Thread: gold lettering restoration-need help

Hi my name is Ted and I am new to SRP. I have just acquired a vintage Boker King Cutter Razor form E-Bay and the lettering/design on the blade is pretty faded as you can see by the image below. My question is, is there anyway to re-plate or enhance the design and lettering.

Thanks,

Ted

Please wait
Image not available

tvminko;

The gold lettering was originally put onto the side of the razor using a gold plating process (usually by electroplating in a special chemical bath). And although the principles of enhancing the lettering are well known, it is carrying out the procedures on a small scale which is very difficult (if not impossible).

You could do the same, but you have to block out those areas of the blade which must not receive any gold plating. In practice, this means painting on an asphaltum resist (same sort as is used in fine art copper plate etching) to cover all other areas of the blade. The devil is in the details, of course. Painting on the resist to perfectly match the existing design with the asphaltum resist is something that would try the patience of a monk. Once this has been accomplished, the blade is dipped into a gold electroplating bath (suitably wired up, of course). You either have to know of a metalworking house to do the electroplating for you, or else assemble all the required chemicals, batteries, wiring and so forth to do it for yourself. Did I forget to mention the required gold anode? (read: 'expensive')

So, sadly, the actual answer to your question is that it probably isn't worth your time or trouble.

- Ignatz

Check here
Home

They were offering Re-Gold-etching

ps: A polite PM to Beberlin would most likely get you some help with translations, I know that's what I would do

I thought it would be kind of difficult. But the thought comes to mind, there must have been an easy way to apply the resist and then ingrave the pattern into that otherwise I don't think it would have been done on mass produced razors as it wouldn't have been economical. Any thoughts?

Thanks

Caswell sells electroplating equipment, talk to them and see what they say about your project.

Using caswells Plug N' Plate system gave me an idea. If I recreate the design on the PC then use photo-resist film It should work. I'll post some pics when its done.

Thanks

Is it cost effective for one razor. probably the easiest way is to get some gold leaf and apply it by hand. It's very detailed and exacting and not very durable.

tvminko;

Since you were wondering about the 'easy way' of applying gold leaf to a razor I have provided the following quote. It comes from the book, "How It Is Made" by Archibald Williams (ca. 1912) and refers to the process of acid etching a blade. The resist method which it mentions for preventing the acid from biting would be exactly the same as for gold plating. Do note, that what is missing is a description of the creation of the artwork as well as its transfer to (and the etching of) that first copper plate which served as the master from which to pull the bitumen-covered tissue paper duplicates which were applied to the blades. There would have been hours or even days of careful work involved to create each master copper plate for this process.

- Ignatz

"... we may linger for a minute over the etching of the blade with the maker's name and, in some cases, with elaborate and beautiful designs. The design to be etched is prepared on a copper plate, the lines in which are are filled with bitumen. A moist tissue-paper placed against the plate picks up the bitumen in the hollows and transfers it to the blade. An acid is then applied with a brush and allowed to eat its way into the steel not covered by the bitumen, and when the latter is dissolved away by spirits of wine, the design appears as bright steel lines on a frosted background. If the letters have to be sunk into the steel, the transfer leaves the surface where the letters are to come exposed to the acid and protects the surrounding parts.

The author is indebted to Messrs. Mappin and Webb, Ltd., of Sheffield for facilities given him for writing the above account from personal observations made in their factory."

Note that the archaic term 'spirits of wine' refers to grain alcohol.

thebigspendur;

I don't think the startup expense would be that great compared to the amount of film and plating solution that I would use, which would be very little per blade. I already have the UV light to develop the film and all I would need to do is scan the blade and edit it using Photoshop. And the supplies keep for months also I could use the film to make "stencils" for acid etching. As for the time element it only takes 25 sec to develop the film and may be an hour or less to edit the image on the PC. But I won’t know exactly until I try plus I would be learning something in the process and I never pud a price on knowledge.

-Ted-

Ignatz;

Thanks for the info, I think though that process is quite out of my skill range not to mention attention span. But again thanks for the info.

-Ted-