Thread: Paranoid about rust/corrosion - will mineral oil damage the strop if I oil daily?

I live between the Atlantic and the Gulf, South Florida. I coat the blade with mineral oil and wrap in a cheap handkerchief, the leave on the counter top. Wipe the oil off with the towel, then shave, then strop, then re-oil. 1 year with no rust on my razors.

FWIW --

I concur with Hirlau. I just wipe off the oil with a tissue before stropping. So far (1.5 years) my strops are fine, and so are the razors.

Charles

Sometimes I forget to wipe the mineral oil, but I don't put that much on it. My strop is not ruined yet...

In the Great North Wet, oil is a must. I've had issues w/ mineral oil beading up and leaving some areas unprotected. The honorable Gerritt (also in the PNW, who's screen name I can never remember the spelling of) suggested melting in some bee's wax. It works very well. Now if I'm not mistaken, that's all there is to making vaseline petroleum jelly. So, it should be the case that a little vaseline could be thinned out w/ mineral oil to get the same affect. I tried it - and it works fine. Oil stays in place, easy to wipe off. If you have no trouble w/ mineral oil staying put - there's no reasone to fuss further.

wow i have yet to oil or blow dry or any of those precaustion on my razor and i havent had a spot of rust ever. it helps i live in Pa not next to a ocean

I used to live on the windward side of a small Pacific island, right on the beach.
Anything metallic was subject to severe corrosion because of the high
humidity/salt water environment, including my razor.

For a long time, I applied a touch of gun oil to the razor after each shave.
Then I tried camellia oil. Both worked, but applying oil always seemed a
bit messy and inconvenient.

Finally...thanks to information found on this site...I now use two things:

1) I dip the razor in a mixture of mineral oil and isopropyl alcohol, as suggested
by Utopian. I can't find his original post, but the ratio he used was 1 part
mineral oil to 200 parts alcohol. Put "a little bit" of mineral oil in an 8oz jar,
then fill it up with the alcohol; let it sit for a day or two, shake well before
each use, and simply dip the razor in the mix. Shake off the excess and
store the razor.

2) Another "find" on this site is the "AlembiCase" Alembic Products
The AlembiCase is much like the Pelican case, but it is designed especially for
storing and transporting straight razors. They have a dedicated "slot" for holding
a packet of desiccant. I have used them for nearly a year now, and they are
an excellent piece of equipment for guarding against corrosion.

On a highley polished blade,mineral oil beads because of a lack of surface tension,your still well protected even in areas that seem to have little or no coverage.
Actually a highley polished pce of carbon steel has a large degree of rust resistance in it's own rgt.
Thats why alot of us that use no oil on our daily blades have zero problems with rust.
When I do use mineral oil I have a pce of cotton gauze in a sealable plastic tub,pour in about an inch of oil.will last a lifetime.

I apply mineral oil after each shave, wiping it off before each shave with a kleenex. I even fold one to apply oil to the tang where it passes between the scales and also to wipe off from that same place. I also clean out the oil from the scales where the blade touches them near the spine. Nearly 2 years in, 8 razors, 1 bottle of mineral oil, no rust, no strop damage (at least not from the mineral oil--strop damage from stropping--well, that's another thing . . .).