I bought this plating kit a while ago as I received a few less than satisfactory eBay purchases and I was interested to see if these kits were any good. I bought the 1.6L Electroless Krome kit from Caswell Europe. The kit comes with almost everything you need & was easy to set up. Here is the test piece, not sure what model or make it is: The finish you get depends on how much prep you do. I brought the brass to a shine with very fine wire wool & cleaned the razor with alcohol mouthwash solution. The kit contains three bottles of metal solution (the Krome kit is a cobalt-nickel mix), 2L plastic container & a heating element. You also need some distilled water, piece of wood & some wire. You just need to mix the metal solutions & top up with the water; fully submerge the heating element & wait until it’s just below boiling. The element seems to be designed to keep the mix at the right temperature so I left it on during the plating process. To activate the brass surface I used a steel wire to suspend the razor parts from the stick. To start just place the parts in and the steel wire starts to bubble and it activates the brass razor to start the plating process. I left the parts in for 50 minutes to plate just under a thou of krome on the surface, stirring every five or so minutes with another piece of stick. Result: The finish was not even all over & I did not get the shiny chrome look I was hoping for. The finish is a nice pewter looking metal but some parts do show a better finish so my prep was not good enough. I need to clean the surface better for next time & get a more polished finish before plating again. So in summary the kit works well but I need to take more care in prep next time. Any tiny amount of dirt seriously affects the finish which is why professionals clean parts with a strong acid. The best finish on the razor is a blue chrome colour, so with better prep this kit is capable of producing excellent results. Sorry about the poor quality pics I only have a 1.3 mega pixel camera. Best regards, Paul
I will definitely give this razor another try, but I need to clean deep in the paterned handle. The test razor is very old & has a good amount of wear, but the comb part were there is no wear, has plated beautifully to a mirror chrome finish. I need to find a better cleaning agent. I will consult my father as he is a metalurgist & has worked in the automotive industry. His main tip was to get the surface 100% free of an deposits. It's easier for a commercial company as they have very strong chemicals & acids to use. Regards, Paul
Looks very interesting, Paul! I wonder how thick the chrome-plating on commercial razors is. Have you tried acetone to clean the razor?
No but that's probably a good option. In the instruction leaflet it describes 1 thou as marine grade so, I suppose Merkur's ect are plated to this grade. Regards, Paul
On the sucessfully plated parts the metal looks like chrome. If you put chrome and this side by side the colour is a blueish chrome, but not a nickel gold colour. Regards, Paul
I have always prefered the look of the Chrome Merkurs to the Nickel ones, and as the Gillettes (apart from the very expensive ones) are all Nickel plated I would like to have some Chrome Gillettes in my collection. As the problem with this test was the cleaning I am thinking about plating a new Nickel merkur, just to see the perfect finish i'm looking for. I have a Slim & a Super adjustable that need re-plating. Regards, Paul
Yes the chrome on the Merkurs do look nice and I like the looks of the razor you plated. Have you tried to hand polish it with some Flitz or Mass to get more shine.
Yes on the duller spots it will shine up very well, but where I didn't clean the brass properly the plate didn't take & those spots are still brass. As with shaving it's the prep that counts, so I will give it a another clean & polish & give it another try. Not sure what model the razor is, but it has been well used & looks very old. Regards, Paul
I just watched a you-tube video where a guy cleans the metal with a vinegar salt solution then to a distilled water rinse to remove any oils and residue. Maybe that is one of the key steps. None the less great job.
The acetic acid in the vinegar should do a good job, thank you I didn't think of that. I will also do a clean in biological washing soda, which should get any oily residue. The caswell leaflet has no info on prep, I should have done at bit of google-ing before my first attempt. Regards, Paul
There's a plating shop near the supplier where I get my brass. I'm going to go by there and see what they'd charge to plate my knobs and handles. I'm hoping they can do my few things when they're doing a big batch of parts. If they charge to much it won't be worth it as the profit margin is small as it is.
Most comercial companies wash their products multiple times in acid baths. A personal cleaner of choice is muriatic acid (hydrochloric acid). A nice soak should do the job and a bit of a scrub with a plastic/wire brush after. Probably something harder than a regular tooth brush. You should be able to find the acid at masonary or pool stores as people use it to etch and wash concrete comercially.
Something that is really super aggressive is cleaning Soda ! not sure you have it in the UK I had ones cleaned my razors in it. its cleans so well the black of a black handle long Gillette came off !!!! that Stuff CLEANS to the bone!!!! I guess it would take the yellow off aswell.....
And whatever you clean it with, don't pick it up with your bare hands after you've cleaned it. Aside from the acid part, you'll get skin oils on what you just cleaned. Rubber gloves or (cleaned) tongs should do it. If you use HCl, this says to rinse thoroughly with water immediately after cleaning. (And it still looks gold colored to me. )
Well, I figured the water right after and the acid would be a given. And gloves too. Chemical resistant.
