Thread: Issues with natural materials

Originally Posted by Splashone

Blame it on on the stove if it makes you feel better but the answer is in the relative humidity outside and hence inside your house. Go to the national weather service and compare today's RH to July's. Warmer air simply has a greater capacity to hold things in solution, including water.

As a reality check, What does a water "restoration" company ask you to do after a water leak? Turn on the A/C. Why do A/C units have a discharge for condensate? Does your heater? No, because with heat, water stays in solution in the air.

So your heater is doing all it can to keep your air moist but it can not overcome the seasonal effect of drier air during the winter.

Yes, that is part of the equation in what effects the RH in a home for sure. The type of fuel burned for heating, the type of heating unit and where it gets it's combustion air from also contribute.

When I think of a coal fired stove I think of a cooking stove not a furnace in the conventional sense. The coal fired stove is further drying out the already dry outside winter air that maybe drawn into the home for combustion.

Bob

Originally Posted by BobH

The coal fired stove is further drying out the already dry outside winter air that maybe drawn into the home for combustion.

Bob

How does it do that? How is it removing the water from the air? Where is it discharging it outside the house? If there is no discharge, the existing humidity did not change.

Originally Posted by mainaman

With natural materials is hard to predict what will happen down the road.
I stopped using horn for scales a while ago because of the poor stability of the material.

When you consider the hundreds of thousands of razors that were originally made with horn and seem unaffected, it makes you wonder if the older methods of processing and ageing were more effective than modern ones. I'd guess there was far more call for horn products in days gone by - I'm thinking of spectacle frames - which would have necessitated stability.

Their are multiple sources of the info on adding humidity back into a "Fire" heated home, most any home you find up here that is wood heated has the "Cast Iron Tea Pot on the Stove"


One of dozens, finding the info on Coal was a bit harder but it all really depends on the venting

But simply put

“Most wood stoves aren’t vented from the outside,” he said. “The air used for burning the wood comes from the inside of the house, so there’s a constant flow of [moist] air up the chimney.”

Originally Posted by Splashone

How does it do that? How is it removing the water from the air? Where is it discharging it outside the house? If there is no discharge, the existing humidity did not change.

Maybe Glen could elaborate a little more on his post #24. A stove radiates dry heat which dries the home air even more. The heated dry home air is drawn back into the stove along with what ever outside dry winter air infiltrates the home through the doors, windows and walls to keep the burning cycle going. Hot exhaust/flue gases including water vapor discharge through the stove pipe/chimney.

Bob

Too slow again, Glen beat me to it.

Much like Jamie wrote about the wood stabilizing before use by a carpenter.

The Horn needs to be stabilized also before use, it will eliminate most of the problems, never all, but most


You also have to take into account what we are talking about here, these are "Wetshaving" products, we subject them to pretty harsh environments, and expect them to hold up under conditions that would destroy most products...

I am sorry that the OP had the problems he did. Some times, all we can do is to repair. Drat!

I have a boar brush that has literally cracked the plastic case and retaining cup due to placing it bristle up on the counter when through using it.

My experience is that "new" horn is somewhat more susceptible to humidity changes than old horn.
I have rescaled quite a few razors with modern horn and the horn does move occasionally. And it will shrink or expand with changes in humidity. Do not lay them flat on a surface after use!! I found the old horn scales that were left in the coffins had no problems but those bought without boxes often did. A recent post stated that the original horn was hot pressed to shape and that does make sense.

The cure, if there is one...is to store the razors vertically so all surfaces are in contact with the air. I hang my keepers by the tails from small rare earth magnets to a steel shelf support of the shelf above.
Also I can hang my rotation from magnets inset into a shelf above the sink.


Again,
There was a recent post about dry heat to equalize the humidity of scales.
http://straightrazorpalace.com/works...ml#post1429710

~Richard

I burn anthracite, its a local resource here and very cheap, I've only spent about $60 to heat my house the last 2 months. It burns very hot at around 900 degrees F. Also coal will heat the room air to two or 3% relative humidity and scorch sinuses and lungs dry if you haven't built up a tolerance. So the humidity or lack of dries out nearly anything. I try to keep up with my strops, brushes and razors with neatsfoot or mineral oil but I guess apparently I may not be keeping enough moisture in the ivory and horn.

The dry air does not come from the stove itself. Roughly for every 20'F increase in air temp the air can hold twice as much water. If it is 0'F outside and 100% relative humidity and the air is heated to 20'F the humidity will drop to 50%. 40'F then to 25%. 60'F then to 12.5%. 80'F down to 6.25%. That is starting at 100%....

It goes the opposite direction when cooling the air. Cool air from 100'F and 100% relative humidity to 80'F and the air will still be 100% relative humid but hold only 50% of the water. The extra water that the air cannot hold is the water that forms on your evaporator and comes out the drain.

The water that comes out of a chimney of a wood stove is from evaporating the water that is contained in the wood. Dry wood is much more efficient because of this. Much energy is used in the latent heat of evaporation.

From my understanding with anthracite, being 98% carbon and having only a 5 -15% moisture content combined with the high burning temp and the very fine ash that is produced is very drying.

When I go to a local coal fired power plant for maintenance and am working near the furnace I have the keep a sailine solution with me to inhale in the nose or it will bleed in less than an hour from the obsurdly dry air in the building.