Thread: Best way to deal with mineral oil

Must say I don't use mineral oil either . I like Inox mx-3. It leaves a thin coat even if you wipe the blade.

I'm fairly new to SR shaving and have used mineral oil applied with a Qtip. I would agree with mglindo and not a fan of the viscosity. Just got my order of tuf-glide

I've been using mineral oil (baby oil), over two years now after each shave on a rotation of 14 razors. Baby oil is an ordinary household item, convenient and suitable to the purpose, not to mention inexpensive.

I soak a folded paper towel in baby oil and keep it in a ziplock baggie. Easy for my travel bag and use on the road. Open the fold and lay the open blade in the fold, and bring the fold back over the blade. I then lift the razor by the spine or shank and gently press the paper towel into the hollow down to the edge to get the oil on to the blade. Before stropping I use a micro-fiber cloth the wipe the oil from the blade. Whatever trace amounts of oil remain on the blade gets transferred to the strop. No matter.

IMO, I don't believe that the razor's edge is so sensitive that a square of tissue would damage it. I wipe mineral oil on the blade with toilet paper, when I'm ready to use the razor I rinse it off with hot water and then wipe the blade with a towel. Then I strop it. I have never ran into issues doing this, and my blades don't rust and they also last a long time between honings.

I wipe the entire blade with a Q-Tip soaked in mineral oil, no damage to the edge.

Yup, ren wax when they are honed, nothing but drying in between. Dessecant in the drawers. No oils applied in between.
So far, no issues..

I keep a blend of 4 parts grain alcohol to 1 part USP mineral oil in a jar. After shaving and stropping, I allow the blade to dry out. Then I give the alcohol-mineral oil solution a shake and dip the blade into this, taking care to avoid the scales. Afterwards the razor is left out for several minutes for the alcohol to evaporate, before folding it up and putting it away.

The trick in dealing with the edge arrives when it's time to clean this up for the next shave. ;-)

I live in New England, store my razors in a custom made (by me) razor box in the bathroom, and mineral oil them after each use with a square of tissue paper. I have done this for years. Humidity is pretty high in New England. I just dry the blade well with a square of tissue, put a few drops of mineral oil on the square of tissue, wipe the blade, spine to edge (carefully) and the tang. When I take the next razor in my rotation out I just wipe off the blade with a tissue and strop it. The tissue isn't going to do anything to your edge.

Pretty quick, easy, and very cheap - a big bottle of mineral cost next to nothing. I pour it into a much smaller glass bottle for ease of use and refill that when it gets low.

Adam

BTW - Ballistol is mostly mineral oil.

Adam

Originally Posted by Brontosaurus

I keep a blend of 4 parts grain alcohol to 1 part USP mineral oil in a jar. After shaving and stropping, I allow the blade to dry out. Then I give the alcohol-mineral oil solution a shake and dip the blade into this, taking care to avoid the scales. Afterwards the razor is left out for several minutes for the alcohol to evaporate, before folding it up and putting it away.

The trick in dealing with the edge arrives when it's time to clean this up for the next shave. ;-)

I did this for many years but I used much less mineral oil, like about 0.5% mineral oil. This still was sufficient to leave a coat of oil on the blade after the alcohol evaporated, but it was so small of an amount that I never needed to wipe it off. I just stropped and shaved, and never had any issue with oil accumulating on my strop.