Thread: removing oil from razor

Hello,
I bought my first SR about a year ago and tried it maybe ten times. I got some nicks and got scared and haven't used it since. I went back to my DE razor. But, I'm willing to give SR shaving another try.

When I retired my razor I put shave oil on it to preserve the blade.
I'm wondering how to remove the oil properly before I strop it.

I assume that once the oil is removed I can strop and shave.

Thanks in advance for your responses.

Simply wipe the oil off with a tissue. Slight traces won't hurt the strop.

If the oil has gummed up you may need a solvent. Take care to keep it off the scales

To remove oil, I wipe the blade off with a soft bar towel, taking care not to damage the edge. Then I spritz the blade with alcohol and wipe it off in the same way. Ready to shave or to strop, whatever the case may be.

WD40 is oil with a carrier to evaporate faster and will remove most sticky messes, Works great on tape residue. Spray on a paper towel and wipe, you can remove WD40 residue with rubbing alcohol or just leave what residue remains.

I use Ballistol to protect blades and honed edges that I ship in a Ziplock bag, applied to a Qtip and wipe on a thing coat. It wipes off with a tissue and is biodegradable and water soluble, for future use. Also, will rehydrate a leather strop and an excellent water-soluble honing oil for hard natural stones, washes right off. Or just use Ballistol.

I have soaked horn scaled razor in Ballistol to rehydrate horn, drop the whole razor in a zip lock bag and add an inch or so of ballistol, you can reuse the ballistol.

running under very hot water, followed by wiping with a tissue is my approach. I generally avoid alcohol on a blade since most contain fair percentages of water.

Hot water and a towel. Whatever is left with be taken away by the soap/lather. Unless its crusty. But most the time hot water and a rag is good enough.

If your blade was coated with a mineral oil, it should wipe off easily. If you used a vegetable based oil like olive oil or camellia oil, these oils have a fair amount of mono-saturated oleic acid which will oxidize over time and may not wipe off easily. Using a lightweight mineral oil as a solvent might help remove residual oil from the blade.

Originally Posted by RayClem

If your blade was coated with a mineral oil, it should wipe off easily. If you used a vegetable based oil like olive oil or camellia oil, these oils have a fair amount of mono-saturated oleic acid which will oxidize over time and may not wipe off easily. Using a lightweight mineral oil as a solvent might help remove residual oil from the blade.

You are very right. Once it hits this state I learned that a DE blade is good to clean the goo off.

All the above will work, the moral of this story use silicone spray instead of oil-based products, no build-up or residue + silicone spray is petroleum neutral so you can also spray the entire razor including scales.

I can’t tell you the last time I oiled one of my straights, I do oil the ones I hone for others going out the door with electric clipper oil and it rinses right off with hot water