Thread: Olive oil and baking soda?

Mixing bicarbonate of soda with oil, doesn't that degrade the oil into glycerine and fatty acids?

Baking soda prevents rust by neutralizing acidic water- the near instant oxidation you will sometimes experience when polishing.

If you want something that smells nice a few drops of clove oil; (heck I bet you could use any essential oil you like), added to mineral oil works well. pure clove oil though will accelerate rusting.

Also, if you have a friendly pharmacist they can get you some very thin mineral oil which some prefer- I don't know where else to find it. Or you could just order some sword oil if you like the clove idea.

Originally Posted by kevint

Baking soda prevents rust by neutralizing acidic water- the near instant oxidation you will sometimes experience when polishing.

If you want something that smells nice a few drops of clove oil; (heck I bet you could use any essential oil you like), added to mineral oil works well. pure clove oil though will accelerate rusting.

Also, if you have a friendly pharmacist they can get you some very thin mineral oil which some prefer- I don't know where else to find it. Or you could just order some sword oil if you like the clove idea.

Choji oil is 99% mineral and 1% clove oil. Do what the Japanese cutlers/swordsmen have been doing for centuries and go for the Choji!

Since I prefer putting olive oil, instead of mineral oil, on my face, I put olive oil on my razors. I use 0.5% olive oil in isopropanol. It has caused no ill effect to my razors or strops. I don't know what to blame for my face.

Originally Posted by kevint

Baking soda prevents rust by neutralizing acidic water- the near instant oxidation you will sometimes experience when polishing.

If you want something that smells nice a few drops of clove oil; (heck I bet you could use any essential oil you like), added to mineral oil works well. pure clove oil though will accelerate rusting.

Also, if you have a friendly pharmacist they can get you some very thin mineral oil which some prefer- I don't know where else to find it. Or you could just order some sword oil if you like the clove idea.

Thanks, that solves my question.

I tried using olive oil tonight, but it really seemed ti bead right up on the blade, not "stick". I'll go out and find some minearal oil...

thanks guys

I think we are getting close to being borderline retentive here. If the razor is dry when you park it in situations of normal humidity, it won't rust. No more than any other piece of steel in your home. Oiling it between shaves should not be necessary. Once done with the shave, rinse the blade in the warmest water your fingers can tolerate. While rinsing the blade, take your thumb and forefinger and while the blade is under the faucet, wipe away any lather and stubble which may remain on the blade. Now turn the tap onto the hottest water it will deliver and have that scalding bath run over the blade - make sure you get none of that bath on the scales. Now wipe all the formerly scalding water off the blade with a dry towel. You should be able to feel the heat of the blade through the towel. Wipe the shank and tang or whatever you call the parts between the blade and where it isn't a razor any more. Close the blade toward the scales but don't seat it to contact the scales. This is done just in case there may be any dampness on the scales which may touch the blade and which may cause corrosion to begin.

This is my procedure on about 30 razors in my current rotation all of which are stored on shelves in my bathroom. You can read this as humidity heaven, which it is. None of these razors have rusted, corroded, or acquired patina. If I take a razor out of rotation, I oil it with either camellia oil, Ballistol, Sheath, Break Free, or Tuf-Glide for longer term storage - just to be safe. The bit of this and bit of that comes from my greater worry and inability to figure out what works the best on my firearms, most of which I use to fire black powder which has a much greater reputation for starting the dreaded rusting than does soap.

Good shaving and worry free storage,

+1 to what Bruce said.

I don't oil the blades that I use regularly (once a month or more) and have yet to see any sort of staining or rusting etc.

Camellia oil is nice for storage. I keep meaning to pick up some Choji oil, maybe this is a good kickstart for actually doing so.

Thanks Bruce for the reality dope-slap

Actually that is the proceedure I had been following for a while. But I now have a few more razors in my rotation (strange how that happens....) and I am a weekly rotator, so my non use razors sit for a fair time between uses, and I guess that is what started my neurosis in motion.

There had been an article posted awhile back of an old magazine that showed the razor edge after x days coated in vaseline, and x days in open air, and the open air edge was quite degraded.

Here it is.

So, the razor blade body may appear corrosion free, and that's fine, but my concern is more for the cutting edge.

That article is enough to make any self respecting straight user border line retentive!

Maybe I should have just stuck with my beloved stainless Renaissance

Any further input?

Originally Posted by Seraphim

There had been an article posted awhile back of an old magazine that showed the razor edge after x days coated in vaseline, and x days in open air, and the open air edge was quite degraded.

Here it is.

That's brilliant!

I use mineral oil on my fallow razors, but after reading this, I'll be thinking of ways to protect my current rotation too.

X

Sera...,

I may have to reappraise my OCD as I have been basing my opinion of corrosion non-issues on the appearance of the razors to the relatively (tri-focals) naked eye. All my razors via that inspection are untroubled by oxidization. But I do not have 2000 diameters of inspection power at my dispsosal and am not sure exactly what 2000 diameters is optically speaking, but it sure would seeem to make a hanging hair look really big to the average layman. (Would the baby's butt still look smooth at 2000 diameters or would we have to chuck that yardsick too? ) ((Or would anyone be willing to approach a 2000 diameter infant butt in an attempt to assess smoothness??)) (((Sans diaper there may be other cautions there which would prevent all but the fools from treading)))

Assuming that the stropping done in 1931 after the shave was as good at removing all vestiges of moisture as my really hot water rinse and wipe- dry method apparently seems to do, and that the test showed significant corrosion after a period of resting the blade, perhaps I need to rethink my short term storage preparation.

Could this be the reason the linen is used first? To wipe away any oil residue before stropping on the leather? What did the old time barbers do for overnight or over week storage? This could get worse than Herc vs. the Hydra at least there only 2 heads grew where 1 was lopped off. I easily get 5 questions for one not really answered.

so little time, so little brain