1920's Old Type

[GOLDCREST]

A question guys...in my recent haul of old DE's I have a 1920's old type that is all brass..It doesn't look as if it has ever been plated and the plate has worn off, In fact now its cleaned up it looks as though the head has never been used at all...

I also picked up another old Gillette with a cracked handle..This razor is also all brass and doesn't look to have ever been plated........Except!! in just one small patch, a very small patch on the underside of the head, the brass has come away showing copper underneath..

The question is...did Gillette ever do Brass razors without Nickel plating?...Just seems a bit odd to me.....I wondered if they were samples that had been picked up before the plating process....Neither looked as if they'd been stripped as they were absolutely gruffted with muck and verdigris.....

 

[Bechet]

I can only assume they sold brass plated cupro-nickel razors because I bought several - Old, New Improved and New - for replating. I was told cupro-nickel by a machinist and a plater. The brass plating had worn away to expose the base metal in the same way you see 'brassing' of silver plated razors.

All I can think is that they were poor men's gold razors.

 

[GOLDCREST]

Thanks Carl, thats sounds right to me, maybe the copper I can see under the brass, is the under layer to make the finished brass plating stick to the cupronickel, And they do look a bit gold-ish when polished up and all the crud removed...

At least now they've been rescued from oblivion...