Need your advice- the opening mechanism of my aristocrat jr. is jammed

Hello folks,
I could win an aristocrat jr. recently at the bay. It sounded like a good deal, but unfortunatly, the seller`s description of the condition was way too generous. And accidently, only the side of the razor with no brassing was photographed, not the other side that is full of brassing
Well, I twist it open, and now it won`t close again, the mechanism is jammed. I don`t want to apply too much violence in order to open it in order not to damage what is left.
Have you any idea how I could fix this?
As always, your opinions are higly appreciated.

It might be something as simple as built up gunk in the razor TTO mechanism. An overnight soak in mineral oil will usually cure this. Give that a shot first. If that does not work then please post a few detailed pictures of the razor.

A soak in WD40 also does wonders in such situations but i do not know what is available at Germany.

if theres no gold or plastic parts, a boil with 1:10 Water to viniger mix might do the trick,

btw, boiling viniger does stench up quite nicly, so beware, and before boiling ANY razor, make sure it dosnt have heat or viniger sensative parts or coatings,

I'd boil it first to loosen the gunk, 15-30 minutes. I had one stuck. I unstuck it by first spraying WD40 from the top and in around the twister, and then putting a few drops of light 3-in-1 oil in at the top and letting it sit for an hour. Soaking in oil is overkill. I started out boiling my eBay razors in 1:10 vinegar solution but I got some color change on one razor that took considerable polishing to remove so now I just use plain water.

as i said, some coatings will react badly to the viniger, so i would post a picture and consult before using the 1/10 vinegar solution,

The one that changed to a pinkish color was an ordinary SuperSpeed B3. I boiled it with five other razors and I think there was some metal transfer from a brass one. The SuperSpeed was the only one affected. The moral is don't boil unlike metals together. Polishing did restore the original color/finish. P.S. I have a degree in chemistry and taught biochemistry in med school until I got my MD degree. I understand mild acidic baths.

Thank you so much for your opinions. As the razor seems to have lost some plating (which seems to be quite common for this kind of razor) I will be careful about boiling it with vinegar. I will try it with my supersonic cleaner first and try some mineral oil then. Do you also have the "Balistol" brand in the USA? It is high quality oil, good for almost everything. It was developed for mechanical parts of hunting rifles first but works also so well with any other mechanisms. So I will let you know how it worked.

Well, this is the link to the auction:
http://cgi.ebay.de/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&rd=1&item=320164737029&ssPageName=STRK:MEWN:IT&ih=011

I don't have my camera with me, so I cannot post other pictures at the moment. I tried it with my supersonic cleaner, but it doesn't make a difference. Now I tried it with the mineral oil, but it is difficult to get it in the mechanism. I applied it from above and I hope that it will crouch the the right place and dissolve whatever blocks the mechanism there. After all, I like this razor so much, it is generally in good condition and so well built, so I would really like to know what it shaves like.
Anyway, thanks very much for your sympathy.

I could fix my razor now so I want to share it with all who gave me their advice: I tried oil and I tried boiling it for 20 Minutes, still the closing mechanism did not work and the razor stayed with the doors opened.
After using even more mineral oil, I did the final act of desperation: I inserted the TTO-knob into a bench vice and tried to turn the razor by force. After some resistance, I could turn the knob and close the razor! There was much dirt in the mechanism which the oil had already dissolved a little bit, but not enough. After cleaning it with a toothbrush and using more oil to lubricate the opening mechanism it opens so smoothly now. The razor seems to have forgiven me this rough treatment. It has even lost just a little bit plating on the knob through the vice, if you don`t know about it you won't notice it. The built quality of these British Gillettes really surprises me. I don't think that you could do such a thing with a US-SS with a hollow knob, as the vice would probably crush the knob. Now I am just happy that I can add another great razor to my rotation.