Thread: Warning about certain oil on your razor

I use choji oil, mineral oil, or gun oils on my razors in my rotation/display case as it will be at least 22 days until I get to it again...just a safe precaution to protect my shaving jewels.

Recently I had read about folks using Camellia & figured I would try it out: 16 oz Camellia Oil 100 Pure Uncut | eBay I can tell you that you should be careful about Camellia oil. The reason why is because this oil literally turned to a sap-like substance on the razors in my rotation. My rotation is 22 razors in a display case and when I came back around to the camellia oiled razors the oil wouldn't wipe off...my hand towel stuck and it took me about 30 minutes to clean the sticky, real sticky, goop off. It had remained clear, so I didn't have a visual warning that this was happening. It didn't harm the blade, but about half of my razors needed a thorough cleaning and touched-up...a couple needed to go back to 8K then back up.

With this being said, the product that I purchased is not for straight razors & I will stick with what I know to work: Choji, mineral, or gun oil. None of these will harm a blade.

Moral of the story is that I may not have had true camellia oil or camellia oil may not be good for razor's being stored for 20-30 days. I just wanted to share this experience with you guys as this was frustrating to say the least & possibly warn you...

I have never had problems with mineral oil, YMMV

When you buy on Eboy you never know what you are getting or where it's coming from.

That's why I've avoided botanical oils, because they can polymerize. Some faster than others, of course, but when they do it then can be there to stay. My wife used safflower oil to fry something and left the pan until I got home... in a week that oil turned into something that detergent wouldn't dent, alcohol wouldn't dent, even acetone wouldn't dent. Finally got rid of it with some pumice-loaded Fast Orange.

I prefer gun oil to mineral oil because I've had mineral oil bead up on highly polished blades. Gun oil spreads out nicely and stays put, but is always easy to wipe away when that time comes.

My favorite blade treatment is Renaissance Wax, though after a few stroppings I'm sure you can't count on it for protection at the edge or spine. For the rest of the blade, though, it's great, and it makes the blade waaay easier to rinse.

Just another guy's thoughts about oils.

I know a lot of guys use camellia oil. Different levels of purity may affect its tendency to polymerize. Contaminants certainly do. "Boiled" linseed oil isn't really boiled any more; they add heavy metals instead--cadmium, etc.--to speed its set time. It's the same stuff as flax oil, but of course flax oil doesn't have that nasty stuff in it, so you can take it as a dietary supplement.

I do not use Camellia oil for this very reason. It gets very thick after application. I had bought it from SRD and while I don't doubt it works it is ugly and hard to get off over time. I think it's the same stuff they put on after honing and ship out.
It's just not for me. In a 120ish blade rotation, by the time I get back around it is thick and hard to remove. I like a thiner oil that stays liquid/oil like and is easy to wipe off.
As said YMMV

Paul

The same exact thing happened to me so I switched to Ballistol a couple months ago after wiping that sticky hardened up Camelia oil mess off my 30-odd razor rotation. So far the Ballistol has been working well.

Originally Posted by MattW

The same exact thing happened to me so I switched to Ballistol a couple months ago after wiping that sticky hardened up Camelia oil mess off my 30-odd razor rotation. So far the Ballistol has been working well.

I have been using Ballistol for years and it has worked great for me.

Yeah, natural oils route like camellia, almond, flax seed, or vegetable based oils can be used on razors, but these oils will dry and leave gummy residue if left on the blade over a long time (i.e., storage). Petroleum-based oils like mineral or Ballistol oil work great on SRs in long storage; I use mineral oil myself. I have heard of people having great results using Tuf-Glide too.

Thanks for the update.

I've used Camellia oil on razors and knives for 15 years now, never had any problem.
Had knives stowed away oild for at least 5 years, oil comes right of using a rag.
I've got this oil; Kamelienöl Sinensis® | DICTUM GmbH - Mehr als Werkzeug