Thread: cleaning used razor?

I have just purchased a second razor from e-bay and it has been used. I would appreciate some advice regarding cleaning it, does it need to be sterilized?

We run our new purchases through an ultrasonic cleaner with warm soapy water. Most people don't have these. Use Dish soap and an old tooth brush to clean off old crud. Dental floss can clean between the blade and the scales by the pivot pin. Pipe cleaners are good for between the scales. To disinfect give the blade a wipe with alcohol and let it evaporate. If not used for two weeks all if not most bugs will dye anyway.

+1 with Joed
I sanitize every razor before I even start a restore, let alone shave with it...

I have come to the healthy conclusion that I am sometimes, very anxious to start work on restores, and that I do have a tendency to cut my fingers and hands way more than I have ever cut my face while shaving ...

Originally Posted by 001abs2die4

I have just purchased a second razor from e-bay and it has been used. I would appreciate some advice regarding cleaning it, does it need to be sterilized?

I went to Sally Beauty and picked up a bottle of Barbacide for under $6.00. Mix it 1:8 then soak the blabe for 1/2 hour and it should be fine. At least the instructions say so..
Good luck, Ken.

Originally Posted by KenS

I went to Sally Beauty and picked up a bottle of Barbacide for under $6.00. Mix it 1:8 then soak the blabe for 1/2 hour and it should be fine. At least the instructions say so..
Good luck, Ken.

Just be careful when doing this. We let some soak and it started to soften the scales.

Originally Posted by KenS

I went to Sally Beauty and picked up a bottle of Barbacide for under $6.00. Mix it 1:8 then soak the blabe for 1/2 hour and it should be fine. At least the instructions say so..
Good luck, Ken.

Barbercide will also remove any gold wash on the blade or other metal. It made several of my razor scales gooey and sticky, not sure what they were made of, maybe rubber. They looked like Celluloid or Bakelite. We did perform several tests first but these scales were made out of something different or an older formula.

I sterilize my blade with a 50:50 mix of bleach and water.

do NOT leave it in the bleach more than 60 seconds, it may start to oxidize the blade, resulting in weird black stains that never come off. ask me how I know.

for reference one of my pals works in a medical lab, and he says they sterilize test equipment (even after use on known contaminated organs and tissue) by dipping in Chlorox for 10 sec, so I'm pretty confident it will kill everything.

I got hung up on the whole disinfecting thing when I started too, not that you can't be too careful. I was more worried about cleaning the razor than I was about the actual shaving bit. I started with a bit of soapy water, and then soaked the blade in pure iso propyl for about 20-30 minutes. Some might suggest more prcautions, but I'm still around to tell the story

The idea that germs can live on metal forever scares the hell out of me. If it can take bleach, lysol, alcohol, and a high speed dremel.... we are all doomed!!! Any reasonable effort to sanitize should suffice... if not, maybe it was your time to go!

Purell is my friend.

I gob purell on the blade and rub the blade with my fingers until the purell dries and repeat the process. The mechanical action of rubbing as well as the alcohol is supposed to sterilize everything. Viruses don't do well in UV so a lengthy dose of sunlight will aid in killing viruses. Unfortunately, there are numerous bacteria that love sunlight.