Rusting on Hart Steel Razor

I have bought a Hart Steel Razor from Classic Shaving. It is the best razor I have ever shaven with, I must say. However I have a slight problem with it. I have been using it for about a month. Then I went onto a trip for a week during which time I left the Hart Steer Razor at home. Yesterday when I back home, I found the razor has developed tiny patches of rust in the areas where the scale meets the blade in the mid line. I have removed it by rubbing it with a towel and the rusty reddish color has come off. However, the areas were left with a darker blemish of steel gray. Is it possible to restore the blade back to the original color?

My next question will be how to prevent it from rusting again. I know I should oil it and wrap it with anti-rust paper if I intend to put it away for some time. But a few days of not using it?... Do you guys oil your razor everyday? I have other razors which I left in the same bathroom untouched for several weeks and they are still OK. I know the kind of steel has a lot to do with this. But just a few days???....

You should be able to clean that junk off with some metal polish and always remember to oil your blades after each use.

As for storage, I wouldn't store razors in the bathroom since the humidity is higher than other parts of the house. Not only that, but if you have younger children with curious fingers you're asking for trouble. I always keep mine on top of the mantle in the living room.

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Originally Posted by hon

I have bought a Hart Steel Razor
...snip...
Yesterday when I back home, I found the razor has developed tiny patches of rust in the areas where the scale meets the blade in the mid line.
....snip...
But just a few days???....

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Yes in hours even. The cleaner the steel the quicker it
is likely to rust.

Do get in the habit of applying a light coat of mineral oil
with a drop extra at the pivot and handle/ jibs area.

I mentioned cleaner because many shave soaps are
made with an extra bit of fat/oil and that little bit seems
to help prevent rust. I do know that some days I tend to
clean and polish my latest new shiny new razor and yep
remove the thin protective layer.... MASS to the rescue.

A thin layer of mineral oil does not completely rinse off while
shaving or rinsing so it lasts a while. Long enough that
it is easy to forget to apply a little bit of oil on a regular basis.

Also when putting a razor up it is important to think about
how you do it. If you put the razor in a sealed coffin, wrap
it in airtight paper even wax and oil paper the water cannot
evaporate. In some ways casually putting a razor on the shelf in
an open air razor stand is "better" than sealing it up in
a case of caution (exceptions for small kids and visitors apply).

Mineral oil is not the only oil but it is good, inexpensive and easy to find....

You guys are awesome!!

I don't have mineral oil right now. Will cooking oil do the job?

Hello, hon:

I use camellia oil and it works wonders for me.

Regards,
Obie

Following the shave I always throughly rinse the blade and then wipe it with a Kleenex tissue and check inside the scales for any water droplets. During the shave I always try to avoid getting the scales wet but if there is any moisture in there I run the tissue through the scales. Twenty laps on horsehide and then I wipe the blade with a silicone gun cloth and store the razor in a dry environment. This method has been working well for me to avoid any rust.

Preventing rust is not hard.
First if you have a small bathroom that steams up the mirrors when you take a shower or bath. Do not store your razor in there.
Wipe your razor off after use with a dry towel then with tissue papar, leave the blade open to dry completely. As Jimmy said use a silicon cloth to wipe the blade before storing. Keep the pivot point clean with dental floss unwaxed with a little oil on it.

If your razor DOES NOT have gold wash on it you can polish the metal with flitz metal polish that leaves a protective wax like coating on the blade and scales.

I store my razors in a cigar box that has been sealed on the outside with polyurathan. That seals moisture out. I keep several packets of desicant in there. Once a month I set my cigar box out in the sun opened up for 30 minutes to make sure the inside stays completly dry. I leave my desicant packets in there to dry out also.

When I get a razor out I close the box and never leave it open so it stays dry inside. I have never had a razor rust storing them this way.
Even razors that I am working on and sanding down and storing without oil or anything.

Hope this helps some of you.

Silver2

Will cooking oil work? Personally I wouldn't use it. Use some sort of oil that is designed for steel. Some of us use simple WD-40 or 3-n-1 oil...it's something you have around the house most of the time. Be sure to wipe it off well considering it may irritate the skin.

Given where the rust appeared, I'm guessing that there was water and/or lather on the scales themself. After shaving, you have to clean both the razor and the scales (inside and out) to avoid this problem.

There was a mention above about oils in soap preventing rust - I have found exactly the opposite to be true. Some of the worst staining/devils spit that I have ever seen has been from lather on the blade. I have no idea why, as I have no chemistry background and I don't know what's in soaps. Definitely get all the soap/cream/lather off before putting your razor away.

Food oils, from what I've heard, are unstable and will oxidize. For this reason, mineral oil or similar is a better choice. The only exception seems to be camilla oil, but I don't know why.

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Originally Posted by holli4pirating

Given where the rust appeared, I'm guessing that there was water and/or lather on the scales themself. After shaving, you have to clean both the razor and the scales (inside and out) to avoid this problem.

There was a mention above about oils in soap preventing rust - I have found exactly the opposite to be true.
.....snip....

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Looking back I did mention that soap seems to keep a blade sound....
holli4pirating is CORRECT you still MUST clean off the soap and
lather.

My observation was that hot water rinsing and wiping clean a blade that you
uses each day works for some. Perhaps it is the resulting thin layer of insoluble
soap scum and a managed patina that works. This is not sufficient for storage
and also does not help the pivot, tail and jibs. So a light layer
of oil is clearly the right thing.

The cigar box with a drying agent inside trick of Silver2 is a good one.

I would avoid oils that contain chemicals in them like 3 in 1. You probably wouldn't want that stuff on your face or on your strop and you have to be really careful about getting it all off before shaving. Personally, I use Sterol and Sentry Solutions is good also. I like AG Russell no rust for long term storage it's silicon based.

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Originally Posted by thebigspendur

I would avoid oils that contain chemicals in them like 3 in 1. You probably wouldn't want that stuff on your face or on your strop and you have to be really careful about getting it all off before shaving. Personally, I use Sterol and Sentry Solutions is good also. I like AG Russell no rust for long term storage it's silicon based.

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+1 on the AG Russell no rust.
I wish it was easy to get from our shave vendor folk (hint).

By itself + shipping and handling it is just too expensive
to recommend.... but once in a while AG has some temptations
that making adding the no rust stuff a no brainier.

The finish of he Hart razors is significantly worse than regular factory razors, or even a lot restorations, which means that the blade is more prone to trapping condensation in the deeper groves left over from the grinder. I think the O1 steel is also worse than the typical steels in modern razors (even though these are very proprietary, but that's from my experience honing and using them) in its affinity to corrosion.
So you just have to use more care of keeping the blade dry. Whether you use oil or not depends on your microclimate, you'll have to find out for yourself if it's necessary.

Like I said:

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Originally Posted by shooter74743

Will cooking oil work? Personally I wouldn't use it. Use some sort of oil that is designed for steel. Some of us use simple WD-40 or 3-n-1 oil...it's something you have around the house most of the time. Be sure to wipe it off well considering it may irritate the skin.

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Carbon steel isn't all that hard to protect from rust as long as you make an effort to protect it with something made for steel.

Hi, I also own a Hart Steel straight razor, purchased from classic shaving, I have shaved with it only like 5 times and today I've noticed that the blade is starting to develop tiny spots of rusting in the spine. Of all the comments I read here I understood that with this particular razor I have to extra careful. Am I right???

Hart Steel's are my favorite razor and I have 4 in my rotation. I use the Remington wipe down cloth with rust inhibitors. I wipe the razor off before stropping with a rag and wipe down the razor with the cloth after use. So far so good. I store my razor is a canvas razor roll.

I own 5 Hart Steel Razors and have had a little rust in the past. The good thing about Hart razors you can take them apart and clean the gunk and mess from under the scales, the newer Razors are coming with a little oil bottle so you an oil with out taking them apart. I make sure that the razor is dry, I don't leave it in the Bath Room, oil it, and lastly I use packs of desiccant. Doing this seem to keep the rust away. I do this with all of my razors not just my Hart Steel.

Cooking oils will go rancid over time. They will gum up and smell foul. In the short term though, they will work just fine. Don't use them for storage.

WD-40, 3 in 1, and various other lubricants can contain irritants, and possibly carcinogens.


Mineral oil never goes rancid. Store bought preparations are mostly food safe, ie you can eat/drink it.

Mineral oil is cheap in the laxative section at the drug store.


Michael

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Originally Posted by mjsorkin

Cooking oils will go rancid over time. They will gum up and smell foul. In the short term though, they will work just fine. Don't use them for storage.

WD-40, 3 in 1, and various other lubricants can contain irritants, and possibly carcinogens.


Mineral oil never goes rancid. Store bought preparations are mostly food safe, ie you can eat/drink it.

Mineral oil is cheap in the laxative section at the drug store.


Michael

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Mineral Oil I shall get. I was going to ask, does WD-40 harm gold wash or etching in anyway?

I never leave my razors in the bathroom. They go from my bedroom to the bathroom for my shave, then back to the bedroom where they are stored in the top drawer of my dresser.

Before storage, I always strop them 15x on the fabric and 15-20x on my strop to remove any gunk that may have accumulated on the blade. Usually, this is all I ever do.

For longer term storage, however, I apply a light coat of oil on the blade of the razor.

The problem with the harts is that they have a rough finish,any high carbon blade unless polished to a high fine polish will have far more surface tension,thus far more potiontial to rust.
They are fantastic razors,they take a little more attention and care.

I store my razors, and my woodworking tools that contain metal, in a box. In that box, I put a block of camphor, available at drugstores. The camphor emits an invisible gas which covers the blade, and repels any moisture which might be present. This, in turn, prevents rust. As I said, you can buy blocks of camphor from your local drugstore. They come enclosed in a plastic wrapper. Take the new camphor block and slice an ‘X’ in the wrapper. This allows the camphor vapors to be released, and thus to protect any metal in the storage box. This has helped me prevent rust for years on my metal tools. Hope it helps you.

Kenny

Check out the silicone treated razor sleeves for sale at The Superior Shave. They work perfectly without the hassles of oil.

+1 on the dessicant. you can buy on the bay silica gel packets. put them inside a clear ziploc bag. along with the dessicant packs, put a moisture indicating strip. some of the sellers of dessicant packs even include the moisture strips. they indicate humidity in increments of 10%. so, visually through the clear bag, you can see what the percent moisture is inside, be it 10%, 20%, 30%, etc. change the dessicant packets when the moisture gets to a certain level. good for other things, too. just IMHO, but they do work slicker than, well, you get the point...

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Originally Posted by Silver2

Preventing rust is not hard.
First if you have a small bathroom that steams up the mirrors when you take a shower or bath. Do not store your razor in there.
Wipe your razor off after use with a dry towel then with tissue papar, leave the blade open to dry completely. As Jimmy said use a silicon cloth to wipe the blade before storing. Keep the pivot point clean with dental floss unwaxed with a little oil on it.

If your razor DOES NOT have gold wash on it you can polish the metal with flitz metal polish that leaves a protective wax like coating on the blade and scales.

I store my razors in a cigar box that has been sealed on the outside with polyurathan. That seals moisture out. I keep several packets of desicant in there. Once a month I set my cigar box out in the sun opened up for 30 minutes to make sure the inside stays completly dry. I leave my desicant packets in there to dry out also.

When I get a razor out I close the box and never leave it open so it stays dry inside. I have never had a razor rust storing them this way.
Even razors that I am working on and sanding down and storing without oil or anything.

Hope this helps some of you.

Silver2

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I really can't believe I am even reading tis post; that, in fact, it has gotten this far. The rust on the Hart was my first concern - not that I had any, but that I heard complaints about it. I must say, I've had my Hart now for, I don't know, maybe two, three or more months now, and I've NOT ever had any problem with rust. All I do is the same thing I do with any razor, make sure it's dry before it's stored! That's it! I love my Hart (pun intended) and I try to take good care of her. In fact, I wouldn't go so far as to say baby her either - I just take care of her like any of my other worthwhile possessions. And, after all, I have a nine year old I'm trying to teach him how to take care of valuable things he someday will own, like my great-grandfather's pocket watch, that was given to him for his college graduation by my second great-grandmother in 1916. So please forgive me if I'm not sympathetic, but, I don't think your problem here is one that's exactly rocket science.

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Originally Posted by animalwithin

Mineral Oil I shall get. I was going to ask, does WD-40 harm gold wash or etching in anyway?

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In part it depends on how the gold wash was applied.

WD-40 is a water displacing spray stuff. It works well to displace
any water in the pivot and on the surface of steel. Follow up with
a wipe of a preserving oil and you are good to go. Once you have the
pivot well protected there is little need for additional WD-40.

Things to avoid are wipes and solutions like alcohol that remove
the protective layer.

There are a couple types of way to apply gold. Some involves
gold leaf and a lacquer glue others are electro-plated. Glue can
be attacked by solvents. Both can be attacked by abrasives.

WD 40 is great on car parts,even guns and knives,would never use it on a razor.

My Lord, I'll say it again, just make sure it's dry before storing it! I generally remove any and all my razors to my desk, open the blade and very simply put, let it dry out. Problem solved. I've never used any solvents (though I have no opinion on them due to a complete lack of knowledge), so can't attest to viability.

I use many of the techniques mention in the thread with all of my straights; No bathroom storage, warm water rinse and dry, camellia oil, dessicant "packs", and keeping my scales as dry as possible while shaving. Even with this I have been able to pick up some water marks on my Hart where the scales meet the blade. I'm sure I had some moisture left on the scales, and the area is small, but I can't think of any other of my razors I've had this happen with. I agree that the satin finish opens the chance of stains/rust/tarnish more than a highly polished blade.

Still one of my favorite blades...

Indeed, the satin finish is more likely to catch a bit of rusting on the blade. I have cleaned it carefully and used the oil included with the blade, haven't used it ever since. But I will shave with it tomorrow and after I will repeat the procedure.