Originally Posted by
Steve56
Salt - sodium chloride - is very bad for both carbon and stainless steels because chlorine/chlorides bond strongly with iron. IOW, the chlorine removes the iron from your steel. Chlorine, especially hydrochloric acid, can eat holes in stainless steel, rust every ferric thing in sight, and is just generally nasty to steel.
I do platinum photographic printing, and the platinum/palladium salts are initially bound to ferric oxide (basically rust). Once you've developed your print, the remaining ferric oxide must be removed, and a 1-2% hydrochloric acid does that almost immediately and must then be neutralized in a sequence of alkaline baths so the paper will last.
As a general rule, you must avoid all acids at all costs when dealing with razors, whose edges are so thin that they cannot stand any insult, shaving is bad enough.
There was a thread on another forum where a noob cleans his razors in soda pop (phosphoric acid). He left a nice vintage razor in and it turned black (iron phosphate) and ruined the razor.
I also polish knives with Japanese natural waterstones. I have seen tap water discolor fresh steel, and sword polishers in Japan frequently add a bit of bicarbonate of soda to the water to ensure that it does not discolor the steel.
NO ACIDS, NO CHLORINE! EVER! Keep your water alkaline.
Cheers, Steve