Thread: straight blade disinfecting

Originally Posted by joesixpack

Every tool a barber uses on your head should be disinfected. Barbers have UV disinfectant lamps nowadays, and they still use the Barbercide (or Marvycide more commonly. It's the same stuff) jar. Razors are s special case because there is going to be blood in contact with the blade and the blade must be sterilized, or changed between customers. It is assumed that there cuts on the customer even if there are none visible. Nothing used on one customer may be used on another. A shaving brush, a mug, soap, or the strop (the strop may be used on a clean blade, but once the shaving starts, the barber may not re-strop). A disposable is ideal, but the blade must be changed and the handle cleaned as well.

In the old days when it was discovered that germs carried disease, barbers would keep about 20 or so razors and autoclave them after use. Individual customers would have their own mug and brush that the barber would keep at the shop ( mugs would be personalized and there is a pretty active collectors market for them. I think one of our members here is a collector). Stroping a razor with a used blade is considered poor practice.

A sterilized razor is just as effective at preventng the spread of disease as a disposable.

just stumbled upon this post mentioning autoclaving for sanitation of razors...

I have been thinking about optimal sterilization for used razors (as most of you have I guess)... the things I would like to add or ask are:
- sterilization is by definition removal or destruction of ALL living agents (bacteria, fungi, viruses etc), one type of sterilization is autoclaving (cca 1,1 atm, 121oC for 15 mins), on the other hand dipping razor in boiling hot water (100oC) is NOT sterilisation
- on the other hand not all microbes are pathogens, in fact fairly few are (statistically speaking), to our luck majority of pathogens are not very resistnat to hursh conditions (temperature, ethanol etc), B. antracis (spores) as someone stated is extremely resistant, but I really don't see why or how would this microorganism come even near a razor (it is soil microorganism) except if someone put it there intentionally or shave an infected horse so i really wouldn't worry about this one

A question that I have: is autoclaving a razor (steel hardness-wise) acceptable or would these temperatures (121 deg C for 15 mins) weaken the blade??? In my opinion autoclaving would be optimal technique if the blade is not affected by it, plus it would be done very seldom anyways and it can be easily done at home.. another technique in my opinion could be sterilizing with radiation, but this method is not so common and certainly no one has the equipment at home :d

PS. someone mentioned using UV for sterilizing method: do have in mind that UV does NOT penetrate anything on the razor and works only on places where the UV light shines on,.. meaning, pittings, hidden parts of the blade, etchings/engravings, small cracks would probably not be adequately reached, another con might be that UV light might have some effect on the scales (but so would autoclaving ), UV light is afaik usually used for surface sterilization (plain, smooth) and eg air or liquid (in thin films) sterilization

Not 100% sure, but i don't think any pathogen or virus can survive more than 24 hours without any human contact. It has never worried me, but if it worries you, a simple wipe down with pure alcohol should kill anything on the razor. As long as you don't share the razor you should be good.

Hello,

I guess this comes down to what you are worried about. There is pretty incontrovertible evidence that the sharing of straight razors in quick succession in areas where there is high rate of blood borne viruses is a not so great thing. Here is a link to a paper about transmission in barber shops in Italy Role of beauty treatment in the spread of parent... [J Med Virol. 2004] - PubMed - NCBI And there are similar things cropping up in other places too Barber shaving and blood-borne disease transmission in developing countries | Khaliq | South African Medical Journal
For the first article you will only be able to read the summary, for the second there is a full paper available if you click the pdf link. Note that these are not places many of you would be getting a straight razor shave from a barber, and (probably) have higher rates of disease within the local community.

Now, if you are worried about flea market finds, then that is a different story. The American Centre for Disease control states the time periods that the various blood bourne viruses can survive outside the body for. CDC DVH - Hepatitis C FAQs for the Public

Disclaimer - this is information available on the internet that I am making people aware of. I am not qualified to advise!!!

@Grazor: I am a microbiologist and am 100% sure that some pathogens can live outside their hosts for a looooooong time, some of course less and some die off pretty quickly, but I wouldn't rely on that, you have to bare in mind that razors (especially old ones, even more if eg covered with rust etc) are fukk of micro niches where a microbe can withstand the effects of antimicrobials etc for much longer periods.

The things that worry me more are viruses aka hiv, hbv etc... hiv dies of fairly quickly, hbv is a bit sturdier and more infectious ...

@Damo: thanks for the articles, got them both, I am actually trying to find the best sterilization method (that I can be 100% sure of) for razors I get on flea markets

I would appreciate if someone (black smith, metallurgy master,.. someone else ) could answer my question: Does the autoclave temperature 121oC (cca 250f) can damage the blades' steel/tempering?

Originally Posted by miha

I am a microbiologist and am 100% sure that some pathogens can live outside their hosts for a looooooong time , the thing that worries me are viruses aka hiv, hbv etc... hiv dies of fairly quickly, hbv is a bit sturdier ...

I would appreciate if someone (black smith, metallurgy master,.. someone else ) could answer my question: Does the autoclave temperature 121oC (cca 250f) can damage the blades' steel/tempering?

If you are a microbiologist, maybe you should let us know how long is looooooong? and WTF is hbv?
121c doesn't even melt led, so it ain't gonna damage a blade.

Originally Posted by Grazor

how long is looooooong? and WTF is hbv?

Hello Grazor, the CDC link will have some information for you - CDC DVH - Hepatitis B FAQs for the Public hbv = hepatitis b.
This well respected American organisation says 7 days for the hepatitis b virus.
Hope that helps

thanks for the answers

hbv (hepatitis b virus)

how long: long as 100s of years (if we are talking bacterial spores), but in real life situations... if a razor is used than it was in contact with blood, there is a chance microorganisms survived and razor will get in contact with your blood as well, I don't really care if eg CDC states that it is (statistically) less common that a pathogen will transmit with razors (and they are probably thinking of disposable razors, and they are stating HCV, shich is one of many), I still wouldn't want to be that 1% that got infected, period .

If treating a razor with 121oC for 15-20 mins (in the presence of steam) does not leave any damage on the hardness of the blade than I would certainly use autoclaving since it is fairly simple and available if needed.



PS. Disclaimer (Damo's reminded me to put one here myself) - These are my personal opinions and should be understood as such.

edit: I am a bit confused since on one side autoclaving temperatures shouldn't do any damage to the hardness, but on the other hand people keep cooling the blade in water when buffing ?? Can anyone clarify?

Thanks, i have heard of resistant Hepatitis, but didn't know it could survive that long outside the body. It is good to be aware of such things.

@miha, can you confirm that pure alcohol kills all known viruses and pathogens?

@Grazor: no