Thread: How could this be happening?

For starters, I dry my razor very well and do not close it. I live in Vegas...zero humidity. The razor is a Dovo and less than 6 months old. I've been having this problem for a while and so I decided to try and figure it out.

Last week I soaked the razor in CLR (Calcium Lime Rust remover). To my surprise, the razor turned dark gray all over. I then rubbed it with a silver polish and got it nice and shiny, except for really close to the bevel because I didn't want to dull it. It still had a few tiny light gray spots on it near the bevel but it looked pretty nice. I shaved with it today. When it started, the razor looked great. By the time I finished 20 minutes later, it looked like this!



It has some black spots, some gray spots and some red spots. Kinda like a brook trout. After I finish shaving, I always spray the razor with Scrubbing Bubbles and clean off all the soap scum. These stains (even though they formed in 20 minutes) will not be removed with anything less than abrasive polish. What could be causing this?

Man, I don't know... you've been cleaning the blade with a cleaner after every shave? Does that cleaner have bleach in it? I really don't know, but I'd venture a guess that this could be your problem. Again, just a guess. I've had great luck with just wiping the blade dry and making sure to get all of the moisture out of the scales. I don't think I'd use any kind of cleaner on the blade unless I was at my restoration bench, then it would probably just be mass or a shot of oil.

Probably all the weird chemicals your subjecting the nice razor to.

Ouch!!! You say this happened after the shave? Could be excessive Chlorine in your water (slightly acidic). But defiantly stay away from the Scrubbing Bubbles; it contains an acid that will tarnish the blade. You may need to clean with metal polish and possible a touch-up on the hone.

I don’t think you have to worry about soap scum on the blade after the shave, so long as you rinse the blade under hot running water and dry with TP, do not use the towel especially after you shower because the towel will be saturated with water (after all you used it to dry yourself) and will not dry the blade effectively… and don’t get into the habit of shaking the water off a razor after the rinse, you may ding it on the tap or some other unforgiving surface.

Wrap the TP around the spine enough to cover the blade and grasp the blade around the spine… thumb and middle finger, one on each side just behind the edge and carefully wipe the blade dry from heel to toe, do this a second time with another dry sheet of TP. I would not advise leaving the razor in the bathroom, leave it open on the bedroom dresser for an hour before storing in the box.

Oh ouch! Don't go putting CLR on a razor.

I've used that stuff before, and it is horribly caustic. It's safe on your porcelain sink, your synthetic tub, or your stainless/chome plated plumbing fixtures, but that it not good for the kind of high carbon steel in a razor. That's why it turned your razor dark gray. Do that too often and you will almost certainly destroy the blade.

I'd say stop using CLR, and stop using silver polish.

I'd get some maas, which tons of people around here use on their razors, polish it ONE TIME only, and then if you're super worried about rust, which you shouldn't be in vegas, go ahead and oil it lightly.


Also, close the razor. They open and close for a reason. It's not just for your safety, but the edge's safety as well. By closing your razor, you protect the edge from being bumped and scraped and chipped.

I agree about the CLR... that thing will ruin your blade.

However after the shave, sometimes moisture gets on the insides of the scales or in the pivot area, leaving it open on the dresser for say 1/2 hour or so will allow it to thoroughly "air dry" before replacing it in the box.

Of course if you have children or other curious humans around, you may want to "air dry" the razor out of easy reach.

This is very unfortunate. Although ground and even polished steel looks perfectly slick there are in fact pores in the metal. If corrosion starts way down in the pores of the metal you can shine it up and more than likely the rust will show up again. It is almost like a cancer in the steel. You see this quite often on the old Wade & Butcher razors where it looks like a black stain. The only way I have found to stop it is to take a liquid rust converter and paint it on with a Q-Tip. Let it sit on the metal for just a minute then clean it up and have it repolished. the rust converter will get down into the pores and convert the rust to a polymer that will stop the process. When completely polished up it shouldn't return.

Beware though. I told someone about this a few years ago and he decided to soak the razor blade end in the rust converter over night and in the morning he had a black toothpick looking thing with handles.

John

What John says is interesting. I have looked at a number of new blades under high magnification, and some of them definitely have noticeable pores in the metal - some even having what look like micro-bubbles. If the corrosion has statred way down in the pore/pit/bubble it may continue to spread, undercutting the steel. It's more noticeable when restoring old razors - you see just a tiny speck on the surface and start sanding, then a blue-black stain sometimes appears, much larger than the original speck. If a razor does have a lot of pores, it can act like a microenvironment and getting the moisture out before any damage is done can be problematical - wiping it may leave traces deep in the pore. Then if you oil the blade you are effectively sealing the misture in the pit.

Regards,
Neil

Good to see someone else from Vegas. hard water, yes. low humidity, yes! I'm dealing with lather problems currently, but drying and cleaning the razor is pretty well answered by the replies above.

Originally Posted by bassguy

Good to see someone else from Vegas. hard water, yes. low humidity, yes! I'm dealing with lather problems currently, but drying and cleaning the razor is pretty well answered by the replies above.

I've been using Tabac soap and it lathers up just beautifully with bore or badger. Plus, it lasts forever!