Thread: Oiling your razor

baby oil and mineral oil are the same thing only baby oil smells good and cost more.

As with anything made of iron or steel it is always good practice to keep it oiled, as they will rust. Iron is an ore obtained from mining and it only becomes steel with carbon being added to its molecular structure. And stainless steel is iron, carbon, and chromium. Although stainless is rather handy carbon steel can be tempered to a much stronger preference hence the trade off of oiling. Which is definitely worth it!

I use a mineral oil with a small quantity of bees wax added to eliminated pooling. I have recently heard of people using lanolin as well. I only oil as I store or if it is in my slow rotation. It is very dry here and I don't store near the shower at all.

Oil is used to prevent oxidation, so as long as you dry the razor carefully and don't keep it in humid environment you're good. Whether you want to use oil or not is up to you. If it's just for few days virtually all them won't go rancid which you'll have to take into account if you're using it for long term. Other than that you want the one with as low coefficient of surface tension with the steel as possible. In practice it doesn't matter all that much.