Yes, the 1906 did come in Gold "Plating", though not a wash. It was thicker than the gold was of the 30's and beyond. My Smooth handle 102's have a very prominent plating of Gold. It is easily as thick as the Triple Plated Silver.
It would have had a nickel stike plate applied under the gold. Maybe it wasn't replated. Perhaps the gold just wore off showing the original nickel strike plate. Or more likely it started showing the nickel so someone pollished the rest of the gold off.
It came to me by way of The Traveling Box; Round Two. Member @gorgo2 had sent it out for The Service. It's like triple thick plating with more shine than any other nickle plated razor I have.
1940s era Gillette Aristocrat as it was pictured on Ebay. Both endcaps were missing so I performed a transplant from a 1956 superspeed. Tumbled in stainless steel pins for 10 hours. Hand polished. Sonic cleaned in alkali and soap for 10 min. Hand scrubbed with stainless steel brush, all to get the varnish off. Hand polished and followed standard prep for 8 min nickel bath. Then plated in 18k gold for 45 seconds. I'm very happy with the results.
very cool Evan..how did you remove and reattach end caps? i have a similar razor that needs end caps .
The endcaps are soldered on so you just heat them with a torch (not a flashlight) while gently prying them loose. Then to reinstall, you gently press them in place while heating again. You usually don't need to add any solder. If you are careful you can hit the sweet spot where you melt the solder but don't discolor the plating. Sent from my SM-G960U using Tapatalk
The knurling is still sharp and edges are still crisp. Stainless steel pins are incredibly gentle and I used primarily chemical cleaning rather than mechanical polishing to remove the varnish and worn plating. Sent from my SM-G960U using Tapatalk
That is one part of re-plating that kills me, again and again. I like the sharp edges and detail. It's a small detail, but it is a detail that ought to be considered.
I agree. I had a couple razors professionally replated and was disappointed by corners and edges. If I was trying to make a living at it, I'd starve. I'm sure I spend 3x the time preparing. Sent from my SM-G960U using Tapatalk
That’s really nice work. I would love to try my hand at that some day soon. How long does it take to get the hang of replating?
Like anything, it depends. You can buy kits which do most of the work for you. However that's not the cheap way to do it. Check out www.riogrande.com if you want to buy tools or kits. You won't save money doing it yourself, but you can spend the time getting the results you want. I have a few razors that look factory new. I have others that look horrible and need completely stripped and redone. I just screwed up a Slim today. It's now being tumbled in hopes I can save the nickel plate, which was amazing. If you are the kind of guy who loves research and figuring things out you'll do fine. I already have a garage full of tools so I really didn't have to buy that much.
Poor donor razor. Sad that this was the worst I had and I buy a lot of $5 or $6 razors. The next new member who shows up asking what to buy is going to get this in the mail.
I started with this Kindle book. However I spent a lot of time reading forums. "Electroplating (Crowood Metalworking Guides)" by Dan Hanson. Start reading it for free: http://a.co/i6aOzJx Sent from my SM-G960U using Tapatalk