Thread: Post shave routine for care and storage of the straight razor

Originally Posted by Creel

majurey: Nice trick with the lock box and silica pouches. Where did you score the pouches or did you just stockpile them?

Yep, I stockpile them. They seem to come with everything nowadays, so I just re-use them. They do have a shelf life so you need to change every couple of months.

You should be able to buy them from general stores though.

Instead of throwing them out, just dry them out with a hair dryer. That's what we do with crystals that get soaked with moisture from the air (not silica, but still).

Towel dry everything except the shaving edge.
Blow through the shoulder pin from the spine side.
Wipe the blade and edge with a rubbing alcohol treated tissue.
Strop gently about a dozen or two times on a horse hide leather strop.
Set out to air dry while I clean up and get dressed.
Store in a cedar cigar box.

X

Couple folks mentioned alcohol, what does this help with ?

Helps me to relax afterwards!

Originally Posted by majurey

Helps me to relax afterwards!

Kills germs.

X

Originally Posted by Creel

...Jimbo: ... You’re one scary dude!

You have NO idea how scary this dude really is!

-whatever

-One Who Knows

Alcohol also helps dissolve the soap scum so you can easily wipe it off with a Kleenex. Since it's alkaline, it causes those ugly black dots on your razor, so you definitely want it off before putting the razor away.

I use a Moss Scuttle and heat my water in a hot-pot - after filling the scuttle, I leave the pot on - when I finish, I rinse the blade under the faucet, and then, holding the blade open by the tip of the handle (scales), I empty the rest of the hot pot over the blade - this heats up the blade something fierce, so that by time I step over to the strop, all of the water has evaporated off of the blade - the challenge is, sometimes the metal tang is still too hot to handle for stropping, in which case I wave it around in the air and pretend I am pirate-fighting Jimbo.

I have also used the alcohol method - although, I use the alcohol to displace the water and then evaporate quickly and leave the blade dry, but, yeah, I guess there is some disinfection going on, too.

....and, let me just take this opportunity to reiterate......


......Jimbo is REAL scary!

-whatever

-Lou

Alcohol also helps dissolve the soap scum so you can easily wipe it off with a Kleenex. Since it's alkaline, it causes those ugly black dots on your razor, so you definitely want it off before putting the razor away.

Awesome tip. Just need to get the spots off my liver too.

Tissue issues: Avoid scented or otherwise impregnated tissue, as the chemicals within them attack blade steel. Similarly, recycled tissue can cause more harm than good, as its composition and roughness are highly variable. Human skin heals, steel blades do not.

Oil toils: pure mineral oil or some non-corrosive gun oils are acceptable
Do not use any form of vegetable oil, as they are chemically active.

Trivia on why the fine sword oils contain clove oil:

mineral oil looks extremely similar to cooking oil. Neither carry odour or colour, and both can be used for cooking. The unpleasant surprise comes when we consider that pure mineral oil is sold in pharmacies as a laxative agent; thus the fairly unpleasant scent of cloves was added to the oil to aid easy recognition to prevent certain undesirable after-dinner consequences.