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.

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 onimaru55

Simply wipe the oil off with a tissue.

Yups, this, never overcomplicate a simple matter

To take oil off a blade, I use Dawn dishwasher detergent on a wet sponge. To protect the blade, I use sewing machine oil. It's very light and protects as good as anything. I also place the blade in a silicone sock you can pick up on line. I live in FL and have not had a blade rust using this procedure.

I often wipe the blade between my fingers, and repeatedly wipe my fingers off on my palm. Then I quickly wash my hands. Or not (it's not that much oil).

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.