Thread: Im an idiot

Ive been enjoying this sport for a good few years now and thought I knew it all about maintenance and would never make silly mistakes. Wrong!

I ordered myself a wonderful custom Alis Blade razor from the very talented Cedric Christ. Made from Suminagashi Takefu Shirogami 2 with Aboyna burl & Carbon fiber Liner scales it a work of art.
After a week or so of daily use I dried her up and put her away. A few different razors later I pulled her out again to find rust bugger, this has never happened before, im always so particular about drying and oiling before putting away. I can only assume we had extremely hot, humid weather at the time and this played apart.
I decided to clean the rust off with MAAS, wrong again! I had removed some of the lovely etching.
I could have cried.

At a loss of what to do I contacted Cedric and asked if he would fix it for me, no worries he said. I asked Cedric how much it would cost to fix and he said just cover the shipping cost! What a gentleman. I am gobsmacked by his generosity, whether it took an hour to fix or ten it was very kind.


Back to her formal glory.

So as a lesson learned. Always pay particular attention to basics, complacency can lead to disaster.

Me too, me too

I've done many a stupid mistake on my razors, I can beat myself up again thinking about it.


Live and learn, at least we lived!

Such a lovely razor. I have one somewhat similar to yours and I can feel your pain from finding rust. I wonder whether there is anything Cedric can do to revive the etching? It's still a magnificent razor.

Originally Posted by evnpar

Such a lovely razor. I have one somewhat similar to yours and I can feel your pain from finding rust. I wonder whether there is anything Cedric can do to revive the etching? It's still a magnificent razor.

The etching is restored to its former glory. The bottom photo was taken last night

Nice to have her back in top shape. To combat corrosion I keep silica gel packs and anti corrosion emitters in my razor cabinet. Yes well dried and an oiled pivot helps a lot too.

Maybe there was a little unnoticed water left inside the scales? That was quite a bit of rust to form in a couple of weeks just from air humidity on clean steel.

That said, we motorcyclists have a saying about the weather in England, 'Raining, just finished raining, or just about to rain'.

Cheers, Steve

I'll never understand my personal experiences with razors and rusting. I live in a really old house and the bathroom I claimed for my den was an add on that doesn't even have an exhaust fan. When I started the sport, I was over the top cautious making sure I dried my razor after I shaved. To the point that I was more likely to slice myself drying my blade than I was shaving with it.

Then one day, I left a blade in the bathroom window sill after I dried it, and promptly forgot about it. I shaved/showered for well over a week until I began to wonder where my blade went. When I found it, it was hot via the sun beaming down on it, but it didn't have a spot of rust on it. I thought I dodged a bullet. But I've left my blades there ever since. The longest for maybe two weeks. Naked to the world with only the sun to bath it... not a lick of rust.

I never worry about rust anymore. It's the damnedest thing!!


Love your blade though Mark! Wow, what a beauty!!

I save those little packets of desiccant that you get when you buy almost anything these days. I throw them into the storage box that I keep my razors in. I don't know how much good they do and I don't suspect it will save a wet razor. But humidity hasn't been a problem. Since they come in everything, you might try it.

Originally Posted by Steve56

Maybe there was a little unnoticed water left inside the scales? That was quite a bit of rust to form in a couple of weeks just from air humidity on clean steel.

That said, we motorcyclists have a saying about the weather in England, 'Raining, just finished raining, or just about to rain'.

Cheers, Steve

Yep, probably was some water in the scales, as said im a stickler for drying and leaving my razors out opened for a few hours though.

Happy to hear it all worked out in the end for you. Hats off to Cedric for his stand up customer service too.

Bob