Thread: Why sterilize? Public service message.

Originally Posted by shavindave

Sorry, pixelfixed, but this is not BS. You don't need sterile hones. OSHA is not coming to get you. Just sterilize the razor before use by the honer, and before use by the user. Bleach along the cutting edge should be fine. If you don't think it is necessary, that is your decision. Others may feel differently.

Your call,Using Bleach on the cutting edge of razor is a good thing?? I think Not.JMO

This comes up every few months. I think of all the ways any of us is likely to get a dread disease, a SR is THE LEAST LIKELY WAY. If you're concerned and want to sterilize your razors, please do. I personally am much more concerned about who handles my food and how, who sneezes on me, etc.

Since unless I choose to become a hermit I have almost no control over any of those things, I choose not to worry, any more than I worry about being beheaded or shot on the streets of Washington, DC (where I work frequently) because I have military stickers on my vehicle, or wear a Coast Guard polo shirt to honor my son when I go out to dinner there (where I can't legally carry a firearm).

Hep C from a SR that has been in the air for more than a week in your possession (or been on your hones, or washed in water and soap well) is almost an impossibility.

As a physician I have to agree with the OP - the risk is there - how significant is it? That just can't be calculated - way too many variables. I would make an educated guess and say there are no documented cases of Hep C acquisition from a straight razor - even at barber shops where one would imagine the risk is orders of magnitude more significant.

I would like to add a few comments - plain soap is not a disinfectant, honing/stropping does not "kill" virus particles, bleach is a strong oxidizer and will ruin steel, there is no way to totally "disinfect" a razor other than an autoclave and that would ruin your razor's scales and heavily oxidize it, you don't want Hep C even if there is effective therapy, lastly, don't drive to work tomorrow - you risk of being killed on the way there is far greater than acquiring Hep C from a used straight razor.

-john

Here is the best PSA about "Sterilizing a Razor"

Look up
Look right
see the cool little box that says "Search"

Type "Sterilizing a Razor" into that box and read the exact same PSA 100's of times, with the exact same Expert statements/opinions over and over and over

Sorta like

Tape
Best Finisher
Restore
Hone




***and he ducks out again***

If you're worried try Spray Nine. This stuff kill everything and makes Lysol look like a girl scout. Bleach is a bad option, you can dilute it but the corrision could really harm the blades edge.

I spray nine and they dip in hydrogen peroxide rinse and then hone. Over kill sure, unnecessary most likely but getting the C or anything else would suck. "How did you get hep c?" " Oh you know, I was the first documented case of it being transferred by straight razor." "Wow thats like winning and a tax man audit!"

YMMV.

****Quietly walking towards the door....creeek.....slowly closing dooor.......

Like someone just said , some folks who are expert honers here have been doing this for a long time and are quite aware of the hazards. They are not amateurs and know from lots and lots of experience what does and does not work. Don't just assume that they came off the turnip truck yesterday and decided "hey, I think I'll be a honemeister " . That's why people come here to learn what they don't know about wet shaving. Welcome to the halls of knowledge.

P.S. Wasn't trying to be condescending here just saying that the base of this website is founded on solid knowledge and experience is all.

Then there is boiling water which will not harm the blade temper. 60 seconds in boiling water and all bad stuff is gone.

Originally Posted by mrsell63

Then there is boiling water which will not harm the blade temper. 60 seconds in boiling water and all bad stuff is gone.

Go on down to your nearest river and take some water and boil it for 60sec, then take a drink and let me know how it's going after you get out of the hospital.

You need around 20 min of boiling to really get rid of everything.

I tattooed people for 25 years. I got my first tattoo about 50 years ago when tattooers used the same machine, needles, ink jars, on one customer after another. Shaved the area with a straight razor, and washed it with a sea sponge in a bucket with a bit of Lysol in the water in case there might be any germs. Not recommended since the 1980s or so, but that was routine for most of the 20th century.


In order to transmit a blood borne pathogen the blade would have to be relatively freshly used, by an infected individual, other than yourself. I've shaved with hundreds of old razors and yet to sterilize the first one and I'm still alive to tell the tale. YMMV.