Thread: Sterilizing Razors

Originally Posted by AFDavis11

I read somewhere, just recently, that straight shaving was the most sterile form of shaving there was. But I'm not sure why exactly.

Probably true if you think about it, for one it must be difficult to thoroughly clean a multi blade face scraper, and also by the very name "disposable" people will not take the care & consideration over them the way we look after our razors.

Dunk

With disposables and DE's the blade never really dries out, so the earlier comments about life-expectancy of various bugs doesn't apply. Of course, these have disposable blades so they don't get handed around between people like straights do, so it probably doesn't matter. Still, I wonder if a lot of the problem that people have with acne and other conditions isn't due to bugs living in their razor, propagating from face to razor to face to razor over multiple blade changes.

How about wiping the blade down with rubbing alcohol and lighting it, would that adequately sterilize the blade or would it overheat the fin destroying its temper?

Alcohol burns cool but I am not sure HOW cool... I am fairly sure one of the following 2 things would happen:
1) No effect
2) Lost temper
Now where are my matches, got a fire to start

First of all steel is not going to absorb any of bacteria or viruses that it may pick up. So scrubbing with any antibacterial soap and hot water will almost def. get rid of anything that would be on a used razor.
Rub some alcohol on it and call it good. Lighting it should not affect the temper since you are not heating the steel to anywhere near its crystal changing temperature, but I wouldn't do it just cause its unnesscary.
After that, if its just used by you and you don't drop it in anything nasty and keep it in a sterile place then you should only need to clean it when soap builds up on the joint.

I think it is also really really rare that you will get anything from a used razor unless someone who has something like Hep C takes it, cuts them self, leaves the blood on the razor and you cut yourself with it and make sure the blood contacts your cut.

Even the hot water that you rinse your razor off with and the wiping action to get the soap/cream off will keep it pretty clean.

Plus, who's cutting themselves anyway

Originally Posted by izlat

Urine is sterile... which does not mean I'd like to drop my razor in it but basically you could probably use it to disinfect / rinse your razor. Yeah, this is sick but I've seen something like this in a turkish movie once... the movie was gross

Cheers
Ivo

Extremely fresh urine is sterile. Once Urine has left the body, it contaminates extremely quickly. Urine is said to be the most sterile fluid in your body simply because of the ammonia content.

If you have a blade detached from the scales, you can sterilize it in the oven. I am just wondering how hot can it be without damaging the temper. Any takers?

Lets not go crazy. The steel can't absorb the bacteria. Use some alcohol and you will be fine. I haven't done any more than that and I have 20 some razors all bought on ebay. Just my 2 cents.

I know but if I'm already making a pizza, I might as well throw in the razor as well lol.

Originally Posted by FiReSTaRT

I know but if I'm already making a pizza, I might as well throw in the razor as well lol.

1.

this deserves to be a sig or something!

Not lost on me are the intricate and intriguing relations between a typically feminine activity (cooking) and the machism of the blade Dangerous liaisons...

Ilija, I cook 90% of the time at home (to help out, not because I like it so much) so I am not bashing you or something. Thanks for making me laugh!

Cheers
Ivo

Ivo, I've spent a good part of my life living alone. Mom and I came to Canada when I was 14. She works in the mining industry and gets sent abroad a lot.She has done work in Iceland, Italy, Libya, Morocco, Suriname, Mexico, Guyana, India, Chile and Mauritania, to mention a FEW places. Therefore, I've been left alone for extended periods of time since I was fairly young. On top of that, I lived on campus for 3 years and couldn't afford to order in/eat out a lot. I had to develop decent culinary skills and they come in useful when I bring dates over for dinner. Dining in increases scoring percentage twofold (at least) as opposed to eating out.