I may be being controversial here but.

[onotoman]

OK maybe that grabbed your attention.

What I'm getting at is Chrome! Chrome looks right on a vintage Eclipse Red Ring (as it was the original finish used and the Red Ring is the height of Art Deco style - so chrome fits)

On any other vintage razor, to me it just looks too modern.

One of the guys sent me two Gillette 'New' razors - excellently done in Chrome (presumably in the US) as this is where the razors originated. They looked almost new (brand new in fact) and here lies the problem - they looked similar to a Merkur, no original character left in them.

The owner wanted the chrome to be removed and for the razors to be re-done in silver as original, initially I thought it a bit of a shame, but, I have to say, they look much better now and well, just right, somehow.

That's my view anyway, each to their own of course.

 

[MacDaddy]

We're talking about standard NEWs that had been replated in chrome here, right? Not original chromium NEW DeLuxes. Please say I'm right or else I'm going to have to go cry in a corner.

 

[onotoman]

No, definitely New Standards - originally plated in Silver.

The replating was good - but not as good as would have been the original. It's all in the polishing

And those 'Deluxes' should have been done in Rhodium in my view.

We're talking about standard NEWs that had been replated in chrome here, right? Not original chromium NEW DeLuxes. Please say I'm right or else I'm going to have to go cry in a corner.

 

[dcobranchi]

Is there any chance of posting pics of the razors in both finishes? My absolute favorite DE is my New Improved in silver. IMO, the prettiest of the 3-piece razors that Gillette made.

 

[onotoman]

The chrome is gone now - but I can post a pic in Gold (undercoat) and Silver once completed.

Is there any chance of posting pics of the razors in both finishes? My absolute favorite DE is my New Improved in silver. IMO, the prettiest of the 3-piece razors that Gillette made.

 

[Zeppelinkarte]

The New Standard and New Improved in Silver is gorgeous. IMO you can not get a nicer razor than a NI Big Fellow in a rich patina silver. That finish just winds up getting better and better with age and care. A soft glow versus the more bright and brash chrome, nickel and rhodium. So Onotoman is correct IMO to put the silver plating where it originally was. And to use whatever the original plating was on any razor.

 

[coolbus18]

The New Standard and New Improved in Silver is gorgeous. IMO you can not get a nicer razor than a NI Big Fellow in a rich patina silver. That finish just winds up getting better and better with age and care. A soft glow versus the more bright and brash chrome, nickel and rhodium. So Onotoman is correct IMO to put the silver plating where it originally was. And to use whatever the original plating was on any razor.

+1 --I dig the way my 1925 new as a Bostonian looks. Gillettes triple plated sliver shavers are a work of industrial art and imho should be retained in their silver plating.

 

[onotoman]

By the way, 'Triple Plated' means:

Copper Plating, then Nickel Plating, then Silver.

I use:

Nickel, then gold, then silver - a better result I feel, but then again, it would be costly for Gillette to use gold...

Gillette got a bit shoddy when they plated gold directly onto brass/copper - this was changed on later razors where they added nickel, then gold.

+1 --I dig the way my 1925 new as a Bostonian looks. Gillettes triple plated sliver shavers are a work of industrial art and imho should be retained in their silver plating.

 

[onotoman]

Rhodium is very like silver, with a white sheen - it just doesn't tarnish.

The New Standard and New Improved in Silver is gorgeous. IMO you can not get a nicer razor than a NI Big Fellow in a rich patina silver. That finish just winds up getting better and better with age and care. A soft glow versus the more bright and brash chrome, nickel and rhodium. So Onotoman is correct IMO to put the silver plating where it originally was. And to use whatever the original plating was on any razor.

 

[MacDaddy]

No, definitely New Standards - originally plated in Silver.

Oh! You meant New Improved Gillettes -- that's a whole different thing, then. Whew!

Although... There is a small bit of evidence that Gillette may have started with the chromium during the New Improved era...

 

[onotoman]

Very interesting indeed. I'm surprised that once introduced, Gillette didn't just standardise on Chrome plating for all razors, unless they thought the two-stage process required for chrome was not really justified for most models.

I think it was the 'allergy to nickel' thing that made chrome standard after around 1980, although I've yet to hear of anyone having problems from a razor. Jewellery worn for long periods, yes, but my wife has an allergy to nickel jewellery and she's been fine with her Lady Gillette - I did offer to plate it in Rhodium if she had problems, but it's been fine.

Oh! You meant New Improved Gillettes -- that's a whole different thing, then. Whew!

Although... There is a small bit of evidence that Gillette may have started with the chromium during the New Improved era...

 

[mblakele]

Like most panics, I imagine the one against nickel went overboard.

I was curious about when chrome plating entered popular consciousness, so I went to the Google ngram viewer.



Some of these mentions may be for chrome in other contexts: steel, paint, tanning, etc. But there seems to be a local minimum toward the end of the New Improved period, then a correction before another climb during the NEW period. After about 1950 I suppose chrome became less remarkable, even though it never did supplant nickel entirely for Gillette razors. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chromium#History notes a couple of likely pushes for chrome plating: the 1827 discovery of a large ore deposit in the USA (and another in 1848 in Turkey), followed by the development of an improved process in 1924 - just in time for the later New Standard and early NEW razors.

The patents relevant to that new process appear to be http://www.google.com/patents/US1496845 and possibly http://www.google.com/patents/US1590170. Of course during the patent period, licensing fees would have increased the price of the razor. So it was probably only used for premium sets.