1912, With a Difference!


You can successfully plate gold on to brass,first you need to plate the the brass with copper/nickel,if not,the gold plating will just probably just wipe off after a couple of months.
A lot of vintage,so called, gold plated razors were actually just given a quick gold dip (wash) ,onto a copper/nickel plate,and when I say quick,I mean real quick!,probably about 10-20 seconds maximum,in the gold electrolyte,hence it wears out really quickly on vintage razors (my recently acquired Executive appears to be gold plate,straight onto the nickel base).
But a good gold plate,CAN be done,just put a solid copper/nickel base on over the brass first.

And not forgetting,the vintage razor manufacturers would put a thick coat of lacquer on the gold washed razors,so as the ultra thin gold 'plate' would last longer...Tight fisted buggers!.
 
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Hi Dave, no problem at all. I think it looks pretty good, it doesn't look as brassy as some replates can and I think it has a nice pleasing bright shine to it. I don't plate straight onto the brass, as the Doc says the results aren't too good. I plate onto a fresh coat of bright nickel, this seems to give the gold a healthy zing! Longevity wise I would say slightly better than the original Gillette finish, it certainly takes longer to wear through mine on a polishing wheel than it has on any of the vintage Razors I've had through the Spa so far. I used a replated Milord for well over two months everyday and wiped and polished it after each use with no worries....not a huge longterm test I appreciate! But it still looked as good as when it came out of the gold tank.
As the Doc says the vintage stuff was produced to a price and some of them haven't done bad considering their age and the lack of care they would have no doubt suffered during those years.
 
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