Thread: Cleaning a safety razor

How should you clean a safety razor?
Would water, a toothbrush, a pipe cleaning brush, liquid dish detergent, liquid disinfecting dish detergent, liquid hand soap, liquid disinfecting hand soap be enough?
When do I need to use toothpaste and Scrubbing Bubbles?
I was also told by Leisureguy to mix a solution of 1 part vinegar and 4 parts water and place the razor in the solution.

Tooth brushes can be hard on the finsh of old DE razors. Along with polish so be careful and test. But id say cleaning depends on if its your razor or something you have recently picked up. One will just need a little cleaning. The other you might want to go farther. Also it depends on what razor it is. Some can be taken apart.

I will let the more experianced DE users give details.

Yup, depends. Some soap can turn to near cement and will gum up the working action. The problem is the Nickle is very thin, so if you use harsh cleaners you can strip the Nickle.

I have disassembled adjustable that the handle is packed solid with years of soap. It can take day of soaking and ultrasound to remove. If the soap is that bad it usually takes the finish with it.

Hot water, Simple Green and Dawn dish soap works well if you soak overnight. Dawn dish soap is an Enzyme soap, there are also different concentration of Dawn dish soaps, read the labels. Be careful with vinegar, it will strip the nickel it is very thin.

Simple Green or scrubbing bubbles will remove the dirt and some soap but soaking and ultrasound is the only safe way to remove stubborn caked soap. Be careful soaking in simple green or vinegar. Short soaks are ok, but if you forget it, it can remove the nickel.

I would start with Dawn dish soap soak and scrub lightly with a brush. Finish with a lite paint brush scrub with 91% alcohol and buff with a microfiber. Alcohol will brighten up the Nickle without removing any.

Old dried soap can be hard to get rid of. A method I have used in the past is boil the razor in a pan of water for 20 - 30 minutes adding water when needed. Follow up with Mothers Mag & Aluminum Polish and oil any moving parts with mineral oil.

I think once a week I'll use a toothbrush, a pipe cleaning brush, dish detergent, toothpaste and finally I'll soak it in the vinegar and water solution. Would this be a good routine?

If it's routine maint. I would stop at the dish detergent. Even better save your pennies and get a new all stainless razor. They really do shave better than the vintage types though many here won't believe it.

Originally Posted by thebigspendur

If it's routine maint. I would stop at the dish detergent. Even better save your pennies and get a new all stainless razor. They really do shave better than the vintage types though many here won't believe it.

That all depends on if you want performance or romance. I hear.people say all the time, "they just don't make cars like they used to." Not only are they right but it's a good thing they don't. I just retired a service van with nearly 330,000 miles on it and it was still running...on the original engine, trans, front end, rear end...hell I could have driven it indefinitely. I drove it to the place I donated it to. When I was a kid at 100,000 a car was either headed for a major overhaul or for the junkyard. What cured me.of old cars was getting a new car.
On the other hand, the last old car I had was a 1963 Buick Riviera. It had the 401 Nailhead and the Dynaflow. It wasn't as snap and pop as the wife's brand new Explorer nor did it have all the bells and whistles but it sure was cool...if you don't mind working on it all the time.
It just depends on what you want.

I think once a week I'll soak the razor in a vinegar and water solution and then I'll scrub it with a toothbrush and liquid dish washing soap.Would this be a good routine?

The Vinegar is overkill unless you have really hard water and you let it air dry. Normally the dish soap and toothbrush should be all you need.

A toothbrush is too hard on the nickel. Buy a ½ or 1-inch boar chip brush and cut down the bristles to about ½ inch and use that with dawn dish soap, follow up with alcohol and another paint brush.

Cleaning is much different from maintenance. A lot depends on your soap. Canned soap is the problem with most vintage razors. If you are not using that, maintenance is much easier.

The key is to preserve the nickel, harsh, abrasive cleaners and polish will strip it. Vinegar is an acid.