Cleaning and Maintaining Gold Plated DE'S
- Thread starter Tsurukame
- Start date
Please be very careful. I have just now ruined a nice '38 Sheraton by using a commercial metal cleaner and a toothbrush.
I don't want to hijack your thread so I'll start a new one as a warning to others.
I don't want to hijack your thread so I'll start a new one as a warning to others.
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- Thread starter
- #3
I have good luck with Scrubbing Bubbles and a soft toothbrush followed up with careful buffing with Maas. I don't have a before pic of this one but here is the end result. It was pretty nasty when I got it.
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- #5
What about tooth paste? Would that be too abrasive?
Toothpaste is abrasive. I took some nickel or silver off of a handle that way.
For gold, the only thing I have read is Scrubbing Bubbles with a soft toothbrush (VERY GENTLE). My understanding is that all metal polish has abrasive qualities, and for true gold I wouldn't think it would tarnish (hence why it looks shiny for centuries and is a precious metal).
For something more authoritative, I would ask one of the gold replaters - onotoman or Above the Tie.
For gold, the only thing I have read is Scrubbing Bubbles with a soft toothbrush (VERY GENTLE). My understanding is that all metal polish has abrasive qualities, and for true gold I wouldn't think it would tarnish (hence why it looks shiny for centuries and is a precious metal).
For something more authoritative, I would ask one of the gold replaters - onotoman or Above the Tie.
I have a gol Adjustable Aristo on the way. Don't want to mess it up.
I would recommend nothing more than Scrubbing Bubbles, hot/warm water soak in dish soap and gentle scrubbing with a soft toothbrush. I have read of someone using one specific polish that was ok to use on gold, but I cannot remember it's name. What I do know is that I have heard of more horror stories about removing gold finish that any other finish.
I have watched the History Channel and other such channels enough to have seen more than one show about gold recovered from underwater after hundreds of years. Most of it looks as good as the day it was minted. Anything on your razor is a combination of hard water stains, old shave soap and shave cream and/or other shaving products. All it needs is adequate time in liquid to soften so you can get it off the finish.
I would start with several hours to overnight soaking in warm to hot water with dish soap. Refresh the hot water every so often. Then a soak in scrubbing bubbles and I would bet most of whatever is on there will come off. For anything more difficult to remove then that, someone with more experience will have to come along.
I have watched the History Channel and other such channels enough to have seen more than one show about gold recovered from underwater after hundreds of years. Most of it looks as good as the day it was minted. Anything on your razor is a combination of hard water stains, old shave soap and shave cream and/or other shaving products. All it needs is adequate time in liquid to soften so you can get it off the finish.
I would start with several hours to overnight soaking in warm to hot water with dish soap. Refresh the hot water every so often. Then a soak in scrubbing bubbles and I would bet most of whatever is on there will come off. For anything more difficult to remove then that, someone with more experience will have to come along.
I usually soak them for a few hours in hot tap water and dish detergent. After that I lightly scrub them with a soft tooth brush, then use a gold polishing cloth from the jewelry department at the local Walmart. The brand of the cloth is Connoiseurs. I usually buy a whole kit the Connoisseurs kit is an all purpose jewelry cleaning kit that includes both a cloth for gold, and one for silver. Actually they are two cloths in one for each gold and silver. The kit also contains a small jar of gentle cleaner that I also use after the final scrub/rinse cycle. But you have to rinse the razors again after a quick dip in the cleaning solution. I hope this input helps. The Connoisseurs kit costs around $10. It's worth it. Good luck.
I only have 2 gold razors and one of those has almost no gold remaining. I used scrubbing bubbles to clean them and I would be very careful about using any metal polish because most of them have extremely thin gold plating.
