New De Luxe President- redo engraving? Replated?!

[Dean13]

Hello my friends, recently I’ve acquired a Gillette New De Luxe President in silver, the beautifully detailed work is very worn as expected with its age. This shows that whoever had this razor before me greatly appreciated it and such I would like to honor it by getting it restored as much as possible.

I would like to know your guys’ thoughts if this is a good path to go down, and if so then I would love some suggestions as to where to send it. Especially for the engraving to get a touch up. I’ve emailed one company that mostly does gun engraving, of which includes some custom art work that leads me to believe they could do an excellent job. But... they have not responded to my email and I’m now wondering if I am making the right choice.

I’ve attached some pictures so you can see the condition it is currently in.
Thank you for your time- Dean

 

[BGO37]

So I am on the fence about it. I don't know enough, or anything really, about re-plating.

My thought is, if the re-plating is thin enough you could still see the details of the engraving. If not, I wouldn't want to cover up the original work. But you could talk to someone at Back Roads Gold and see what they have to say.

 

[gvw755]

Just do a deep cleaning by soaking it in Dawn and a soft toothbrush and if you have it, put it in a couple of cycles in a ultrasonic cleaner.

 

[Northstonehill]

I am convinced that if King Gillette was shown an old razor like this he would say “What? That old thing, let me get that cleaned up for ya!” - or he would sell you a Fusion, haha.

I’d go for a refurbishment - but then, I am having mine New Prez rebuilt as we speak

 

[Demaratus]

Just try cleaning with dawn first and the use the aluminum foil/baking soda trick to fix the tarnish. Might look great after that.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[DCRIII]

Just try cleaning with dawn first and the use the aluminum foil/baking soda trick to fix the tarnish. Might look great after that.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Plus one to this!
By the way, that's a beautiful razor as is and the first of its kind that I've seen an actual picture of!
I'd personally be too nervous to send it out to be worked on at all with the Postal system being the way it is.

 

[EclipseRedRing]

I do not see how you could replate without losing what little detail remains; even if you could then I would still not replate as the wear is part of its beauty. I say gently clean the razor and then use it.

 

[Dean13]

I am convinced that if King Gillette was shown an old razor like this he would say “What? That old thing, let me get that cleaned up for ya!” - or he would sell you a Fusion, haha.

I’d go for a refurbishment - but then, I am having mine New Prez rebuilt as we speak

Haha yeah he would likely try to sell me a fusion is my bet. I have no quarrel getting it replated but I want the engraving to pop again, and from my understanding if I replate then it will diminish the already well worn engraving. Let me know you how yours ends up my friend.

 

[Dean13]

I do not see how you could replate without losing what little detail remains; even if you could then I would still not replate as the wear is part of its beauty. I say gently clean the razor and then use it.

Yup I just finished making that first point, and I generally agree but the beauty is in the details which are only partially intact. If it was a simple plating of age then I’d have no problem with it, I do like the silver plating’s looks now. But it’s essentially do both or lose what little details are left.

 

[Dean13]

Just try cleaning with dawn first and the use the aluminum foil/baking soda trick to fix the tarnish. Might look great after that.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I don’t know the baking soda and foil trick, please explain if you don’t mind sir

 

[Tanuki]

New Baking Soda & Aluminum Foil Trick Photo Tutorial for Restoring Silver Razors

I had most of this information posted before, but the linked photos were to a personal album on the site, which was deleted in one of the upgrades. So, I decided I'd repost a new thread as I can't edit the old one to reinsert the new photos. Plus, some good information came out of the discussion...

www.badgerandblade.com

 

[romsitsa]

Hello, the engraving is not worn, it only shows what 30ies engraving machines were capable of (shallow and a bit inconsistent lines), imho the knob is the only part engraved by hand.
If you look close you can see the marks left by the machine in the recessed motifs, I highly doubt this could be reproduced by hand. So your best options are leaving the decoration, or completely redo the whole razor.

 

[BigJ]

Just do a deep cleaning by soaking it in Dawn and a soft toothbrush and if you have it, put it in a couple of cycles in a ultrasonic cleaner.

Character counts IMO!!

 

[Mlee]

I would clean it and use it.

 

[emwolf]

It's a durable razor, do what makes you happy!

 

[kingfisher]

Clean it.

I would replate it only if I decided it was one of my best shavers but I couldn't stand the condition it is in, and then only in rhodium, and only by somebody I knew I could trust to make sure I didn't lose any details of the engravings by an overly thick replating job.

 

[Dean13]

Clean it.

I would replate it only if I decided it was one of my best shavers but I couldn't stand the condition it is in, and then only in rhodium, and only by somebody I knew I could trust to make sure I didn't lose any details of the engravings by an overly thick replating job.

It definitely is one of my best shavers. Probably tied for first with my HLS Taiga if I really think about it. And yes there are some options for replating but @Northstonehill is getting his replated, so I’ll see how his goes first I suppose. This is probably my favorite razor overall when weighing all of the factors.

 

[Rob72]

It definitely is one of my best shavers. Probably tied for first with my HLS Taiga if I really think about it. And yes there are some options for replating but @Northstonehill is getting his replated, so I’ll see how his goes first I suppose. This is probably my favorite razor overall when weighing all of the factors.

Rhodium is unavailable at the moment (hitting $24k/ounce makes it a risky proposition for platers).

I had a 1917 Bulldog redone in platinum (same family as Rohdium, but slightly less hard), and was afraid of losing definition in the fine barberpole striations. Nope. Chris at Back Roads did a stellar job!

Given your more rare piece, it may be worth waiting a few months for rhodium prices to plateau again. I would absolutely have it replated.

Engraving may be trickier. I would suspect a high-end engraver would do a 3-D scan and use a laser. Who & where, I could not say.

 

[eaterofdog]

Replating isn't going to affect that deep etching much.

But you could also clean it using the foil/baking soda method.

 

[Dean13]

if I do end up getting it replated I’ll go for the original silver that it was originally plated with. In honor of its history, I see the rhodium appeal but not for something so special as to change it completely like that. As far as the etching goes, eyes are deceiving. It does not feel the same depth that my Canadian bulldog does, which I think was said to be shallower than its American counterpart bulldog. To me if I think the results can come out how I want, then it would be worth the effort and money to get it fully restored. We’ll see what I can find out by reaching out to custom engravers