Thread: Carbon Steel and Corrosion

I just bought a Dovo Prima Klang. The blade is carbon steel. I've had it about a week now and I've already noticed what i believe to be corrosion on the spine? I dry the blade after every use, but my bathroom is pretty humid. Is it normal to see a bit of corrosion at this point? Should I be applying oil to the blade after every use?
Thanks,
Clayton

Originally Posted by ctcraig1

I just bought a Dovo Prima Klang. The blade is carbon steel. I've had it about a week now and I've already noticed what i believe to be corrosion on the spine? I dry the blade after every use, but my bathroom is pretty humid. Is it normal to see a bit of corrosion at this point? Should I be applying oil to the blade after every use?
Thanks,
Clayton

High carbon steel is always prone to staining and corrosion to one degree or another. It's the trade-off you get for a steel that's uncompromised by alloys that are intended to imbue it with properties that have nothing to do with taking and holding a fine edge with as close to zero radius as possible.

Corrosion can be treated with some acid products designed to neutralize it, but will often respond well simply to polishing and waxing with something like renaissance wax.

My daily shaver I simply wipe with bath tissue. It's super absorbent and super, super-finely abrasive, so it will literally polish the blade over time. You can wipe chrome or a mirror with bath tissue and never leave anything resembling a scratch. Mostly, though, the super-absorption of bath tissue, especially wiping hot water from the razor, removes all moisture more effectively than anything else, in my opinion.

Clayton, you probably don't need to apply oil every time, but you do need to a) make sure the blade is completely dry (I usually rinse my blades under very hot water to heat the blade up, then wipe it off; the residual heat will take care of anything left), and b) don't store your razor in the bathroom. If you know your bathroom is humid, remove it from that environment when you're not using it. You can put something like Renaissance Wax on it to mitigate the problem, but it still doesn't need to be stored in a humid environment. I live in Louisiana, so EVERYTHING is humid, but I haven't had any problems with rust on carbon steel razors following that protocol.

Well in my opinion oh... Robert Williams and Joe Chandler have offered some thoughts. Never mind.

IME the type of water you're stuck with can have an effect too. On a HC blade with a high polish I get water spots and I've learned to live with it. I'm in a humid environment too and after rinsing and drying my razor I hit it 20 round trips on my leather hanging strop and then wipe it with a silicone gun clothe impregnated with a rust preventative. I store mine in a drawer out of the humidity too. Maybe overkill but better safe than sorry.

Get it out of that bathroom for sure.

Not much left to be said.