Thread: Alcohol Dip

If you're really worried about eBay blades, soaking in a 10% solution of bleach and water is great at killing badness, but is also not the sort of thing you want to be doing habitually as it is quite harsh on steel and will certainly muck your edge.

I wipe down my blades with rubbing alcohol after shaving. It is also all I've ever used on any blade, even my eBay ones. The bottom line is that most viruses and bacteria are easily killed by exposure to oxygen.

The problem I see with submersion is that since there is water in the alcohol solution, you could be promoting rust and you also would be contaminating the solution a little more each time you dip.

Originally Posted by JMS

I think our members here are smarter than that, but apparently not all the members think I am smarter than that!

And I thought it was just me.

Originally Posted by JMS

Being a Doctor and all I guess you would know.

It sounds like a waste of perfectly good alcohol to me! I would prefer to drink it over getting my blades soused as they are pretty mean drunks!!

Last time I soaked a razor in scotch I cut my lip. <Yuk! Yuk! Yuk!>

Originally Posted by JMS

It's OK! Its not your profession that bothers me, it's just that I have had a few beers in my time that I am sure tasted like embalming fluid, now, top that off with an embalmer who makes his own beer...!

Don't worry. It was suppose to be a joke!

You actually drank a Billy Beer too huh? <LOL>

Originally Posted by Doc

I have discussed this with 3 doctors and this is what I was told. Germs don't live on surfaces very long, but some have a longer life span than others. Most germs are killed with just soap and water or sanitizers of some kind. Aids is a weak virus and dies quickly, like within a day. So the only real threat is hepatitis which can live on surfaces where there has been blood contamination for a longer period of time, like a week or 10 days. They all told me that the best protection was to give things time to die. On old razors that no one has used in years and you are sure that no one has cut themselves with, no problems. 0n razors that have been restored and test shaved with, or sent out for sharpening there is more risk. Ask yourself, would you feel comfortable using a tattoo gun that had been used on someone you did not know and then wiped down with alcohol? I am not trying to alarm anyone as this is not a topic that should cause alarm. It is a topic where good information and common sense will make it a no brainer. The routine that I came up with, with the help of my doctors is that I soak my blades down with chlorhexidine( this is a solution used by physicians to sterilize their cold pack surgical instruments) for 20 min., then wipe them down with Clippersol to make sure they don't rust, and then I give them a rest for a couple of weeks before I add them to my rotation. A lot of you guys will probably consider this overkill & maybe it is but I sleep well at night & have enough razors that I can wait 2 weeks for a little piece of mind. Take this for what it's worth it's just the best information I could come up with. My suggestion to everyone is that you get information from your doctor on your next visit, so you can make an informed decision.

This is one of the reasons when I hone a razor for a customer sometimes it has to come back to be redone. I never test shave with anyone's new razor. I believe a new razor should be a new razor.

Maybe a bit off topic, but I take it that doing an alcohol wipe down would promote drying of the blade?

I just talk to my razors and bore the germs to death (ok, back on topic now)...

-Chief

well Everclear is about 99% pure grain alcohol. if you leave that pure of an alcohol sitting out in a fair to moist enviroment it both evaporates as well as absorbs water. Ethanol can absorb 50 times it weight in water. all alcohols are hygroscopic to some degree, ethanol, glycerol, & methanol, are extreme examples of hygroscopic alcohols.

Hygroscopy is the ability of a substance to attract water molecules from the surrounding environment through either absorption or adsorption.

Originally Posted by kaptain_zero

I use 99% rubbing alcohol to wipe down new to me blades after polishing and honing. Even 99% alcohol contains 1% water... I would not leave a blade in it for a long time... might be cause for some corrosion.

As for the time it takes to disinfect.... when you get a hypodermic shot, the doc/nurse swabs your skin with alcohol for less than 5 seconds. If that's good enough for the pros, it's good enough for me..... I do carefully rub the blade with a swab to give it some mechanical cleaning but considering I've already ground away the surface of the the bevels, there's presumably little left to worry about except whatever might be on my hone/strop.

I agree we should never be careless about this sort of thing, but really... when was the last time you swabbed your hand and your kitchen/pocket knife before cutting yourself in the kitchen/shop? Personally, I get nicked or cut on almost a daily basis at work and there is no possibility of having what I have to work with, cleaned. I'm a letter carrier and I have to deal with 300 old "Approved by the Postmaster General in 1872" type sheet metal mailboxes with lots of sharp edges on the inside (there are times when I'm actually thankful for things *NOT* being made like they used to! ) and I'm always getting cut..... Fortunatly for me, I'm still here to complain about it!

Just my two cents worth.....


Regards

Christian

What, you think they dont disinfect the needle too?
The swab is to clean your arm...the needle has already been cleaned by the time you see it.

Use this Hydrogen Peroxide H2O2 Secrets THEY Don't Want You to Know then soap and water and let dry.

Me, I used the new blade out of the box and then washed it with soap and water. I hope I don't die now.

This is my process:

- clean the blades (soap and water)
- immerse 20 minutes in Hydrogen peroxide. Usually the blade only. I experimented with some old black rubber scales and found that several days in Hydrogen peroxide will eventually cause them to discolour but a 20 minute bath seems ok.
- rinse with water, dry
- wipe down thoroughly with isopropyl alcohol.

Originally Posted by JGS

Thanks;
I was thinking of a razor that I might get from ebay....do you sterilize?

If you value your life I would. Just think, even if your buying a new blade, it's probably been sitting in a warehouse, with roaches, or mice, or who knows what else running around it. Then you have the people who pack it, and ship it.

By the time it gets to you in your hands, who knows how many people have touched it.

Now I'm not particularly concerned with these types of things. I'm a "what I don't know wont kill me" kinda guy, but I would at least wipe it down with some alcohol and warm water.