Thread: cleaning without marring gold plating

Some time ago I purchased swordplay faux tortoise shell razor on ebay. Was in fairly good shape. Some nice gold plating in the center of the razor but in need of a good cleen-up. The gold finish looked delicate and I was concerned but without further trepidation I grabbed my tube of maas and dremel. After taking the dremel felt to it most of what was left of the gold plating in the center disappeared. I'm assuming then it's ok to use the paste and the dremel anywhere except where there may be gold plating that's a bit older. Still, what can one safely use to bring that gold plating back to life without stripping any of it off the razor's surface

Welcome!

I do not think there is anything that can keep the goldwash on while abrading marks and stains under it unfortunately, whether the goldwash is old or new.

The best bet, and I know this is no help to you now, is to keep the razor in as good a condition as you can to avoid the necessity for a clean up at all.

There are people who can reapply gold wash to your razor if you want it back.

James.

I know of nothing even in extremely fine abrasives that will restore gold wash or polish it leaving it intact. The best I've found is rubbing it very lightly with a micro-fiber cloth and a bit of water and leaving it well enough alone or working around it to polish other non-gold washed parts of the razor.

Chris L

Yeah, even toothpaste rubs that stuff off. I think it's a matter of the base material corroding underneath the plating in many cases.

It's a really soft metal that has been applied in a layer of about 1 µm thick. What do you think happens if you go at something like that with stuff that is supposed to remove iron oxide and all sorts of stains, and polish metal (which actually means removing some material to smooth out microscopic scratches)?