Thread: Barbicide

I want to prevent pitting and rust on my straight razor, I've heard about ensuring the blade is completely dry, however my house gets quite humid and therefore drying the blade doesn't completely stop the problem. I have also heard of coating the blade in oil however I wondered if placing the razor in a solution of Barbicide would also negate the problems in the difficult to get to parts of the razor?

Barbicide is just a disinfectant. Period. Tuf-Glide or any type of gun oil will work. Many people just use mineral oil. If you have a gun safe with a dehumidifying rod would be perfect. A box with a dehumidifying agent would work. Whatever works for you. What I do is when using my razor, when I rinse lather off my razor it is blade down, then wipe with towel, each time. I do not allow water to run down the blade to the pivot. Each and every time! It works for me!

Mike

Originally Posted by dudestyle01

I want to prevent pitting and rust on my straight razor, I've heard about ensuring the blade is completely dry, however my house gets quite humid and therefore drying the blade doesn't completely stop the problem. I have also heard of coating the blade in oil however I wondered if placing the razor in a solution of Barbicide would also negate the problems in the difficult to get to parts of the razor?

I have experimented with Barbicide and carbon steel (a broken Opinel knife) because of all the contradicting info I'd read. The short version - the blade began to rust in less than 12 hours. Barbicide is not intended to be used to store metal.

When it gets humid where I live, I use a light coat of conservators wax.

Originally Posted by dudestyle01

I want to prevent pitting and rust on my straight razor, I've heard about ensuring the blade is completely dry, however my house gets quite humid and therefore drying the blade doesn't completely stop the problem. I have also heard of coating the blade in oil however I wondered if placing the razor in a solution of Barbicide would also negate the problems in the difficult to get to parts of the razor?

I just got this antique MAX MERGENBAUM razor, it's in real nice condition and I don't want to damage it.

Wow - what a great looking blade!!

I throw on one drop, one single drop of oil on my blades when I am about to store them. Of course I rub the oil about to cover the entire blade, but honest, I don't use much. I leave said blades in my den which doesn't have an exhaust fan - it works fine. It's all I have ever needed.

Blades that are in my rotation see me do nothing more than wipe them dry. They'll be in my den in this state for weeks on end and I have yet to see one rust.

Originally Posted by earcutter

Wow - what a great looking blade!!

I throw on one drop, one single drop of oil on my blades when I am about to store them. Of course I rub the oil about to cover the entire blade, but honest, I don't use much. I leave said blades in my den which doesn't have an exhaust fan - it works fine. It's all I have ever needed.

Blades that are in my rotation see me do nothing more than wipe them dry. They'll be in my den in this state for weeks on end and I have yet to see one rust.

Thanks for that ear cutter, I've heard olive oil is good..... I will only use extra virgin of course I've been using a Gissen and Forstorff for a few years and it has got a bit pitted I will take real good care of this baby.

dry it well when you use it - hair dryer even,
then store it in a silicon sleeve in a box etc not in your bathroom & with a water absorbing product also to be 100%
beautiful blade by the way

Edit: I have read many times that using olive oils etc isn't to good for your blades as it can go rancid in storage
Mineral oils like singer sewing machine oil or tuf glide etc are recommended

I personally would use reniseuance wax as a coating to protect it rather than oil

I keep my razors in a foam lined box with a silica gel packet from a shoe box ( the tiny inch square ones) and they are fine. I recently used a razor that has been in there for a year without being touched and it was fine. I should add that I don't rinse my razors, i just wipe them off, though that does mean that they get the odd tarnish spot on them.

I used oil for a while and still had some issues with rust. I have switched to drying and storing in sack-ups. I bought the Large size sack-up for 8 inch fixed blades which can hold four razors with a little modification

Beautiful razor, feel free to send it to me and I'll keep it in a nice dry place.

It gets pretty humid in my workshop as well, I wipe down my nice wood working knives with gun oil and store them in plastic air tight containers with silicon desiccant packs.
No rust even in 90% humidity for days on end during the summer. The desiccant that I used comes from a hobby store, it is used to dry out flowers and changes colors when
it is full of water.
It's cheap and effective.