Thread: the first two months of straight shaving

Hello all!

I wanted to learn to use straight razor for some time. With this forum and all the information in it, it was possible, so: Thank you!

Now, it's been almost two months since I, absolutely terrified, touched my face with a
straight razor blade, for the first time. So far, I managed to nick myself a dozen of times
or so, but overall it was interesting and enjoyable first experience.

I am definitely making progress as my lathering is, I guess, improving and my razors
glide much more easily and with less pressure over my face. I decided to "phase out" my
mach razor, and I use it only to "confirm the quality of the shave". Usually, I shave with
a straight, and then use the safety to go over it. Lately, I have been experiencing no drag
whatsoever when using the mach, which means that I'm managing to do a better job with
the straight (after three passes of course )! I usually don't shave every day but when I do I really get solid results and my smooth face lasts for a day or even day and a half which my gf appreciates greatly .

Now, my only concern and question is about caring for my blades. I got two carbon steel Dovo razors. They both seem to be developing rust, and I'm very confused about it. I searched the forum, and found some answers but would like to confirm and give my observations of the process.

I rinse the blade regularly during shaving. Once I'm done I try to wipe off all the water I can see with paper-towel and put the razor open for a couple of minutes. Then I strop it again, dry it again (inside the handle as well) and put some oil on the blade and spread it over. After that I put my razor away in my room (which is not very humid.... well: not humid at all) open until my next shave .... However, I can still see the rust developing and some staining. It seems to me that this happens as I am shaving?!? That is, since I started putting the oil on (which is when I started using the second razor as I was concerned about the first one) I noticed that the razor does not seem to be staining and rusting wile stored away and oiled but while I'm using it?! This is very surprising
for me as this time period is ~15mins but that is my best observation. I have read in one
of the posts that water might be an issue (which scared me even more )...

Any thoughts and/or suggestions/advices?

Thanks for reading this long post and keep up with good work with this site!

ranko

Some guys use a lather bowl (rubber) or a towel to wipe the blade with after passing it over their face. That would reduce the amount of water it comes in contact with during a shave. I rinse my blade in running hot water; it seems to help the water evaporate from the heated steel.

One other suggestion would be maybe use Militec 1 on your blades. It's a rust preventative that coats/bonds to the steel, so it doesn't rinse away in use.

If you get some staining during your shave, use a little metal polish like Maas or Flitz to remove it. On some of my razors I get similar staining during the shave. I dry it thoroughly even using a hair dryer. I clean up the blade as necessary and then oil my blade. I use Japanese Camelia oil. Hope this helps...