Thread: Can you wipe the straight razor after washing?

Lets start a poll,How many SRP members have died or became infected by a contaminated razor, the answere is, NONE.

Originally Posted by pixelfixed

Lets start a poll,How many SRP members have died or became infected by a contaminated razor, the answere is, NONE.

Oh that's not FAIR! The ones who have died can't answer!

I didn't mean to open a bee's nest. My point was more about taking good care of your blade. When I was a young man, I was instructed by an old Millwright who's philosophy was that you can tell the quality of a person by how they treat their tools. I have followed his advice and found it to be true, so why wouldn't I try to take the very best care of the tool I use on my face. I also personally can't understand why someone would go to all the trouble to repair,clean or purchases such a fine instrument as a strait razor and then not do your very best to keep as clean and shiny as you can. As for no one that has died from Bacteria/Mold maybe not from my Strait Blade but I currently have a friend fighting MRSA from a cut on his hand at work, and a nurse friend with HSV2 from touching her Eye. Far from my strait but why chance it, and in the end run what does it hurt to wash, rinse, and clean/polish my razor after every use, I am sure my sons and grandsons will appreciate that I took great care of my tools.

Very true about taking care of your tools, overly anal about them infecting you.

There a few diseases you have to watch out for when you start wet shaving.
RAD, HAD, SAD (both variety's) and for these there is no cure.
Unfortunately standard sanitation techniques won't stop their spread either.

I always rinse and wipe my razor thoroughly after a shave. Did the man in the podcast say why? I am interested in knowing.

He does not say why, he just lamented that he keeps on seeing people wipe their blades. His tone of disgust at this act seemed to suggest that this is an atrocity that should never be done on razors.

Gee, I wipe down my razor when I'm done with it, my wrenches get the same treatment, my knives ditto, guns yep, even airplane too...I must be doing something tragically wrong!

Originally Posted by scotishcavalir

I question the sanitation as it pertains to bacteria/mold that might grow in the left over suds. This might not be a problem in a dry environment but I think it is in a bathroom. To each their own, this is JMO.

Jeepers, my soap bowl must be a hotbed of disease. .
I use the same frameback almost, no actually everyday, I pop the frame off and use the edge of my fabric strop to clean the inside of it, the blade gets a wipe off on my towel, I then reassemble and strop it for the next day. During shaving the only water I use is a bit in my soap to make a lather, a damp cloth (wetted in the shower) to delather my blade and that's it, other than rinsing out.my brush and cloth at the end.

I read the initial question a bit differently than most. Perhaps he does not wipe the blade after rising as he still is using it; leaving some water on the blade as his continues the shave. But as far as wiping as part of the cleaning up process, makes me wonder just how his blades look without being wiped down.