So after much muddling and deciding which razors to have done. I signed up a contract ( I have more then a few razors to get done) with a private plater in town. Here's the first of many many many to come! Before: None of these razors had any pre cleaning or work done to them as I wanted to see how "quick and easy" replating could be. Below is what they returned to me like ( I apologize for the hair all over the background my cat seems to enjoy sleeping in my photo booth....)
I'm very very happy with it, and at $22 for nickel I can't complain. Like I said many many to come yet lol.
Very nice indeed. I think nickel is the way to go. I have a barber chair from the 20's and the nickel plate is still nice on it. I had to clean the plate with fine steel wool and WD40 and it shined right up. That proved to me nickels worth right there.
That's what the guy who did it said. I was looking at some other options at the time but he said for user grade life + shine nickel's the only way to go. I'm going to have a lot of shine on the shelves now.
We plate jewelry at my factory and aren't allowed to use nickel anymore if the product is going to Canada or Europe. We even have to show product testing proof that the plating contains no nickel. So, I have a colleague right in my factory and I couldn't get him to do the replating on that. I would have to use gold but it would be well over $22. Those look very well done. Your plater knows his stuff.
What's the issue behind using nickel? Just out of interests sake. As for my plater the guy lives for it. I spent almost 3 hours there on Friday while we walked around his little shop. Harley parts from the Southern States, vintage chevy grille from Nova Scotia. He's "that guy", with no business name but if your in the right circles you hear about him. He did a contract for the razors on the basis that I set him up with a set because he hasn't used any of it in years but was quite interested in people going back to it. Very cool guy.
Very nice. Chromium and Rhodium are the tops in terms of quality life, ie: plating wear. I've got a Gillette New Standard that's down to the brass and I'd would love to have it replated in black nickel since it'll be a shaver and my own unique thing. Can't find anyone around here to plate any metal much less black nickel. I sent an email a few months ago to the replater up in Massachusetts that's quite often recommended for replating razors but never got a reply back from him or anyone else with his company.
Wait, he comes from the South? Then it's not nickel...it's CHROME :happy102 and lots and lots and lots of it.
That and some European governments consider it hazardous for some reason but I don't get into the production end so I don't know all the ins and outs of metals.
As someone who has lived most of his life with cats, I can tell you they are like the proverbial 600 lb. gorilla. They sleep wherever they like. Oh yes, nice replating jobs.:happy005
hahaha, yeah he offered chrome, I'm working on a side project that he's got a pot of chrome waiting for so we'll see how that works out yet. I've got the shiny bug thought, my razor stack is piling up fast.
Here's a thought. Design a safety razor that has either a top piece if it's a 3 piece or two halves of a TTO top that's has the old Firebird emblem from Smokey and the Bandit, make the rest of the top underneath the emblem black and chrome the daylights out of the rest of it. Then get NASCAR to adopt it as the official razor of NASCAR racing :happy102
Other then Nascar, you have just told me to invent the greatest razor known to man! The Formula Firebird Razor.....mmmmmm. It would of course have to be made with a good solid 1/2 blade exposure to make it as gnarly as the car, with some form of tire grip knurling on the handle.