Shaving Acquisitions April

dodgy said:
Hi there,

Line a small container with the foil ( I used the shiny side exposed rather than the dull, but not positive that's correct). Add maybe 2-3 tablespoons of baking soda and put the items in. Boiling water should be fine to add most of the time and let sit till the bubbles stop...about 5 minutes. I forget the chemical reaction that occurs when this mix is activated. Use water with a lower than boiling temp for razors with 'sleeves' on the handles that crack easily. Thin and maybe not tolerating extreme heat like a solid razor. used.

Multiple times will be needed and what also helps is a toothbrush or cloth loaded with a thick paste from the residue. That toothbrush method's also a good cleaner for gold plated Gillettes since it doesn't remove the plating.

Hope that helps,

Martin
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Thanks. Yes, that's what I wanted - enough detail to enable me to do it.
 
Ebberman said:
Thanks. Yes, that's what I wanted - enough detail to enable me to do it.
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Should be videos somewhere on them inter web tube things.

I've actually got an old French razor that seriously needs that job once again. Yeah, it's not used often and tarnishes quickly and completely and looks great when it's finished. Maybe do a before and after thing sometime.
 
Found this on Quora:
Aluminum foil provides a "sacrificial anode", baking soda turns the water into a conductive but non corrosive (unlike salt) electrolyte, and both are readily available in the kitchen. Basin of electrolyte, aluminum sacrificial anode, drop in tarnished silver so it touches the foil. Silver, like all metals, wants to give away electrons, aluminum wants to do it more. Aluminum discards electrons, grabs bicarbonate ions out of solution. Shoves the electrons over to the silver through the point of contact (shorted battery), says "here, you take them!". Silver reluctantly takes them, only thing it can do with them is hand them to silver ions in the silver oxide tarnish, turning it back into metallic silver (on the cutlery) and releasing the oxygen ions into the solution.

Why is this done for silver and not for other metals? Silver is soft (wears easily), valuable (cleaning off tarnish by mechanical polishing results in removal of the oxide and some metallic silver, so silver is lost), and silver cutlery generally has an embossed design (mechanical polishing can't get into crevices, electrochemical action doesn't care about surface contours).

And apparently this guy is somewhat of a guru on cleaning silver (jewellery and cutlery I imagine)

Silver polishing, silver cleaning, and silver storage

Silver cleaning and polishing is easy using my renowned instructions, silver polish reviews, tarnish prevention, the best silver polishes.
hermansilver.com hermansilver.com
 
Some good polish afterwards really brings out the shine. I use Maas but there's good Limey ones also. Simichrome is another effective one and the remaining light tarnish often still turns out black on the cloth after rubbing.

Seems like a number of non USA made razors were at least partly (handle) silver plated, with brands like Merkur and Leresche. Matter of fact Merkur usta make a vintage 'white silver' finish that's kinda strange looking.

Thanks for that silver related link.
 
donnie_arko said:
View attachment 104763

View attachment 104764

I'm not entirely what this is. I presume it's a Star razor with a travel handle.

@pjgh do you have any idea what it could be?
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I do ... PAL ... but not stamped on the underside of the head. PAL, Personna & Star (and Treet) all came in this format. The extra little tabs at the sides of the outrider pegs and the built up bit on the central peg ensured that only ASR baseplates worked with the head. These early aluminium baseplates were stamped just "British Made" ... later got "PAL" or "Personna" on the top half as well. These earlier plates are super-thin and certainly thinner than the later aluminium plates.

Nice catch! In use, the aluminium plate gives quite a different face-feel.
 
pjgh said:
I do ... PAL ... but not stamped on the underside of the head. PAL, Personna & Star (and Treet) all came in this format. The extra little tabs at the sides of the outrider pegs and the built up bit on the central peg ensured that only ASR baseplates worked with the head. These early aluminium baseplates were stamped just "British Made" ... later got "PAL" or "Personna" on the top half as well. These earlier plates are super-thin and certainly thinner than the later aluminium plates.

Nice catch! In use, the aluminium plate gives quite a different face-feel.
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Thanks Paul, once again I'm impressed with your knowledge!
I have a razor that looks similar but with a zamak Personna head. This one seems to have a brass top cap and an aluminium baseplate and handle. Oh I forgot to mention in came in a Boots travel kit.
An interesting observation the baseplate is thinner than the later ones.

I look forward to finding out how it will perform in the shave!
 
donnie_arko said:
Thanks Paul, once again I'm impressed with your knowledge!
I have a razor that looks similar but with a zamak Personna head. This one seems to have a brass top cap and an aluminium baseplate and handle. Oh I forgot to mention in came in a Boots travel kit.
An interesting observation the baseplate is thinner than the later ones.

I look forward to finding out how it will perform in the shave!
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Yep! The Boots travel kit fits with my experience of seeing this razor.
 
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