Thread: Storing razors -- to oil or not to oil? That is the question.

I read different approaches to storing SRs. Some say just keep them dry and you don't need to oil the blade/edge. Others say a drop of oil won't hurt, its cheap insurance. Some keep their SRs in air tight jars, others store them in the bathroom, some use tote boxes or cigar boxes...all with or without gel packs. Some say it depends on local climate and humidity levels.

I understand when we say storage that means different things to different people. Is "storage" one day, one week one month? Are there different approaches for different time periods of storage? What is your preferred method of short and long term storage?

I clean them and oil them every single time. I keep a log on each razor with the date they get used, so I may use it after a day or a month, regardless, my process is the same.

I have razors that have been stored for over 2 years & others waiting in rotation for daily use. I live in South Florida with high humidity.
All are coated with mineral oil only, not a spot on any.

It does not take but about 20 seconds to coat the razor, so why not?

I will only oil my razors if I am going for a month or so. Other than that they get cleaned and dried after the shave and put back into one of several cutlery boxes I have converted to hold them. These cutlery boxes are not kept in the Bathroom and our climate is not a problem re: humidity with the house being heated in winter and AC'd in summer. It is a YMMV thing.

If I lived where humidity was a big problem I'd probably store them in some sort of dry box.

Bob

Use.....clean with water.....run across the barber hone a few strokes......strop on pasted strop.......linen or nylon strop.......then plain leather strop......then Ballistol to the pivot pin and lightly coat the blade too. Voila, like Hiralu stated, why not!!!! Never a issue as well.

Proper rinsing then drying with tissue, especially between the scales, few laps on the linen strop to clean and dry, then into a treated razor sock and into the razor chest. Never use oil....

I dont typically oil my blades.
But if I do, its a very light coat of baby oil. And that's if I'm putting it up for some time.(more than a month)

Like Bob H, my house stays pretty much the same temp. year round. And when I'm finished shaving, I store my razor(s) in the open position, in a flower frog, for at least 24hrs. then its stroped, and inspected before I close it, and store it till the next shave.

Along with having holes in it, it's sitting on a wicker shelf, no more than three feet from a furnace register so there's lots of moving air around them

I take about five minutes to fill a shot glass full of Q-Tips for cleaning inside the scales. I use a pair of pliers to smash the heads of the Q-Tips so they fit easily inside the scales.

The razor in my current rotation which I use every other day stays untreated. The other rotation razors get treated with Sterol. Long term storage razors get coated with a silicon preparation made for long term knife and gun storage.

I only oil the ones that don't see much use. The humidity is low here so I don't worry too much as long as they are properly dried and stored. However I have had blades develope rust over long storage so most of what I don't use often gets coated with oil. I use Whal clipper oil.