Thread: First time Restoration / Cleaning Help

Hello, I need some advice on cleaning.

I recently picked up a couple stright razors, both at antique shops. One really nice silver metal handle, a Cluass Shear Co, and the second a Black plastic engraved handle, H. Boker & Co. a Keen Shaver model. I picked up the Keen for the purpose of sharpening practice, and it looked pretty cool (not being a plain flat handle).

With the Keen, I wanted to clean it up, and the handle as I mentioned was engraved/molded with a vines type design, there seemed to be a fair bit of grit and dirt embedded in this design. Thinking at the same time to disenfect the balde I used a mixture of Hot water with some vinager to start the cleaning process. The problem from this is that doing so has turned the black handle brown (discolored). Is there any way to correct this?

With the Clauss blade, this is more of a polishing question. I picked up some metal polish (which worked great on the blade) however on the metal handle it keeps coming up black. What I mean by that is that the instructions say to rub / polish until the black film disapears. So I add the polish, rub it in, wipe off the black, give it a rinse, then repeat (as this was my first time polishing it). However, the second and even third application was just as black as the first. Being that this is my first time doing a full clean and polish, I'd just like to know if that is normal? That regardless of the number of times I use the polish it will always come off black? I had thought that the black indicated tarnish.

Sorry for the wordiness, just wanted to be clear.
Any insight would be great.
Thanks

The razor with the "plastic" scales is probably celluloid which is pretty finicky stuff. Even very hot tap water can damage the stuff. The vinegar probably changed the color for good. keep an eye on it to make sure the stuff doesn't start to deteriorate also known as celluloid rot. if it does it gives off acid fumes and will rust and pit the blade. If it was true plastic it should not have done that.

The other,depending on the metal you might need a different polish or it may just take longer to clean it up. If its sterling and hasn't been cleaned in who knows how many years that's a lot of tarnish to get through.

Do you mean the black comes out on the polishing cloth? Don’t worry about it, the black is normal on the polishing cloth, no matter how many times you polish, a clean cloth will become black… the polish removes tiny amount of metal and gets oxidized by the polish in the cloth. If the metal you are cleaning comes out shiny… that’s good.

On the other hand if the metal you are cleaning is still black, then it could be “blued” steel (like gun metal blue), or a “black oxide” coat, this would have been done at the factory to give it that color you don’t need to remove it… if you prefer it shiny, it will take some time to remove it.

Oh and one more thing, unless you want your blade to have an “aged patina look”, don’t use vinegar anywhere near your blade.
If you ever need to clean dirt and grime from a newly acquired vintage razor, thick rubber gloves, dish washing soap, hot running water, and an old tooth brush goes long way… and after that paper towels and a hairdryer... keep an eye on the edge.

Much thanks to both replies. That sheds some light on both of my issues and now I understand more about the polish as well. And as for the vinager, yes, I'll stick with soap and hot water from here on.

The idea of the Rot concerns me, so I'll keep an eye on that as well.

Thanks Again