Thread: Prep for my new vintage razor!

Well, I just received my first "shave ready" razor in the mail, a vintage Dubl Duck Satinedge! Anticipation is killing me here but I have to wait until my Tony Miller strop comes before I can put it to good use. Blade is in great condition, and it certainly took some arm hairs off. Anyway, I recently saw a long thread concerning sterlization of used razors, and unfortunately it drifted off into a conversation about cooking, with no clear answer about the best approach. Personally I think a good soaking and/or wipe-down with rubbing alcohol/iso propyl should do the trick. Should it be blade only or scales as well?
Any thoughts?

a good rinse in rubbing alcohol should be just fine you just need to do the blade. alcohol can have a bad effect on some scaled

some people user clippercide or barbercide and they work well too. remember though alcohol will remove any protective oil from the blade so ti is best to plan to use it right away or apply either mineral oil or camellia oil to the blade... tuff glide works very good as well

I give the blade a good rubbing with a 70% isopropyl alcohol soaked cloth, which is intermediate level disinfectant and cleans up any dirt, oil, grime or light rust on the blade, cleaning and preparing the surface for the next step. I soak the razor in barbicide for roughly 10 minutes to zap away anything that might be left. Rinse well with warm water, let dry, followed by a light wipe with pure mineral oil to seal the steel and protect the now clean blade.

Hope this helps!

Be careful. Your on the express route to dulling a shave-ready edge.

I seem to remember that time was the best stratagy. I just can't remember how much time.

-Rob

Originally Posted by AFDavis11

Be careful. Your on the express route to dulling a shave-ready edge.

+1. If you're not experienced at stropping I wouldn't wait for that strop. Go ahead and shave. If it is shave ready you should be able to get by without stropping on the first shave. This way you don't risk rolling the edge before you try the razor.

I wouldn't worry about germs on the blade. If it has been honed to shave ready I would bet it has been wiped and what have you plenty long enough to preclude your getting cooties or worse. and enjoy your shave.

You can not sterilize the razor without putting it through an autoclave. This would almost certainly destroy the scales and you probably don't have an autoclave anyway.

You can disinfect the razor with a number of different chemicals. Disinfection is defined as a process that reduces the number of pathogens to an acceptably low level but not to zero (sterilization is defined as eliminating all pathogens).

Alcohols are intermediate level disinfectants. They kill many pathogens, but are simply not effective against some, for example tuberculosis, anthrax, other spore forming bacteria.

Ethyl alcohol (70%) will kill almost all viruses
Isopropyl alcohol will kill all but hydrophilic viruses. The good news is HIV and hepititus C are not hydrophilic. I don't know about hep A or B, but you can (and should) be vaccinated against these.

For alcohol or any other disinfectant to work, the surface must be clean - that means free of dirt, grease, scale etc. So you need to wash it well with soap and water.

Once it is clean, it must be exposed to the disinfectant for a long enough time, for alcohols, this is usually 20-30 minutes. Since alcohols generally evaporate quickly, this means you cannot just spray or wipe the blade, it must be immersed.

Alcohol will attack celluloid scales, but not bakelite and most modern plastics.

Originally Posted by AFDavis11

Be careful. Your on the express route to dulling a shave-ready edge.

Thanks for the responses guys, I guess you can never be too careful. I was thinking of rigging up a container with alcohol/iso and some string so only the blade would be submerged and not the scales. I am however puzzled by the above quote by AFDavis. I know you mean well, but without any explanation I don't know what you are referring to. If I don't ding the razors edge, or vigourously scrub the edge, how am I going to ruin the edge?

Thanks.

Originally Posted by Ryan82

Thanks for the responses guys, I guess you can never be too careful. I was thinking of rigging up a container with alcohol/iso and some string so only the blade would be submerged and not the scales. I am however puzzled by the above quote by AFDavis. I know you mean well, but without any explanation I don't know what you are referring to. If I don't ding the razors edge, or vigourously scrub the edge, how am I going to ruin the edge?

Thanks.

I believe he was referring to your comment about waiting for the strop to arrive before shaving. Someone who's never used a strop can ruin a shave-ready edge with just one incorrect pass. There's plenty to read about stropping here and elsewhere on the internet. Just make sure you're comfortable with the technique before diving in with your razor. You may want to practice with a butter knife or similar straight razor shaped object to get the motion and pressure down.