Thread: Advice Request: Razors Rusting

Ok, so I'm having an issue with my straights rusting almost immediately after shaving... The thing is that I'm noticing rust/discoloration spots developing on the blades generally before I'm even finished shaving. The blades are always cleaned prior to putting them away using a dunk in Barbasol (just a quick dunk, not a soak), wiping down with a dry paper towel (including in-between the scales), and then a light coating of mineral oil. The razors are then stored in an airtight container with silicone dry packs which are regularly replaced. If it helps, I don't notice any further rusting after the razors are put away.

I used to shave with straights in college, and have only returned to traditional straight/wet shaving this past year. That being said, I don't recall my blades rusting this easily before... but I may be mistaken; college was a long time ago!

The blades are all new/high quality blades... I guess I'm just wondering if anyone else out there has this issue? Has any ideas? Is this relatively normal due to the high carbon content of the steel? Bad water?

What's the best way to get rid of and/or prevent the rust? I've tried light sanding/Flitz ... thinking of naval jelly... I've been able to get the blades rust free, but then they rust again right away. I'd prefer not to spend an hour de-rusting a blade every day, not to mention my fear of damaging them with constant polishing...

Any thoughts/suggestions/ideas would be most appreciated.

not that i been around here for years but i have never heard such a thing , maybe others can chime in that have ... maybe you have extreme moisture in your house ?
i shave 1-3 times a week and pretty much use the same razors and i can honestly say that after my shave i strop the edge and they sit to air dry and dont get oiled often and i have never had an issue ... now everything else that i rarely use stay oiled , everything i hone or sand gets oiled after sanding or honing but i have never had any rust issues ... one time i did have a spotting issue and that was after not wiping a blade down when done honing after a quick rinse cause i got distracted ... i hope that whatever it is that is causeing your razor to rust can be fixed ..
my only other thought was if you had older razors in celluloid scales that was contaminating your other blades , but if there new razors i highly doubt that is the case or if that will happen that fast ..

Yeah... I honestly have no idea... I thought it was pretty bizarre. In fact most of my relatively intense after care razor routine revolves around multiple steps taken in an attempt to rectify this...

Balistol metal protectant works for me. After shaving, towel dry razor and strop it. I apply a couple of drops of ballistol oil. You can buy it at a gun shop. I use a tissue to remove before shaving it is non toxic.

My guess is that you're oiling while the blade still has some moisture on it. Otherwise check to be sure your mineral oil is pure, not moved into a bottle that held something else that you washed out.

I love ballistol- I'd tried that before, but I might give it a shot again. I'd thought about the mineral oil essentially "trapping" moisture on the blade... The thing is that the blade is spotting before I even get a chance to put oil on it - I'll try and post some pics here tomorrow.

The container is new/original manufacturer mineral oil container opened by me....

Thanks everyone for the suggestions and ideas - really all of them are appreciated and helpful!

Rusting almost immediately after shaving I've also never heard of it, maybe it's your pre shave or something in your soap, I have never had a water spot or staining or rust on a single razor and I never put anything on my blades, just keep my hands perfectly dry the after use I dry them off with kitchen towel strop them and put them away with all my other razors in a sealed food container with a few packs of silica gel.

We don't live that far away and I don't have those issues. What does happen is hard water can stain a blade with spots that sometimes looks like rust but it's not. Actually rust stains come out easily hard water stains don't. They seem to really adhere to the steel.

I make sure the blade is totally dry and then use sterol but if I'm using the blade for a few days I don't put anything on it and have no rust issues.

I hone on J-Nats and sometimes the honing sessions last a while, a few razors that I have honed developed stains before the session was through. Looked like rust but I think they were more hard water stains than corrosion, could have been a little of both.
What I found that works for me is to get the blade cleaned up,Fitz or Maas, as shinny as I want them an then I use Rennesants Wax, it's a museum quality wax, protects the steel and no more stains or corrosion. I don't oil anymore just wax and then store in silicon impregnated sleves, when the razor comes up for honing again I repete the wax application and problem solved.

Again, thanks to everyone for the feedback!

I am also wondering if the local water is in fact the culprit. I live in the desert with an average daily humidity of less that 10%, I have left firearms out for years without rusting... The whole thing has been really strange. BUT we do have hard water ... Super hard stuff with all kinds of volcanic minerals and what not the traditional cleaning products like CLR have a hard time removing...

I think the Renaissance wax is a great idea. The spots are stuck on like glue - no "easy" removal at all... I think my next step is a freshly polished blade and a 100% distilled water shave. Not that I'd do that all the time, but at least I'd have found the culprit.

I'm pretty sure it's not the soap. Have used both Tabac and TOBS... Nothing exotic or obscure.

Anyway, I will post my results. Sincerest thanks for all the ideas and suggestions! Hopefully this is the solution and I can at least help someone else with the same or similar issues.