Recently acquired a toggle adjustable D1. It was pretty rough, plating was poor and it would not adjust. I soaked and lubed and did what I could to get to work but stopped at taking it apart. After some consideration I decided to send it to Razor Emporium for the revamp service. Going to have it done in rhodium. I hope it turns out nice. Won't be a collectable anymore but I plan on using it. Didn't get a picture before I sent it but i will when it comes back!
D1 toggle sent for revamp
- Thread starter gilettefan
- Start date
I hope you do get it back. If you do, I hope at least it'll be a half decent plating job.
Good luck.
Good luck.
Sorry to be a wet blanket but Razor Emporium "buffs" off old plating which removes detail. Old plating should be electronically removed to retain detail. There are better alternatives.
If it has not reached them, I would try and recall the package if you can. There have been a lot of horror stories with them.
- Thread starter
- #5
Too late for that. I hope it doesn't become a problem. Who else does this kind of work?
Chris at Razorplate.com is the best.
Captain Murphy would have fixed the razor too, easily.
Captain Murphy would have fixed the razor too, easily.
+1
Note: Chris uses a buffing wheel on gold razors to remove old plating but his reputation here is much greater than that of Razor Emporium. Chris uses a chemical method to remove any underlying nickel (which is a harder metal to buff off). Razor Emporium buffs off everything (gold and nickel) to brass (this is what causes the detail loss). Replated Razors in England no longer replates but when they did they actually reclaimed the gold layer in a stripping tank.
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I hope this turns out OK for you. I don't know about Razor Emporium, but Chris at razorplate is absolutely unbeatable.
- Thread starter
- #9
I have another one that needs work, the blade gap is "slanted" would be my best description. Maybe I need to talk to the captain.
Capt is the man...the Chuck Norris of the razor world!!
Gold is gently removed with a 100% cotton polishing wheel - utilizing a copious quantity of metal polish to eliminate heat and friction. No real measurable abrasive action - to speak of. The polish will actually remove the gold, simply by using a soft cloth, but the cotton wheel is quicker and more efficient. The wheel actually disintegrates as it is being used, so the combination of polish and this extremely soft polishing medium, result in no damage to any underlying metal.
If the gold razor was first plated with a nickel base-plating (such as a Toggle, an Aristocrat or an Executive), the nickel layer is left unscathed, after the gold is removed.
The nickel is then stripped with proprietary chemicals, specially formulated to remove nickel from brass. NO abrasive media is used on razors and my jobs retain their original knurling depth and feel, plus stamped lettering details remain exactly as they were prior to the job!
While I certainly have the equipment and ability to use electrolytic methods for stripping, I would rather utilize appropriate chemical measures. Many metals can be damaged when their plating is electrolytically-stripped. Severe pitting can occur with reverse-electroplating and is not a risk that I like to take. Safety and concern for the "health" of customers' razors are my top priority.
Reverse electroplating to reclaim the small quantity of gold from old plating, is simply too much of a hassle. After a long period of time, one may eventually accumulate enough gold to sell to a precious metal recycler, but the chemistry and hassle of doing it is not worth it - and the recycled gold can't be used for replating without being put back in a plating solution.
Taking into account that most commercial plating solutions also contain other ingredients (that are often proprietary to the manufacturer of the solution) besides the plating metal, I have no interest in a "home brew" plating solution of any type.
All of my work is done with the highest quality (and often most expensive!) commercially-prepared, professional-use-only plating solutions that are purchased from respected plating companies. All of my solutions are always fresh and maintained to exacting standards!
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Thank you for that clarification. My major point is that Razor Emporium is much more heavy handed with the polishing wheel than you are which results in loss of detail. I have a gold replated razor from Razor Emporium and on that razor some areas of loss of detail can be seen along with others where the underlying old plating has not been sufficiently removed leaving bumps. So their process of removing the old plating is uneven. This is just my personal experience with their process. Others may have seen different results.
I believe your process of chemically removing the nickel from brass is superior to Razor Emporium's process of using a polishing wheel.
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You are welcome, sir. Here is a Toggle that I just plated in gold this week. ZERO loss of detail in either knurling or stamped lettering! Our good friend, CAP, posted this: http://badgerandblade.com/vb/showthread.php/432261-Gillette-Toggle-Disassembly/page6
I just use a screw driver and gently twist it back, very gently and tape the outer edges to prevent marring.
Here is my vid
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Good info., and very descriptive. I will certainly use you for my razor restorations thats for sure. Wanted to ask you, couldnt you run a filter in a reverse electroplating process to accumulate the gold? You could probably just sell the whole filter to certain individuals that are precious metals retrievers, they would pay you a good price for that filter and then they would go through the hassle of washing it for collection to be smelted and then resaled at a higher premium. I do understand the amount of gold that comes of these razors is minimal and just may not be worth it, and a man like yourself that has mastered the replating process so beautifully probably does not need to change any of the equipment or steps you use, but if you did have a separate bath for the gold razors then maybe after every year or so you could replace the filter and sell the old one.
Excellent thought, but space constraints and the fact that I have so many plating finishes to manage, just make it something that is not worth the effort. I am not even sure of what set-up that I would need to capture the gold. I believe the stripped gold would go into solution in the electrolyte liquid and would then have to precipitated or extracted from the solution via some chemical process.
Reverse-electroplating must be done in a separate tank. It would be nice if I could just reverse electroplate the old gold into my plating bath and have it "recharge" my gold solution, but reverse electroplating can release other chemicals and dirt into the solutions - affecting the purity, pH balance, etc.
Additionally, most gold razors that arrive for plating have a finish that is pretty much shot - so there is not a lot of gold to recover!
