The Latest Replate To Arrive...

Discussion in 'Safety Razors' started by huck1680, Feb 17, 2012.

  1. huck1680

    huck1680 Great Northern CanUkrainian

    ...and to say I'm disappointed would be an understatement. I sent my Brit. Aristocrat to RE for their razor revamp in Dec. It just got here today. Needless to say I was looking forward to this for some time now. Damn near 2 months worth. I first tried the TTO mechanism and in all fairness it does work better, as good as I'd hoped? Not quite. But I'm ok with it.

    Next I see one of the silo doors is nice and smooth, shiny etc and the other one is...pitted over the whole surface. Then I see the 2 bands on the handle are also pitted and anything but smooth. I'm really po'd now. I've had razors redone in chrome and they're shinier than this thing. I'm not going to do anything else with this one, it'll still shave well but I know it's not what it could've or should've been. I've already emailed RE to let them know what I think of their revamping process. I'm sure others have gotten good results... unfortunately,I'm not one of them. P1010110.JPG P1010112.JPG P1010113.JPG P1010115.JPG P1010119.JPG
     
  2. DLP

    DLP Well-Known Member

    WOW, was it pitted like that before you sent it off?

    Not what I would have expected either.:(
     
  3. huck1680

    huck1680 Great Northern CanUkrainian

    There was some pitting originally but the revamping service stated they disassembled, cleaned, removed old plating and pitting before refinishing. I mean how do you get 1 silo door almost perfect and then you leave the other one like that? Seriously.
     
  4. MikekiM

    MikekiM Well-Known Member

    Wow... Would love to see a before image
     
  5. stingraysrock

    stingraysrock PIF'd away his custom title

  6. GDCarrington

    GDCarrington Burma Shave

    Huck, I am sorry that happened. It appears that RE seems to have mixed results in the classic shaving community.
     
  7. Slipperyjoe

    Slipperyjoe Rusty Metal Tetanus

    Sorry for your troubles Huck1680 .. ya that place seems to shave against the grain so to speak and it looks like you've got some genuine razor burn there. They keep getting banned or something from all the major forums. I don't like bashing just for the sake of it, but those guys have been around for a while and you'd think they could have gotten this re plating thing down by now. Your baby can maybe be redone. Not sure if you would want to go any further with it, but I've heard of some great re platers out there for razors. There's a place I think it's called "Reliable Electroplating" that many seemed to get good results from and have heard they do the work themselves. You can contact them and see what they think. You can also peck around and check out what's out there and what people have said on the subject if you think it's still worth it to you. Re plating razors can be a tricky business alright.. best of luck.. Joe...
     
  8. huck1680

    huck1680 Great Northern CanUkrainian

    Thanx guys
    Thanx for the tip Joe, I've got 4 razors in for plating at Reliable even as we speak. It'll be interesting to see how that goes. I may send the Aristocrat out again, I haven't decided yet. Probably best to relax first...hah.
     
    GDCarrington likes this.
  9. johnus

    johnus Well-Known Member

    Thank you for posting this. It's one of the values of a forum like this to know who to go to and who not.
     
  10. IAmTheJody

    IAmTheJody Gillette-i Master Staff Member

    Wow.

    Not sure Huck but since you're in Canada, would postage be cheaper to the UK? If so, I'd recommend Dave of http://www.restoredrazors.com/ . He's known as Onotoman over at that other place. If costs via postage isn't an issue or it's about the same to either piece of rock, Reliable is the way to go in North America. I use Reliable and have yet to have a problem. *knock on TSD's wood-grain background*
     
    CyanideMetal, macaronus and alpla444 like this.
  11. macaronus

    macaronus Sir Nice-a-Lot

    Real bummer, Huck. :( They might at least give you a refund or a replating (elsewhere?) on their account. Hope all turns out for the best.
     
  12. fishcrow

    fishcrow Birdman of TSD

    Sorry Huck it was not what you expected, a real bummer.
     
  13. Hanzo

    Hanzo Well-Known Member

    I know nothing about plating razors however the process may be as you say trickier than it appears . I have had 5 razors plated by Reliable and 2 had minor problems. One developed a small spot of discoloration on the head ,the other the plating on the handle was too thin and you can see the metal underneath it. These are daily shavers so imperfections don't bother me and Reliable guarantees there work within a reasonable time period so had I wanted to address it could have, didn't want to bother. The other razors and a mug handle are PERFECT. The small problems in no way interferes with a glowing endorsement of Reliable. Communinication, shipping, cost, friendly service, turnaround, everything about my experience with them was great and I would use them again without hesitation.

    Vendor bans are pretty meaningless. Many exemplary shaving vendors are banned from one forum or other. Many members here are banned from one forum or another. There are even long threads on the other forums about being banned from this forum . All told for me bans don't tell us that much about the vendor or banned member.

    In communicating with the owners of Razor Emporium last year I got the impression their bans were based on rule breaking as regards selling and trading razors on forums not related to plating. The owners said they should have started their own website store a lot sooner and they could have avoided their problems.

    Speculating here but I think Razor Emporium grew from the owners being wetshaving, Gillette, Razor hobbyists of amazing sophistication and their business developed from that. Reliable is a general plater and because of their reputation among members at Badger and Blade over the years have seen razor plating become a small niche for them.

    I really hope Hucks issues can be dealt with but I would tend think a razor in either places hands is what and what in terms of service perhaps we shouldn' t go overboard in condemnation .
     
  14. Sunflake

    Sunflake Well-Known Member

    I would give Dale @ Reliable Electroplating a call and ask if you could email some pics to him for a opinion if this disaster could be fixed! Sorry Huck.
     
  15. IAmTheJody

    IAmTheJody Gillette-i Master Staff Member

    Razor Emporium was banned from TSD for much more than simply not following the rules and we'll just leave it at that. Aside from that, I like the fact that Reliable and Onotoman does their plating on site, in house... not source them out to another pair of hands to do the replating like Razor Emporium does. And that leads me to another thought... Razor Emporium probably got this razor back from the replater and didn't even bother to open the packaging and look at it. Probably just put it in their own packaging and mailed it, sight unseen, work unchecked. Don't know for sure but it makes sense. If I were in the business of selling or reselling replating services, I know I'd have never - no way in hell - let this razor be sent back to the owner in this condition. This particular replate job looks as bad as the ones last year coming out of India on eBay where some guy in India was having vintage razors replated by a jeweler there and they were all horrible. Minimal flaws, fine. One that looks like it's been sandblasted after being replated, like this one? I'd be trying to get an explanation from Razor Emporium and allowing them to make it right either by demanding them to redo it or refund. They have turned out some beautiful razors from their outsourced replater but there is simply no excuse for this job.
     
  16. frankflood

    frankflood Active Member

    i used razor emprorium once for a bostonian given to me by gramp. i'm glad it came back looking good. given that i thought it was good my buddy said it would've been better to use reliable. good luck huck
     
  17. lindyhopper66

    lindyhopper66 Well-Known Member

    How does one contact Reliable?
     
  18. IAmTheJody

    IAmTheJody Gillette-i Master Staff Member

    http://www.reliableelectroplating.com/
    304 West Main St.
    Chartley, MA 02712
    Phone: (508) 222-0620
    Speak to Dale.

    Don't bother using the email on their web site. They don't answer email for some reason.
     
  19. lindyhopper66

    lindyhopper66 Well-Known Member

    Yes, I thought I had been to the correct website and emailed a week or so ago with no results. Thanks for the info!
     
  20. Sunflake

    Sunflake Well-Known Member

    Not to mention Jody, the replater did see this razor and sent it back any way! If this is what qualify's as a complete job then the replater needs to be fired by raz/emp! And I know that this has happened with them before there should never be a razor shipped back from them without someone looking it over, after all it's their name (raz/emp)going out there, not the replater. Very sad to be sure I hope they do right by their customer.
     

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