Mostly because I don't have a decent web camera (I've tried four, and none of them are good enough at the distances I need), I simply took some pictures as I went along. All photos were taken on the same white porcelain tile surface, which was freshly cleaned and polished for the occasion. I will intersperse commentary with the photos. To start with, let me list what tools I used. 1) Scrubbing Bubbles (actual SC Johnson) 2) Beat up toothbrush 3) Handmade test brush made from natural bristles cut off of an acid brush. 4) Dawn 3x blue detergent 5) SC-1000 (surfactant. Breaks down soap a treat) 6) Harbor Freight Ultrasonic cleaner 7) Tweezers That's it. Here's what they looked like to start. It's an undated 1940's SuperSpeed, a Flare tip SuperSpeed (A-3), and a 1907 OLD. As you can see, the above razor had a massive amount of corrosion left behind from a blade. In the OLD above, notice all the green scummy coating. Next came the scrubbing bubbles. I didn't use it on the OLD, because I didn't want to strip off any lacquer that might have been left, at least not immediately. (I've brightened the picture considerably) The process to use scrubbing bubbles, to me, was to give the razors a quick rinse and a hit with the toothbrush to take off anything loose, then lay them in the sink and hose them down. Flip over, repeat process. Make sure that every exposed piece gets a coating of SB until the bubbles disappear. Then rinse and scrub with toothbrush. Next is what they looked like after the SB soak and scrubbing with a toothbrush. You'll notice that there's not much change. (I took a lot more photos, but I'm not going to go crazy with them) This is my main experience with the cleaning routine that's been put forth on several forums. Not enough cleaning for the amount of elbow grease put in. Old soap is just too pernicious. Here's the underside of the base plate/anvil of the flare tip. You can see part of the 40's to the left, it's about usual for the ones I rescue. Now we get to have some fun! Ultrasonic cleaner with the rack on the bottom. This is the biggest downside of the HF cleaner that I've come across. It has spots for handles, but didn't come with handles! Make some hanging handles from coat hanger wire, and lift the razors up about an inch - the effect is increased at that point. It works on the bottom, however. It's just slower. Here's a closeup of the Nasty OLD Interestingly enough, it's easier to see the serial number from a photograph than by looking at the razor directly. Fill the UC to just below the line with warm/hot water. Kick on the temperature control, set the timer to the maximum, and fire it up - with nothing in it. This degasses the water. If you don't do it, you'll see tons of weird bubbles come up off of the items you're cleaning, and not a lot of cleaning being done. Here's what the two TTO's look like when the UC started going to town on them, in hot water. I only took a couple of photos when the water was reasonably clear, and you could obviously see the clouds. If you notice, the easiest cloud to spot is coming from the head itself. You can't really see it, but it's coming from the join of the handle to plate, the hole where the TTO shaft is connected, and the hinge points - and under the end caps. A similar cloud will show up at the knob to handle join. Once I let it run for about 15 minutes, I left it to sit in the hot water while we left for about 4 hours to shop. I then moved the knobs and other moving parts of the razors around, and ran the cleaner off and on for another half an hour. That's it. Here's what the water looked like after sitting a bit. Note the crud at the bottom (I used the Google Photos 'vista' filter to make them clearer) The stuff is actually sludge. When I poured out the water (which was greenish cloudy), I had to rinse it three time, then wipe it out. At this point, I've finished the base cleaning with the razors. What I did next was rinse them under water as hot as I could stand to use to hold them. (If I was at a finish point, I'd use the ultrasonic cleaner with no soap, just water. That would both heat them up and clear out the leftover Dawn/SC-1000/whatever polishes were used) I then pulled out the toothbrush and gave them a going over with a soap that I know rinses clean, to get off any film. I then dried them thoroughly, and took some more photos. They look a lot better, don't they? Note that the 40's SS no longer has a black handle. That boiled off extremely quickly, and it was interesting to watch the bits of black dance and merge into balls on the handle while the cleaner was going. Here's that same flare baseplate The reason for the exposed brass is that the cleaner I have does just that - cleans. That includes making the crud (most of it) pop out of the brass, and leaving clean metal behind. No, it doesn't dissolve the brass, just seems to affect the oxidation itself. I don't know about modern soap, but older soap left behind eats the nickel plating. The rust, however, is a challenge. It will _not_ come off with a toothbrush, even if you use toothpaste for an abrasive (I don't know why people do this. The abrasive is much larger than most metal polishes, or car waxes). The loose stuff comes off in the cleaner. What's left will come off with a fingernail - but not a toothbrush. A wooden popsicle stick may work, or a plastic probe. Don't use a stainless steel probe - it will scratch the metal. Both TTO's are now good for shaving, or for further polishing. What's left is embedded, and won't come off without some severe mechanical action. Now, the one thing I'm trying to figure out is the OLD. The blueish white crud that's left is extremely embedded. I may try a spot of a solvent, or I'll put them back into hot water for a few days in the UC, and buzz it for a while and see if it finally comes off. 90 year old soap can be pernicious in the crevices. The knob was held into place with a twist of paper to increase friction (because of the broken tube). I hope this helps people out, and shows that even extremely corroded razors can, with very little effort, be made to look decent.
It's likely that there is no plating remaining. That's why the funk is so tough to remove. Heat up another sonic bath and this time, add LemiShine to the water. It will cut through that gunk in no time. I have a similar cleaner I purchased on Amazon, I use it for expended brass case cleaning. LemiShine always is part of my cleaning solution.
LemiShine is citric acid. You can get a similar result by using vinegar (which is cheaper) This actually has an amazing amount of the plating remaining. I have a couple with little to no plating - this isn't one. I don't think I want to hit it with acid (yet). I'll give it a couple of days in hot water later, when I have another one that needs the same treatment. You should be careful with LemiShine, or any acid, with the razors. With _thick_, high phosphate nickel plating, citric acid apparently has a negligible effect. With thin plating, or more pure nickel, it can cause pitting. Most of the razors we are cleaning up already have lost a lot of their plating, so damaging it further is not something I want to do. If it's gold plated, then go to town - all you're likely to damage is the nitrocellulose lacquer, which will be removed by several days of soaking in detergent anyway. As this one -is- gold plated, I could use an acid on it without significantly adversely affecting the remaining plating. Polishing afterwards would probably remove a good chunk of what's left.
Oh, no you're not. For cleaning straight brass, it's very well respected, such as for reloaders. Most people wouldn't bother to look up the interactions - the only reason I know about them is that I've done some basic plating (playing, really), and you get really interesting effects on nickel when you're trying to copper plate a nail, for example. For that matter, if the nickel plating is in good shape, and you're not doing it for a long time, it's unlikely to affect the razor. It also doesn't appear to bother chrome. I've also had a NASTY reaction when I used the normal 'Washing Soda' routine to clean a silver plated razor with exposed brass. yes, the silver got brighter, but the crap apparently plated to _something_ in the brass, and made it look worse than before. So I'm paranoid with most of the chemicals, because I'm working with razors that are REALLY beat up. I have added alcohol to the mix, but only for a short time. (for sterilisation, mostly)
Thanks @Bookworm. Great post. Very informative. I now have to go to Harbor Freight. The good news is though I can tell my wife I have been using toothpaste and that is all wrong. Sent from my phone using some app
*snork* Depends on for what you've been using the toothpaste The main abrasive component of toothpaste is hydrated silica. I'll admit I have no idea how you hydrate a rock. Anyway - it's used as an abrasive on your teeth to remove crud. However, the particles are big enough to see and feel. (most also contain other strange ingredients) For me, I'd rather just use a really fine 'cleaner' car wax, Flitz, Maas, Silvo, or Wrights silver polish. If it's really crapped up plating, then Brasso. It is all subjective! Some people find that other products work really well for them, such as @Omaney . He's not wrong to use that product - he's just familiar with using it for a slightly different purpose, one for which it has no downsides at all! For that matter, some people won't even polish their razors, because they want the "Patina Of The Ages" to be left intact. I'm one of those for whom an item must be in optimum condition for its original purpose; if you can't use it for the original purpose, it's trash. I guess my ultimate goal is to find the best way for me to clean up the razors to the point where everything functions correctly, and then keep it that way. That's why I'm working up a buffer system, and I have several different kinds of cleaners, polish, and coatings. If I wanted one to be as perfect as possible, I'd send it to Capitan Murpee, and then to a replater. (Or figure out how to do it myself. Maybe I'll do that later on, but it's not high on my priority list) On the ultrasonic cleaner. If you (or she) have jewelry that gets worn regularly, they're fantastic for getting stuff out of tiny crevices. Also for cleaning crud out of stainless steel pocket knives (my Victorinox knives see it regularly), and other small objects. You don't need a big one like this, generally. I was reasonably happy with my small one until it died.
This is close to what I do. This is my approach: My Method for Cleaning & Restoring Vintage Double Edge Razors: Soak in hot, not boiling water with Dawn dish detergent until water cools. Scrub with tooth brush and rinse. Spray with non-bleach Scrubbing Bubbles. Let sit until bubbles start to disappear. Scrub with toothbrush and rinse. Repeat if needed. Apply Flitz or MAAS if additional polishing is needed. Buff with micro-fiber cloth. Repeat Scrubbing Bubbles, rinse, dry with towel. Load blade and enjoy. Works for me.........
Pretty much my MO, except I lead off with the Scrubbing Bubbles. I'll also use toothpaste on occasion.
Well, I got a bit of a lesson last night in what *not* to do... I wanted to see if I could do a bit better at shining up a well-used post-War Tech (gold-plated with much of the gold missing from the cap). I broke out the BKF and apparently left it on for too long. The result was that the gold was fine, but the exposed brass on the cap has now taken on a pinkish hue.
The pinkish hue is simply that the oxidation is stripped enough that you're seeing the pure copper in the alloy. Most of the caps are red/pink brass, as well as many of the handles. The base plates tend to be yellow brass.
With the ultrasonic cleaner, even if you don't fire up the piezoelectric generator, you can use it as a heating bath and keep the water hot for a long time. Then pull things out with tweezers for brief cleaning. The only stuff I found SB to remove was lacquer and whatever gold 'plating' that Soluna used on their Aluminum razors. (it ran like yellow water.) It just didn't seem to affect the various cruds - but again, I'm doing the seriously crappy ones. I still see it as valid to start off to soften things up. Most of what I'm working with are TTO's. I can see scrubbing and polishing compound working on most of the 3 piece - even then, the knurling sections of the handles seem to go better in with the buzzing. There's a big downside with the Ultrasonic cleaners - it will (after a while, especially with the old paint) make the paint on the end of a Red/Blue flake off somewhat. No huge deal for me, they make better enamel paints now. I have yet to see any plating be lost with the UC that wouldn't have gone away with any cleaner. Dunno if micro-fiber is better or worse. I hate the way they stick to my calluses. I use terrycloth and jersey cotton, mostly.
