Sterilization and Self honing vs Honemeister

Greetings shavers,

I recently had a new blade picked up from an antique collector, a silversteel Solingen blade which is quite a beauty. Now I have 2 concerns, it has been lying around in that shop for a few years. I'm not really keen on just trying it out, since I have no idea about how clean it is and cannot figure out the sharpness without shaving with it.

Should I sterilize it properly first? It cannot carry any major diseases since it has been lying around for so long, but I suppose a swipe would be useful.

It's not chipped or anything, looks very good in fact. But I suppose it is not shave ready (will test that after overcoming the sterilization bit), would this be a good opportunity to pick up a hone and go for it? I am planning to do so at some point in the future anyway.. Or should I have someone do it for me? If so what are the average prices for a good hone?

Thanks in advance!

This is what I would do.

Send your nice razor for a pro honing or find a generous honer to help you out. Then get a starter hone. Norton 4/8 is what most start with. After that get a practice razor from eBay or something. You don't want to ruin your nice razor learning.

I use a healthy soak in drugstore alcohol to sanitize. I just got into honing to keep cost down. I used 3M lapping film this weekend to bring two e-bay specials to shave ready. I set the bevel on 9 micron and progressed through 5/3/1/0.3. Stropped on linen and leather to finish it off. They were my first hones, and total start up cost of $25. With sheets I received it's probably a 1 year supply (ymmv). The best part was that it took no honemeister skills and total time for both was about an hour. Additionally, I'll clean the razor up with Maas metal polish. It will clean the scales up nicely and remove any tarnish on the blade.

For blades that are new or I have used on someone else, I pour hydrogen peroxide on the blade. Its a very effective sanitizer, better than alcohol. If it foams blood or staph is present. After that, I wash carefully with soap and rinse with water followed by alcohol. With rubbing alcohol, 70 percent is more effective than 90 percent, and it has to air evaporate to be effective. Wiping it off defeats the purpose. Do not use bleach, it may be a great sanitizer, but it can cause discoloration and sometimes pitting if left on the blade.

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Originally Posted by U2Bono269

This is what I would do.

Send your nice razor for a pro honing or find a generous honer to help you out. Then get a starter hone. Norton 4/8 is what most start with. After that get a practice razor from eBay or something. You don't want to ruin your nice razor learning.

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IMHO if you've never honed before (not to get into a whole big honing discussion) getting a 4k/8k is a bad idea. It's not a starter hone. It's a hone for beginners to honing, not a hone for beginners to straight shaving. there's a difference. Start with a finisher (C12K, Nani 12k etc) than can be used for touch ups and when that's been mastered get the 4/8k workhorse and put the finisher away until you've mastered getting a good edge from the 8k. But i digress.. I agree with sending it out for a pro honing.

To be honest right, i don't think a beginner should go anywhere near a hone until they've got the hang of stropping and maintaining the edge that way for at least a few (preferably more) months. All hones lead to is hone neurosis where you fool yourself into thinking you razor really really needs taken to the stone when it doesn't, just for the sake of honing it.

As for sterilisation, boiling water should do the job fine, i personally add a little bleach if there's no gold on the blade.

Is a barbicide safe for straights? That's what I've always used with DEs, but there is no edge to worry about.

Mikhail is right about evaporation, the 70% alcohol desiccates the organism and dissolves the proteins. 95% just evaporates too fast to do the job. There's a just few things that alcohol doesn't kill as well as barbicide.

Send it out for a honing and get a chinese 12k hone - they're cheap and usually slow finishers which should give you a chance to practice your stroke enough before moving to full honing on a Norton 4/8k or other progression (only when it needs it)

C12k is £19 all in from the invisible edge. If your in the US, I'm sure you'll find it just as cheap

Other than a quick clean with metal polish and then a honing, there's no need to worry about disease living on a razor. There's just no way any disease can live on a 100 year old razor...Hep B only lives for a week outside the body and Hep C for only seven (source: CDC). HIV wasn't around 100 years ago so that's out too.

Thanks for the heads up guys, I'll go ahead for the sterilizing in a bit, then just throw out a good ol' shave and see how it glides around my mug.

Here in Holland there actually is one shop that sells all equipment and does professional honing, also got my first blade there. I guess if it turns out to be dull I'll have it honed there and ask if he can talk me through it for a bit.

Will keep you updated!

If interested, this is the blade:Attachment 90686Attachment 90687

Aaah, I just tried sterilizing it with a little bleach added to the boiling water (don't ask me why, was still somewhat nervous about diseases I guess) and now it got all stainy! It looked like it corroded very fast but the rust came off instantly when I whiped it off. However a few stains remained, any idea how I can restore any of it?

You have to refinish the surface of the steel and work your way back to a polished surface. Boiling bleach etches the steal.

This is what it looks like after a long bleaching. http://img546.imageshack.us/img546/1323/sv1.jpg

Is there a way to refinish without loosing the Solingen mark with the curvature all over the blade?

That's a pity about the stains, I hope you can remedy it. But about the honing. Some would say send it away to get honed, but I would beg to differ, mainly because I like to be self sufficient. I agree with concentrating on stropping first, but only for a couple of months. I also agree partly about the finishing hone, I started with a Norton 4/8 AND a Shapton 16k and while other hones might be nice, I fail to see why I would need anything else. In fact, the JaNorton thread taught me I actually really only need the Norton. I got a great edge using just that. However (again) the Shapton is quick and easy. No need to soak, 10 laps every month or two weeks I find is all I need. It seems to me that given a good edge to start with one could keep one's razor in good shape ad infinitum with just a Shapton 16k. You will need another professionally honed razor, as a 'reference' razor. When you use/strop/hone one, as the possible edge degradation will be very slow and gradual, unless you have another razor to compare it too you may end up with a poor edge that you THINK is OK.

Get a Norton 4/8 and maybe a Shapton 16k (if you can afford both), honing it not all that hard, if I can do it any one can...

Carl

I still don't know why guys freak out about sterilizing and continue to ruin good blades with peroxide or bleach.

Barbicide.

B A R B I C I D E.

It has to be on SRP a thousand times, and a quick search could have saved this very nice razor...

Sorry for your loss.

I made the same mistake on my Wolfertz but with a tiny bit of peroxide instead of bleach. Luckily the blade was already so dingy and old that it didn't have too much of an effect. I kind of like that look, personally. Not that I'd do it again, but I don't feel terribly upset about it.

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Originally Posted by BKratchmer

I still don't know why guys freak out about sterilizing and continue to ruin good blades with peroxide or bleach.

Barbicide.

B A R B I C I D E.

It has to be on SRP a thousand times, and a quick search could have saved this very nice razor...

Sorry for your loss.

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AMEN.

Quit boiling, bleaching, soaking, etc and use the resources here to learn what to do. If you are so obsessed with germs that you ruin your blade and or scales by trying to kill something that in all likelyhood isn't there, then you have the result of what you caused.

Will N.

I just wanted to say this post tickled me a bit. It reminded me of myself in a way. We get on SRP, we ask our question, then we go ahead and do whatever it is we were going to do to begin with. Then we come back to SRP when it didn't go the way we hoped it would. lol. I briefly read the posts, and saw a couple people told you to stay away from bleach. Ah well, such is life I guess. Just know you're not alone. In seven months on here, I can tell you, 98 percent of the advice you get from here is going to be 100 percent correct. The other 2 percent is from people like me who think we know something. I know it's a bit late, but I've never done more than soap, water, and an alchohol swipe and I've not caught anything. It'd be safe to bet I've forgotten all about sterilization a couple times, and I'm still just as healthy as the day I put the Mach3 in the cabinet. In fact, my skin is in better condition than it ever was. Remember that part about the 2 percent though, when considering my post contents.

Justin

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Originally Posted by regularjoe

I just wanted to say this post tickled me a bit. It reminded me of myself in a way. We get on SRP, we ask our question, then we go ahead and do whatever it is we were going to do to begin with. Then we come back to SRP when it didn't go the way we hoped it would. lol. I briefly read the posts, and saw a couple people told you to stay away from bleach. Ah well, such is life I guess. Just know you're not alone. In seven months on here, I can tell you, 98 percent of the advice you get from here is going to be 100 percent correct. The other 2 percent is from people like me who think we know something. I know it's a bit late, but I've never done more than soap, water, and an alchohol swipe and I've not caught anything. It'd be safe to bet I've forgotten all about sterilization a couple times, and I'm still just as healthy as the day I put the Mach3 in the cabinet. In fact, my skin is in better condition than it ever was. Remember that part about the 2 percent though, when considering my post contents.

Justin

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i think this advice applies to cleaning too. I used peroxide (with water and soap) not to sterilize, but to get off the gunk that had built up over time. So in general, be careful about what substances you expose your razors too. If it's not water, soap or metal polish, don't do it for any reason.

I never sterilized a used razor and am still alive and kicking.

I use Barbicide to sterilize the razors. This product is used throughout the world today, to sterilize hygiene items with great success.
I worry more about the germs floating around in the air today, than what might be lying dormant on a 100 year old razor.
I am a big fan of bleach & peroxide for killing germs, but not on steal.

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Originally Posted by regularjoe

I just wanted to say this post tickled me a bit. It reminded me of myself in a way. We get on SRP, we ask our question, then we go ahead and do whatever it is we were going to do to begin with. Then we come back to SRP when it didn't go the way we hoped it would. lol. I briefly read the posts, and saw a couple people told you to stay away from bleach. Ah well, such is life I guess. Just know you're not alone. In seven months on here, I can tell you, 98 percent of the advice you get from here is going to be 100 percent correct. The other 2 percent is from people like me who think we know something. I know it's a bit late, but I've never done more than soap, water, and an alchohol swipe and I've not caught anything. It'd be safe to bet I've forgotten all about sterilization a couple times, and I'm still just as healthy as the day I put the Mach3 in the cabinet. In fact, my skin is in better condition than it ever was. Remember that part about the 2 percent though, when considering my post contents.

Justin

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Justin here and many more are absolutely right. I got a bit over enthousiastic and decided to just go with some method and totally picked the wrong one.. Though lesson learned this way..

I'll get some polish later and see how much of the damage I can restore. Thanks for the heads up anyways!

Wow! We really helped you out. Do you have any medical problems you want advice on?(:-)

Unless you're a penis reduction expert I guess I'm good to go..

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Originally Posted by KempieG

Justin here and many more are absolutely right. I got a bit over enthousiastic and decided to just go with some method and totally picked the wrong one.. Though lesson learned this way..

I'll get some polish later and see how much of the damage I can restore. Thanks for the heads up anyways!

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If very light staining I have one suggestion that may help. I have used it to remove stains on high carbon steel used for food. Nothing as damaging as bleach, so your results may differ.

Mother's Aluminum and Mag Polish (just what I used, but probably not the only thing that works)
https://store.mothers.com/images/pro...05101_2012.jpg

Most important to use a clean, high quality polishing cloth or microfiber. A rough/dirty cloth and too much pressure and you'll be adding a ton of scratches to your stains.

Do you think it will leave the markings on the blade intact? They are not stamped..

Also I'm not in the US but I'll try to find a decent alternative tomorrow.

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Originally Posted by KempieG

Unless you're a penis reduction expert I guess I'm good to go..

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I'm sure Lorena Bobbit can help you out :roflmao

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Originally Posted by KempieG

Do you think it will leave the markings on the blade intact? They are not stamped..

Also I'm not in the US but I'll try to find a decent alternative tomorrow.

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A very mildly abrasive polish should not take off the markings. It is very very slowly removing metal, so if you go by hand you'll be able to see if there is anything bad happening to the markings long before any major damage. Is the damage isolated in a way that you could tape off parts and work directly on the stain?

I'd be really more worried about catching your hand on the edge and causing major injury. Be careful, don't rush.

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Originally Posted by wrxguyusa

A very mildly abrasive polish should not take off the markings. It is very very slowly removing metal, so if you go by hand you'll be able to see if there is anything bad happening to the markings long before any major damage. Is the damage isolated in a way that you could tape off parts and work directly on the stain?

I'd be really more worried about catching your hand on the edge and causing major injury. Be careful, don't rush.

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There were alot of small stains all over the blade.. I used a mildly abrasive polish and it looks awesome again!

Threw out a shave just now, it's not shave ready so I'll have to have it honed anyway..

Good to hear you have it back to original condition.

Next time, barbicide.