Thread: Tarnish?

Hi Guys,
Ive had five shaves with my Dovo since it arrived, I am doing very well with it and has put my small collection of inferior brands to shame! however tonight I stood in horror after my shave to discover that upon the blade were black tarnish marks which when rubbed would not come off!!!!!!!!!!!

I do the best I can to maintain my razors and lovingly look after them, so where am I going wrong?? how can I correct this problem??

Just for your info I dry wipe my razor upon a shaving towle and do not swish it in the sink like I would an SE or DE.

Any thoughts? tips? advice?

Kind regards

Byron

Well, a couple of things:

You should be able to remove the spots by putting a small amount of silver polish on a Q-tip and gently rubbing the affected area. If your Dovo has goldwash on the blade, you'll want to be careful because the polish will definitely take it off.

You don't say whether you're oiling the blade before putting the razor away, but if you're not, it might be a good idea to start. Even if you don't get the razor wet, carbon steel is prone to rusting just from moisture in the air. I put a thin film--like one drop & spread it CAREFULLY with my finger--of mineral oil on the blade before I put the razor away. And there's water mixed in with your lather, so the blade's getting water on it. I personally do rinse my razors in hot water--under the tap, no swishing--and throughly dry with a towel, then let it sit out a while before stropping, oiling and putting away. 2 years in, no rust.

If you are oiling your blades, and still getting rust or spots, then I dunno. But I hope this helps.

I will try the silver polish and see how I get on, nope I have not oiled my razor, can you recommend a brand? O ask because if I put in Mineral oil into a search engine it keeps giving me car oil, I do have some gun oil here but not sure if thats the same stuff, On my vinatage Hawk some rust as well as Tarnish had also appeared in recent days, if I scrub the rust off and oil it up that should protect it too?

I dont mind my Hawk going south but my Dovo is a razor that I really do wish to look after.


Thanks for the advice so far! :-)

Here's what I do with my razors to keep them in good shape:

I always rinse, dry off and strop after a shave, this will ensure there is no residue where it counts the most. The edge.
Secondly, I always let them dry out for at least a couple hours, often over night.
Then, when storing them for any period of time, I always add some Camellia Oil on them.
I live in a place with not much humidity, so I suppose the oil is not really needed here, but better safe than sorry.
If moisture and humidity is a problem in your area, then oil it up as soon as it is properly dried.

For stains I use Autosol, a great product that will remove most stains and water spots with ease.
Flitz, MAAS or Mothers will do the job too.

Hey there,
I would try what the guys have said already to restore your razors previous glory.
For the future ... I don't think wiping a blade on any towel is a great way to dry it. The towels absorb moisture and tend to smear it around (IME). The way I dry my razor is that I use the towel to get gross moisture off. Then I take some ordinary tissue paper and wipe it with that a few times, maybe use two or three squares. I dry within the scales the same way and I leave the razor open on the windowsil in my display case for a hour before I put it away. I haven't had any tarnish or rust on the razors I treat this way.

Carl.


If you can't get rid of the tarnish and it bothers you, you can send your razor to me to sort it out (I wont charge you or anything like that just cover postage.)

Thanks for the tip Birnando! Ive just picked up some camellia oil though not of an expensive brand iI hope it does the trick to help protect my razor, I have also just picked up some Autosol too.

Thank you for the tips!

Cheers Carl, I will bare that generous offer in mind, I appreciate it as well as the help im getting.

:-)

You are most welcome! If you do decide to take me up drop me a PM and we can sort it out

Camellia oil works just fine, too. Mineral oil is much less expensive. Not sure what they call it in the UK, but you could try looking at the chemist's in the section where they keep the laxatives, etc.--at least, that's where they keep it on this side of the pond!

@straightrazorheaven: I use a dry section of the towel to wipe the blade dry, followed by draping a different dry section of the towel over my open palm and stropping about 15 laps. Seems to work.

Hey Byron--

Were you able to get the spots off your razors?

BTW, great avatar. Jeremy Brett as Sherlock Holmes--very cool!