Hoffritz razor black spots

[dalew]

I have a Hoffritz razor that has a black spot on the handle. I put it into a ultrasonic cleaner but the spot will not come off. The razor appears to be nickle plated. The spots look like black magic marker. I used scrubbing bubbles but the spots remain. There does not appear to be plating loss.

The razor came clean except for the black spot on the handle and the tip of the barrel.

 

[Bestarrkin]

Hoffritz razors are silver plated-actually only their handles. You should use non-abrasive silver polish for these spots. But be careful when you are polishing. I hope this helps. Nice razor btw.

 

[Oel]

I have a Merkur slant razor that has a silver plated handle too. These handles have some kind of laquer. Where the laquer comes off the silver corrodes and after a while the handle looks black. Polishing helped but the plating on the vintage Merkurs is often thin so polish carefully.

Btw. I cannot understand the quality discussions about the plating on the Merkur razors from the current production is bad. Believe it or not but I've had several vintage Merkurs and Hoffritz razors, some of them were NOS or in mint condition. These vintage razors look better but the plating on the current production ones is superior. When the laquer one these vintage razors comes off - and it comes easily off - the silver is tarnished soon.

 

[bordeaaj]

I often wonder about this as well.

I've read several different explanations of what the handles are plated with but I have no idea which is correct. I've also read that when new the vintage Hoffritz/Merkurs did not have the whitewash oxidation on the handle...not sure of this either.

One explanation is that the handles are silver-plated but they sure don't get covered in black tarnish like any other silver plated items I have that I know are silver-plated, include a couple of razors. Nickel plating tends to tarnish black as well...though not as easily as silver. Another explanation is that the whitewash is painted or lacquered onto the handle.

Still another explanation I found from someone who seemed to know what he was talking about was they are plated with "white nickel." A quick google search shows that white nickel doesn't even contain nickel...it's a mixture of Tin/Copper/Zinc. The natural oxidation of white nickel over time is apparently what gives the handle it's whitewashed appearance. If it is "white nickel" I don't know which of the three metals would be most likely to oxidize but this seems to make some sense because zinc oxide is is powdery white substance insoluble in water. But, I'm just not sure. Could it be both silver plated with a thin layer of white nickel plated over it to keep the silver from oxidizing? I read that silver is often covered with a very thin layer of rhodium for this reason.

Anyway, I've had two or three vintage Hoffritz and Merkur razors with dark stains on the whitewashed handles and none of the stains were removed with Scrubbing Bubbles, ultrasonic cleaner, or polished out with silver polish. The only way I was able to remove the stains was to put the razor in a vibratory tumbler filled with crushed walnut shell/crushed corn cob media for about an hour. It came out looking like a brand new razor with a bright white metal plating. Both the stains and the whitewash oxidation completely gone.

 

[dalew]

I will give the tumbler a try.

Thank you

 

[bordeaaj]

I will give the tumbler a try.

Thank you

I tend to really like the whitewash as long as it's clean looking...but if nothing else removes the stains and you don't mind a whitewash-free handle it's worth a try!