Delta Echo Razor Works

Hi Jay, I think the work you're doing is beautiful. My 86 year old father just handed me a Gillette Aristocrat that he was given as gift from the president of a company he was auditing back in the 1950s. Its plated in gold but has seen better days and is missing one of the end caps. The box looks to be a bio-hazard and its also missing the blade box. I'm a little surprised that my dad would have let such a nice piece get into such a sad state. So my questions are, are you able to locate parts like the missing end cap? Do you do gold re-plating? Would you re-finish an aristocrat in a non-traditional finish? I'll go check out your website.
Thanks,
Mark

I don't do any traditional plating. There certainly are people who do that though. As for coating them, no worries there. The end caps are just soldered on. The Aristocrat name was used on various models.. Based on the end cap and time frame I'm assuming it's a gold Fat Boy? I may have an end cap around here on a parts razor.

The gold on these tends to not be terribly durable so I've coated a few badly thrashed "aristocrats"

Happy to help however I can.

-Jay

Hi Jay, I can either post some pictures here or email them to you over your website and maybe you can get a better idea of what it is and if you have that missing piece. I'm not really a purist, at least not regarding this particular item so a coating may be the way to go. I've seen examples of your work on this and your sites and its spectacular. Let me know what your preference is regarding where I send pictures.
Thanks,
Mark

Here is fine.. If you want to email them you can do that as well. deltaechorazors@outlook.com

Wow! Amazing work. I like the colour combination as well. You make them look modern & luxurious.

Hi Jay, I'm going to try this again, I posted a bunch of pictures but nothing stuck.  Likely Operator Error.

The research I've done leads me to believe that the razor is a gillette 1951 Aristocrat W1 presentation razor.  I'm not sure if I should have you trick it out or restore it.  I don't believe its anything special, it was presented to my father in the 50s by the president of the Anglo Canadian Wire Rope Company.  I'm sure he had a cabinet full of the things.  I've tried to show all the angles including the end views of the head so you can see the missing trim on the one end.  Its stamped with the W 1 on the bottom of the head. The first picture will be from the razor guy website showing the razor in new condition.  I welcome the thoughts and comments of the DFS members on the subject of trick out or restore and any ideas regarding restoring the rather gross presentation case.

Let me know what you think please?
Thanks,
Mark

Question Jay,

Why have you chosen to use Gunkote over that of Duracoat or Cerakote ?

The answer to your question is because Durakote and Cerakote are all fine products that look good on guns.

Gun Kote is also a fine product that looks good on guns.

I've got items in the safe covered in all three.


Gun Kote is a fine product that looks great on a vanity item like a razor.



Durakote is a fine product that looks like paint on a razor. Then again, it really ultimately is.


Cera Kote is a fine product that makes any razor look tactical or painted.


So in all seriousness, neither of the other products gains the color depth or look that Gun Kote can achieve. Refinishing a firearm is another discussion, but short of some Fat Boys and other razors that you want to give an industrial or tactical look to... I just don't like the other two products on razors. I won't go as far as to say that I hate them on razors... But they cannot achieve the look I'm going for or that is achieved in the other product.

So here's my thoughts on your razor.

Whether to restore it or not is up to you ultimately, but you already know that.

Overall I'd say just remove the other end cap if you refinish it. The Regent Tech and I believe even some early Aristocrats did not contain end caps at all. It's purely a cosmetic feature.

Nothing wrong with using that razor as is. It can certainly shine like a newly manufactured razor if you want it to. They look good in two colors that compliment each other whether you stay in browns, like bronze, brass, copper-- Blacks and silvers-- or a complimentary mix of the two.

As for the case. If you want to redo the outside, it would be possible for you but a lot of work and time consuming.

If you just did the inside of the case, those plates generally pop right out and are covered with the fabric.

Remove the fabric and use a scrapbooking glue pen to attach new fabric to the plate, then put it back in the case.


It's not hard to do the insides but does take some time.


The outsides are painful trying keeping things smooth as you go over the bevels.

Hi Jay, thanks for the tips and feedback.  I'm going to consider what to do with the aristocrat.  I did clean it up and also the case and I think I should be able to manage  re-lining it, although re-creating the gold stamped "gillette" on the inside top will be challenging.  I need to find an art student to manage that.
I ordered a silver/grey coated Tech from your site a couple of weeks ago and I'm waiting to see it before I decide my next step.  I picked up an old Tech last week that I was considering having treated to one of your coating schemes - its going to be a gift for my son and he's a bit of a Star Wars fan so I'm playing around with what a Star Wars themed Tech razor might look like.  Black and red for Darth Maul, black darth vader, grey, green and red for Boba Fett, grey and blue for Jango Fett etc etc.  Who knows maybe we can come up with a whole series and I don't think there's a trademark in colour combinations.  This is what I find to be the cool thing about your coatings, you can be creative - I've seen what you've done with another DFS member's Feather AS-D2 razors and its beautiful.  With restoration and replating you're limited to variations on the original finish and thats fine if you're collecting authentic razors.  When you get down to it there are literally millions of old safety razors out there in various states of disrepair and once you've filled out your collection of OEM razors why not customize?  Its not like you're defacing a Picasso.
Thanks,
Mark