Upcoming Gillette Pocket Edition old type project!

So I have not had luck selling my old ratty gold pocket edition old type. I therefore have started a new project which includes re-plating the case and razor, then reupholstering the interior of it. I will try to take as may photos along the way. It should be an interesting build, and may help/influence others that want to do the same. So far, I have taken it all apart and cleaned it. The top and bottom of the case are steel plated with fabric glued to them, just as the last box I have done. It easily comes apart after being soaked in some hot water for a period of time. Once the fabric is wet, the color will bleed out a little (just a warning). Next step is to soda blast the remaining gold plate and oxidation off.

 

BTW, It's getting nickel plated (case and razor), and black or purple velvet interior!

 

Excellent. I am looking forward to seeing the results. BTW, what were you trying to get for it?

 

Hmm... I think Rockler has flocking kits. You might spray on a velvety inside rather than wrangling cloth.

I dunno. This is a really cool project. I wish you the best and hope to be inspired! Post many pics, please!

Good on yer!

 

Thanks! I don't mind doing cloth on the inside! I'm pretty good at it, and I wouldn't want to go all out and then cheap out on the inside . @Jayaruh I had it listed at 20$.

 

Dude! This is screaming "TUTORIAL!" at me. Er... maybe I'm screaming "tutorial" at you. Think you have the time and patience to document your process? Surely I'm not the only one who would like to know how it's done!

 

haha I'll try to do as much as I can pic wise. I can't reveal all my secrets though! I don't have a crazy amount of time, which makes it difficult. I do all this at night, during the day I'm studying engineering stuff.

 

What a great project! I'm looking forward to the updates.

 

What is soda blasting? Does it take special equipment or is it something a home DIYer can do?

 

Like sand blasting with baking soda. I made a diy blaster. Look online. It usually takes off most of the hard to get at gold plating, but some still has to be taken off by hand (not fun).

 

Good luck with the project. I'll be looking forward to seeing how it turns out and any advice you have to share, I have a brass aristocrat case that needs to be re-upholstered at some point.

 

Good luck with the project. I bet you'll do an awesome job once you get it figured out.

 

We are looking forward for the end results.

 

Great project. Curious on your work. Don´t forget to show pics here.

 

This seems like a worthy endeavor. I wish you luck and hope this turn out well. Please, keep us updated on the progress if you can.

 

But we like when secrets are not secrets anymore =P

 

so far, it's looking to be a pia. The gold is a lot tougher to remove than the gillette new I'm used to.

 

I haven't tried it yet... only read up some... but DIY home electrolysis could remove the gold.

Yeah.. that's on my list of things to learn. I was researching DIY plating, not un-plating. I even scrounged a block of scrap nickel, but haven't tried it yet.

 

Yea see this is the problem. Maybe I have it all off, maybe not. But when gold is plated directly to copper, the copper diffuses into the gold. Maybe this is why it is hard to get off. Not sure if they did a nickel plate first. After soda blasting, polishing and sanding and re-polishing, still looks gold. I've done reverse electrolysis to remove rust from iron, tried to remove nickel plate from a razor. I used sodium bisulflate and water, and it came out with some pitting and didn't work all that well. And if these boxes have no nickel layer, reverse electrolysis I don't believe will do anything. At this point, I'm going to do a copper plate, then if it takes, do nickel over it. I think it will be fine.

 

Today's progress.1) before blasting and polishing. 2) After blasting but before polishing and plating. 3) plated ( came out ok) not perfect