Thread: Daily Straight Razor Maintenance

Wanted to ask what you guys were doing for maintenance with your razors after you've finished your shave. By that I mean are you putting oil on the blade each day when your done? If so, any particular oil? If not, any tips for daily maintenance when done. Thanks.

Tx,

After the last stroke I rinse the blade under warm water while running it between my tyumb and forefinger (moving the edge from heel to tip and my fingers down from spine to edge to prevent slices on my digits) to get rid of any lather scum. Then I turn the faucet to hottest and rinse the blade again (without fingers - this is hot water!). Having gotten the blade nice and warn I shake it gently and then wipe it on a cotton towel to remove any beads of water, close it up and put it on a shelf for tomorrow's shave. I do not oil it between shaves and have had no trouble with corrosion. One thing I am very careful not to do is get any water or lather in the gap between the scales. If it gets in there and you close the razor on those wet or damp deposits, rusting or pitting is almost sure to start regardless of how carefully you have rinsed and dried the blade.

good shaving

I rinse and dry the blade in a similar fashion to Bruce, then I take it for a few laps on my strop to make sure the edge is dry. After that, I wipe some vaseline on the blade.

While shaving, I wipe lather and stubble off on a damp washcloth draped over the edge of the basin. When I finish, I rinse the razor in hot water and, holding it very firmly, gently shake it to remove excess water, being sure to stay well away from the faucet or anything else. I carefully dry the blade by draping a face towel over one hand and bring my thumb and forefinger together and running the blade between them (edge up, of course). Then I flatten my hand out, still with the towel over it, and gently strop on a dry section of the towel about 10 laps--this helps dry the blade and remove micro-gunk from the edge. Then I leave the razor open on the shelf for a bit to make sure everything's dry. Then I'll stop (25 webbing, 50 leather), oil the blade and put it away. I do this every time I shave. Hope this helps!

I rinse under very hot water, wipe down with tissue or toilet paper then let sit over night to dry. Then apply oil for storage.

I've found dipping my razor in a tall jar filled with rubbing alcohol and about a half-teaspoon of mineral (baby) oil works. After dipping the razor, open and close it a couple of times; the alcohol drives all water out of the pivot area and the entire razor is left with a light sheen of oil. Gently pat the outer surfaces, or just set it and forget it and it'll dry by itself in a minute or two.

Simple. Easy. Done.

(Edited here to include original post attribution. Thanks Utopian!)
http://straightrazorpalace.com/razor...tml#post598381

I wipe it clean and dry and put it away.

I rinse under the hot water, wipe dry, strop about 20x to ensure any "micro-crud" is gone, wipe with mineral oil. Due to a large rotation and shaving with every razor I hone, it can be a long time till I get to use the same razor again. I highly recommend a light stropping after shaving though...

For your reading pleasure another thread on this topic http://straightrazorpalace.com/razor...azor-care.html

+1 on Utopians 0.5% solution of mineral oil in isopropyl alcohol.
I used an old Jelly Jar with a wide mouth to keep the dip in.

Same advise rinse, dry, strop, dip, let stand for a couple min, close and put away.

TxDeuce,

I would say it depends on how many razors you have in your rotation, and how often you use each one. Say you only have one razor, that you use everyday - in this case I would not oil between shaves, but would apply some tuff-glide or something like that on my last shave of the week. If you have a 3-5 or more razor rotation, I would apply oil or tuff-glide after each shave (drying the razor properly first, of course).

Hope this helps, you've gotten some sound advice so far...