I aquired an old thistle cut straight a while back. The side with the etching on it is good, but the back side has about half the plating gone. What are options on cleaning this up? How hard is it to remove the plating?
Nickel plated blades
- Thread starter DirtyDusty
- Start date
Plating? Blades are steel, not plated. Do you have pictures?
I have never seen plating on razors-can you post pictures?
- Thread starter
- #4
Here is a couple of pics from my phone. Flash kind of mutes it, but you can see on the back how it is peeled off.
There actually were straight razors that were nickel or chrome plated. It was both an attempt to prevent corrosion and a marketing ploy. Early 20th century stainless steel would not hold an edge suitable for shaving. It would chip easily.
Most prevalent among American razor makers in the early 20th century. It had to be plated properly or the plating would flake off. If it was done properly it was surprisingly durable. The plating would be worn off only the edge and spine when honed. The difficulty was in plating it properly and getting the customers to pay the extra cost for the razor.
I have owned a chrome plated King razor and a nickel plated Geneva. I have seen a nickel plated Wade & Butcher, a couple of chrome plated Genevas and a nickel plated Clauss.
Most prevalent among American razor makers in the early 20th century. It had to be plated properly or the plating would flake off. If it was done properly it was surprisingly durable. The plating would be worn off only the edge and spine when honed. The difficulty was in plating it properly and getting the customers to pay the extra cost for the razor.
I have owned a chrome plated King razor and a nickel plated Geneva. I have seen a nickel plated Wade & Butcher, a couple of chrome plated Genevas and a nickel plated Clauss.
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- Thread starter
- #6
How hard is it to remove nickel?
i was wondering why blades didn't have this plating, just recently, and lo and behold they did.
Well there ya go. Learn something new every day.
The plating used on razors was electroless. It can be a bear to remove if done properly over copper. The best and safest way is to use Caswell's MetalX B-9 but that's costly unless you're stripping a lot of nickel plating ($40.+ for 5 lbs.). The other safe way is to sand it.
I've seen acids recommended, but ...... they're acids (corrosive, toxic, hard to safely dispose of, etc.).
i have had a few and still do they can be rough to sand paper. i got rid of a few just to not have to try sanding. the one i did try sanding on was not pretty when i got under the finish. best of luck with your project. i'm sure you will have better luck than i did.
