Plating dilemma

[romsitsa]

Hello,

todays Aristocrat shows some flaking in the usual places and some plate loss on the T bar. Iirc I asked this earlier and still can't figure it out, were these second gens rhodium plated directly onto the brass? I can't make out any nickel, just rhodium and brass.
The other concern of mine is, that the wings of the T bar show plate loss caused by abrassion. As the bar makes no contact with the base plate during opening-closing, my only suspect is the blade (the brass spots perfetly match blade cutouts).
Is this a design flaw?
I'd really hate to get the same marks after a replate.



Adam

 

[Merkuryrising]

I would say that’s definitely from opening and closing with a blade inserted. That looks like nickel plating to me not rhodium but I could be wrong.

 

[romsitsa]

Hello,

you are right, but it can't be opened/closed without a blade inserted (if used for shaving) and this is the only tto I had with these symptoms. The plating is rhodium, only photos are bad.

Adam

 

[romsitsa]

Hello,

after some further inspection (and some online photo hunt) it's clearly a design flaw. The wings of the T bar hold the blade with no play, so the steel of the blade scrapes away the plating at the contact points when opening and closing the head.
Right now I don't think a replate would work.

Adam

 

[Merkuryrising]

I don’t know if it’s an actual design flaw. I think your particular razor is defective or it got damaged over the years. I had one of those razors and I didn’t like it but it definitely did not do what yours is doing.

 

[romsitsa]

There are quite a few online with the exact same plate loss. You can't really alter the T bar so that it makes contact with the blade on 8 points, but doesn't touch the cut out in the base plate.

Adam

 

[tonich]

My observations are the 2nd gen aristocrats very often show mild to severe pitting, unlike any other gen. It is very pronounced on the smooth bands of the handle. You conclusion for plating rhodium over brass on those makes sense.

 

[romsitsa]

Thank you Tonich. Spared me a few (lot) bucks and headaches.

Adam