Thread: wife: used razors bring infection

My wife is grossed out that I buy old razors and fix them up for use. She says that razors are 'personal' items that should not be used by more than one person.

I explained that these are not cartridge razors that get gunked up with stuff like the cartridge razors and that she has nothing to worry about. The next argument was that I was going to get an infectious disease from using them. I tried to explain that a) Hepatitis B only lives outside the body for about a week...there's no way that a 100 year-old razor is going to carry the disease. Even then, I've been vaccinated for HepB. b) HIV/AIDS wasn't even around 100 years ago, so there's no worrying about that, besides, the HIV virus dies within a couple minutes of being outside the host. c) I've explained that once the blade is sanded, polished, and then honed, that the metal underneath has never touched another person.

She's still leery.

Anybody else have this problem?

I don't lol. She's stubborn, huh?

Also, there is such a thing as Barber-cide. You can also just soak them in rubbing alcohol or hydrogen-perioxide (or both) and they'll be sterile enough to perform surgery with. I wouldn't recommend the performing surgery, but shaving with them is a good idea :-)!

Tell her to stop borrowing them then.

I'd say that marriage is much more dangerous considering you run a high risk of getting a tumor that will afflict you for 18+ years.

I bet she's not trying to stop you from being married.

Does she throw away all forks, spoons and knives whenever you have had people over for a meal?
They put these things in their mouths... Yuck...


Bart.

Tell her the internet said she is wrong....


Usually by the time i finish restoring/honing a blade, i've removed enough steel that i'm not worried about it. I have clippercide if i'm feeling paranoid.

Originally Posted by Bart

Does she throw away all forks, spoons and knives whenever you have had people over for a meal?
They put these things in their mouths... Yuck...


Bart.

What he said. Btw, my wife doesn't mind at all. She is just glad I shave. And she's a supervisor in a microbiology lab. She knows what is safe and what isn't. If a razor is sterilized and cleaned properly, it is ok.

That said, most of my razors are restored by me. So after hours and hours of sanding, polishing and creating a fresh bevel... anything that was there is dead.

Originally Posted by slt5103

Also, there is such a thing as Barber-cide. You can also just soak them in rubbing alcohol or hydrogen-perioxide (or both) and they'll be sterile enough to perform surgery with. I wouldn't recommend the performing surgery, but shaving with them is a good idea :-)!

Not sterile enough for surgery. I was a certified central service tech for quite a few years. We would either use an ethylene oxide gas or autoclave to sterilize surgical instruments. These are two of the ways you can guarantee killing all pathological microorganisms. Spores are the hardest to kill. All surgical instruments are completely, I do mean completely, cleaned before any sterilization can be done. Some of them do get quite messy.

Has anyone taken the scales off then had the blade autoclaved to sterilize it?

Originally Posted by Boker

Not sterile enough for surgery. I was a certified central service tech for quite a few years. We would either use an ethylene oxide gas or autoclave to sterilize surgical instruments. These are two of the ways you can guarantee killing all pathological microorganisms. Spores are the hardest to kill. All surgical instruments are completely, I do mean completely, cleaned before any sterilization can be done. Some of them do get quite messy.

Has anyone taken the scales off then had the blade autoclaved to sterilize it?

Never did.

For the sake of the argument: if you cut yourself completely open, and then forcefully shove the scales inside the wound, then you might indeed get infected, assuming that any dangerous pathogens survived years or decades in an environment that is as bad as it get for microbiological agents.

Spores don't die, but they was off. Now, of course, suppose your scales were tainted with anthrax spores, and you cut yourself, and forcefully insert the scales under your skin. Then it could get tricky.