Thread: Wiping the Blade

I've also been wondering about this, and it's great to read all your replies!

I've been washing/"waving" the blade briefly in the water I have in the sink, and then lightly wiping the blade against the side of my palm. I figured that as long as I don't cut myself, I'm doing any harm to the edge of the blade...


I used to rinse the blade in running water, but I stopped doing that after I accidentally dinged my Helje 31 into the faucet!

I'm new to this and have been wiping the blade on some paper towel between strokes. in typing this, i just realized i should probably being using a cloth towel?

I'm a little cavalier in wiping more than the shaving stroke, as this gave me two "reminders" while shaving this week. On my middle and ring fingers, one not bad and the other not so bad.

I usually either rinse under some running water as the sink is filling or wave it around in a sink full of warm water a bit then if any hair/lather is still stuck on there wipe between my thumb and index finger careful to leave the edge itself alone and then will dry it off with wiping with a towel between my thumb and index finger again staying away from the very edge more often I find myself drying the tang/heel end of the spine where I hold the razor on that towel before each stroke after just dipping in the sink of water


As for shaving commando I stopped after I dropped a razor and wear a bathrobe now

i always just wipe with the towel i used to hot towel my neck, because i usually dont shower before i shave. wiping in a stropping motion is a good idea though

I rinse the blade under hot tap water when it fills with lather. Probably 4-5x for one pass, depending on the blade width. IME, if I leave lather on the blade to long, it dries and I have to deal with stains later.

In between passes, I leave the wet blade open on a rest. I just took to placing it edge up in between the bristles of my hair brush.

I only wipe, with either washcloth or folded toilet paper after the shave. Wipe the edge on washcloth with a few stropping motions. Strop 20x on leather. Then a thin coat of mineral oil unless I plan to use it again within a few days.

I use a little rubber cup that was made specifically for wiping a straight razor. Barbers have used these for years. This dramatically decreases the chance of hitting the edge on the faucet which often occurs during repeat trips back-and-forth from shaving to rinsing. I always finish with a final rinse under hot water and then wipe with a towel. All of the spent lather and whiskers go down the drain, not on a towel, and I haven't dinged my blade since I started using the razor wiper.


Scott

I like to keep my tools clean while using them and so I rinse and wipe with no problem resulting. Am currently experimenting with the ShamWOW for this purpose.

I just use a paper towel folded in half and wipe away from the edge.

I just rinse under the sink to take the whiskers and lather away, sometimes if I find a buildup of dead skin cells that don't want to rinse away I will wipe it quickly against my palm in a stropping motion. When the shave is complete I rinse the blade with hot water, strop wipe on a microfiber towel strop on leather a few times to ensure the edge is dry, fold and place in its stall.

I always rinse under running water, and in the end I wipe the blade dry by wrapping the towel around the spine and running it down the length. Then I strop a few times to clean the edge.