Thread: Help, I messed up.

OK, I swear somewhere I saw that in order to clean the blade and the scales that I should soak in hot water with vinegar. I had never needed to do this yet, but recently got a couple razors that were pretty gunky in between the scales. So I put them in for about 5 minutes. Came back and the blades were covered in bubbles, had turned black, and started to show a little rust. Ahhhhhh!!!!

I pulled them out and rinsed in plain water, dried them off, oiled them, and proceeded to 0000 steel wool them to try to get the black off. Then I set them out to dry. I got most of it, but they are still going to need a lot of work.

My questions are 1) Why did this happen? 2) What else should I do now? and 3) One of my scales (the orange one on the right) now has turned white on the surface! If I get it wet, it goes back to orange. How can I fix that so it stays orange? What are those scales made of?

Sorry, no after picture (these were taken before), If need be I can get a pic tonight.

Originally Posted by thevez2

My questions are 1) Why did this happen? 2) What else should I do now? and 3) One of my scales (the orange one on the right) now has turned white on the surface! If I get it wet, it goes back to orange. How can I fix that so it stays orange? What are those scales made of?

1. Vinegar has acetic ACID in it so you got a reaction of the acid with the steel causing rust. The ideal thing to do to neutralize it would have been to rub it with baking soda or soak it in a baking soda solution, but if you knew to do that you would not have done the vinegar in the first place. Realistically though the water wash should have accomplished the same thing.

2. Polish the crap (literally) out of it. You need to remove all of the active rust, and that what you have produced.

3. I don't know about the scales. You may need to polish them down to remove the outer layer that is discolored.

What was the source of the "soaking in vinegar" idea? Was it from a veteran blade restorer? We use vinegar & different salts to "etch" blades and deliberately discolor blades from time to time...there is no real easy way to clean a blade other than proverbial "elbow grease". What I am getting at is consider the source of everything you read.

My questions are 1) Why did this happen? Vinegar is caustic2) What else should I do now? Rinse very, very thoroughly & keep oiledand 3) One of my scales (the orange one on the right) now has turned white on the surface! If I get it wet, it goes back to orange. How can I fix that so it stays orange? you can try to wipe with mineral oil or mink oil, won't hurt them and will maybe help with the oxidationWhat are those scales made of? most likely celluloid

Originally Posted by Utopian

1. Vinegar has acetic ACID in it so you got a reaction of the acid with the steel causing rust. The ideal thing to do to neutralize it would have been to rub it with baking soda or soak it in a baking soda solution, but if you knew to do that you would not have done the vinegar in the first place. Realistically though the water wash should have accomplished the same thing.

2. Polish the crap (literally) out of it. You need to remove all of the active rust, and that what you have produced.

3. I don't know about the scales. You may need to polish them down to remove the outer layer that is discolored.

This is the way to go. Choose the highest grit wet and dry sandpaper that will effectively remove the discoloration and then move up the grits to eliminate the scratches, when you have done all you can do polish it with something like Simichrome or Mass.

As for the scales, try polishing them with the polishes mentioned above.

Couldn't remember exactly where vinegar fell on the ph scale, I bet utopian is right and I'm wrong, no matter...rinse well,clean like he said, and keep oiled. we were both replying at the same time...

Thanks. I know vinegar is recommended for cleaning DEs, and I'm pretty sure I didn't mix that up. I was searching for the correct way to clean vintage straights and found that. Now I can't find where I saw it though. Maybe I inadvertantly stumbled on a DE recommendation instead? Oops.

I've got Maas, I guess I need to get some to get some sand paper now.

Are there any difinitive directions out there for cleaning vintage straights? I've searched a lot and found little.

The big HUGE RED sticky at the top of the Workshop forum that is all about working on razors....

http://straightrazorpalace.com/works...wers-here.html

Just might have a thing or two about working on razors

And for other's reading this, as of this date and time no one has found a "Solution" of anything to clean straight razors, most solutions are actually harmful to the steel or the scales...
Elbow Grease has been proved to work rather well, there really are no shortcuts to it so far...