Restoring Vintage Safety Razors

[Nico_Suave]

Hello All,

I have read many posts from various websites and am asking for some help on restoration of vintage safety razors. I know of the standard vinegar soak, metal polish and buffing, but do any of you have some inside secrets for getting my 1969 Gillette back to production line quality.

Thanks in advance

Nico

 

[_MementoMori_]

The first bit of advice I would offer to you is to discontinue the vinegar soak effective immediately.

Instead, try heating up water in a stovetop teapot until the kettle whistles. Then, pour this water over your razor(s) until submerged. Add a healthy dose of liquid dish soap, and let everything soak until the water is cool to the touch. Repeat this as many times as necessary.

Once that's done, you should be ready to move to sanitizing with Scrubbing Bubbles and polishing with a mild metal polish. I like Flitz, Maas, and Blue Magic. I do not recommend using polish on gold plate, though. Use it only on your nickel and Rhodium plated razors.

Some handy tools to have nearby are:

an old toothbrush (for general scrubbing)
toothpicks (for digging out gunk)
cotton swabs (for polishing tight, hard to reach areas)
a brass brush (for scrubbing nickel plated razors ONLY - and make sure it's a real brass brush)
lots of rags you don't mind ruining

 

[man00ver]

David speaks truth! Vinegar is acid, and is almost always needlessly harsh. It might make you cry.

Look here for some good advice.

 

[lownslow58]

I just cleaned up a 64 ball end tech that was in fair shape , all I did was soak it in scrubbing bubbles for about 5 mins, scrubbed it with a soft toothbrush rinsed with some warm water , then polished it with maas metal polish and a t shirt scrap and it turned out very nice, I did use the maas a few times. Good luck I had a lot of fun and I'm kind of proud of how it turned out, alot of fun for $10.00..

 

[Nico_Suave]

Thanks for the quick responses. I WILL NOT use vinegar, whew!!! I will follow your direction and give this a go. Its a 1969 Black Handle Super Adjustable and I am very excited to give vintage a go. I have a merkur and muhle right now and can't wait to see how old school stands up.

Nico

 

[alex2363]

Thanks for the quick responses. I WILL NOT use vinegar, whew!!! I will follow your direction and give this a go. Its a 1969 Black Handle Super Adjustable and I am very excited to give vintage a go. I have a merkur and muhle right now and can't wait to see how old school stands up.

Nico

Very wise of you to take the advise, good luck and by all means dont forget the after pics.

 

[duokun]

Trust me, hot water and scrubbing bubbles does wonders. i just cleaned up an old Gillette New, and mostly i soaked it in hot water, refilling with new hot water every so often for a few hours, then scrubbing bubbles then polished it. I used Brasso, but i wouldn't recommend that if you have any plating left. Brasso is very abrasive. polishes like Maas and Flitz are much gentler and recommended for cleaning razors. i didn't care because the plating was already gone from mine.

you can check out my thread here
http://badgerandblade.com/vb/showth...-with-pictures?highlight=gillette+new+cleanup

be sure to read the wiki section on razor maintenance, has good info on cleaning techniques.

http://wiki.badgerandblade.com/Safety_razor_maintenance

be sure to share some before and after pictures with us!

 

[duokun]

Oh yeah, an important distinction to make, boiling water is fine to POUR over a razor, that will not hurt it, but do NOT boil the razor. sitting on the bottom of a bot of boiling water WILL get the razor hot enough to damage it.

have fun cleaning up that razor!

 

[Sunflake]

Oh yeah, an important distinction to make, boiling water is fine to POUR over a razor, that will not hurt it, but do NOT boil the razor. sitting on the bottom of a bot of boiling water WILL get the razor hot enough to damage it.

have fun cleaning up that razor!

+1 could melt/ warp the plastic handle

 

[BBrad]

Niko - welcome to B&B, and I hope you enjoy and have good luck with your restoration projects.

David's post at the top of the thread is right on the money!! There is no better way!

duokun also speaks the truth - boiling water is ok, boiling IN water is not ok!!

 

[shinjak]

+1 for the hot water method. It takes the gunk right off. Follow up with scrubbing bubbles and you will have a good looking razor. As far as getting it back to production quality, I'm not even sure that metal polish will take those fine scratches off. But then again, I haven't tried. Good luck!

PS Good looking razor duokun.

 

[NorthernShave]

Here's what I do to clean up my Vintage razors

 

[HoneyBadgerDontCare]

Where can you get Flitz, Maas, and Blue Magic. I cant find it anywhere in stores. Id rather not order it online.

 

[Bookworm]

I picked up Flitz at a local small hardware store. It's not generally carried by the big box stores. Wright's Silver Polish is a low abrasive compound, although thinner than Flitz, but works quite well. It makes the razors bead the water, which makes knocking water off after shaving a breeze. That can be found at a number of grocery stores, and sometimes wal mart.

You CAN boil a metal razor. You simply have to have some sort of a stand that keeps the razor off of the bottom of the pot. The problem isn't with the boiling - boiling water never rises above the boiling temperature - it's that if you just drop it on the bottom of the pot, it can continue to heat up (especially on a gas stove) to the melting point of lead. Suspend it on a string in the middle, no problem. MAYBE one of those aluminium inserts used for boiling potatoes.

 

[heysi]

The first bit of advice I would offer to you is to discontinue the vinegar soak effective immediately.

Instead, try heating up water in a stovetop teapot until the kettle whistles. Then, pour this water over your razor(s) until submerged. Add a healthy dose of liquid dish soap, and let everything soak until the water is cool to the touch. Repeat this as many times as necessary.

Once that's done, you should be ready to move to sanitizing with Scrubbing Bubbles and polishing with a mild metal polish. I like Flitz, Maas, and Blue Magic. I do not recommend using polish on gold plate, though. Use it only on your nickel and Rhodium plated razors.

Some handy tools to have nearby are:

an old toothbrush (for general scrubbing)
toothpicks (for digging out gunk)
cotton swabs (for polishing tight, hard to reach areas)
a brass brush (for scrubbing nickel plated razors ONLY - and make sure it's a real brass brush)
lots of rags you don't mind ruining

This should be the first post that anyone coming here for the first time sees. Best advice, perfectly said.

 

[Chango]

Here's my resto routine:

Baking soda/hot water soak

Soft Scrub With Bleach/tooth brush

(Things start to shine at this point)

Barbicide

Blue magic metal polish

Use an old thick athletic sock inside out to polish the knurling

 

[djh]

Let's stick to the topic at hand. Those of you who wish to discuss conspiracy theories should feel free to do so elsewhere.

 

[Bookworm]

Uhhh...

...

I managed to get the adjustment plate on two slims to move somewhat, after soaking the sections in mineral oil for a while. Now that they move a bit, I've just put them back in to soak for a day or two more in Dawn and SC1000. I'll blip them with the ultrasonic once or twice each water change. (it helps make the surfactant and detergent mix quickly, as well as knock loose crud). I'm thinking I'll definitely have to disassemble both for full cleaning, and use a tube brush.