removed the corrosion and the brown that's showing is the copper base material that's under the nickel plating. I don't know if your cleaning regimen removed any more of the nickel plating, but some was already missing. Copper oxide is green. Usually the base material is brass, but brass oxide is brownish and metal polish should have restored the yellowish brass color. Some Gillettes were made with copper base material.

Brass is mostly copper.

Dooh! Your right Greybeard, I should have remembered copper flash before nickel(jeez, I'm a gun guy)! Thanks for the correction!

Jay

Ah, bummer! I thought I may have had a little gem but it must be just too corroded. Ah well I'll still give it a go! Turns out its a '65 slim. The adjustment on it works really nicely which I'm happy about.

I used wrights cream polish.

As long as the adjustment works and all the gaps are even, who cares! Its a great shaver grade, and lets face it... Those are the best! Just enjoy it!

Jay

It's good to have one to use. If you get one that's pristine, you'll worry more about the finish than the shave. There are plenty of them out there if you want one just to look at. Enjoy this one.