Odd plating on a Geneva

Everyone,

I have two Geneva's that I got in a recent lot from ebay. They both have a similar issue. They look like they have some weird plating on them, which has worn of of most of the blade. The plating seems intact on the tang and spine of the razor, but is worn on most of the hollow portion of the blade. Anyone see this before?

I was planning on sanding/polishing the blade anyway, but was wondering if I am going to need to get rid of the plating on the rest of the razor.

In the picture, the plating is the brighter, lighter colored spots. You can see that it hasn't worn off right by the shoulder.

http://straightrazorpalace.com/membe...2-img-2516.jpg

I also have two Geneva razors with plating issues. These razors have the plating chipping off around the tang area.

I was dissappointed to find out that these razors are plated in the very first place. Why would a quality blade need to be plated when a proper polishing/buffing should suffice? This is puzzling to me.

Sorry but I don't have time to take photos of my plating problem.

I'm pretty sure it's chrome plating. It's done for corrosion resistance. I've seen it on a few Genevas and some other brands as well.

I worked on a Geneva that had the tang & maybe the spine plated but I 've never seen one with the whole blade plated. Nickel plating is often the first step to a quality gold plate & the nickel will resist rust more than steel alone so it's actually a good idea for tangs that can become wet.
I can't actually see any remnants of nickel on your blade but it's usually very hard & shiny like chrome. May even be chrome as Holli says but definitely nickel under any gold plate.