razor cleaning ?

New user .. so please excuse my naive questions ! But must you clean a razor especially the blade with some form of liquid soap after every shave. And does it need to be oiled after every shave. Or just dried and stored away. I ask this because just drying doesn't seem to get rid of the shaving foam gunk for me. There still seems to be a light coat of it hanging around the blades even after a wash and drying on dry towel or blotting out moisture with some TP.

I am pretty nervous when I am soaping around the edges of the blade every time after a shave. Seems like a dangerous activity is making itself too frequent, since I want to store it away clean, am I putting myself in needless danger or cleaning once a week etc will do ?

Unfortunately, cleaning the blade can cause you some chills, but must be done, and soon you will be used to do it without ringing a nerve. You can, after a shave, strop the blade lightly, a few times, on a moist sponge, but then you need to dry it with a piece of toilet paper or tissue. After that, do not forget to strop the razor 5-10 times on the leather just to assure your edge is completely dry. You'll be used to.

this is what I was afraid of. lol.

I rinse my blade off after use purely with water, dry on a towel and then strop between 20 - 30 times.

I too rinse and wipe in a towel, very easy and not at all risky to do.

I do as the previous posters do but also leave my razor open to air dry before closing and putting it away. Also you can dry between the scales too with toilet paper to make sure there is no water hiding there.

You mention "shaving foam gunk" not rinsing off with water. Do you use shaving foam from a can or do you use a brush and soap to lather with? If you use a brush and soap to make lather with, it should easily rinse off the blade under running water with no residue left on the blade prior to drying the blade.

Bob

I use gillette shaving cream and gillette synthetic brush. It's nothing top of the line, but this works. I see a small film of shaving cream still on the blade even after washing it under tap and thus apply some liquid soap to clean the blade, I do it as matter of habit now. but I am afraid that someday I will cut a finger because I may be too tired to be as careful everytime. I also use a bath oil to oil the blade after shaving it, it seems to keep the shine on the blade. I don't know what kind of bath oil it is, it is a generic one bought a long while back from pharma plus.

Since I am still in starting stage, I am babying my razors a lot more. I don't know if I will be able to sustain this for ever. There is one particular razor which had the most elusive edge and I learnt sharpening on that one and thus after I managed to get a mirror polish edge, I tended to baby it a bit. What I was thinking is, can it do with a little less care as I do now.

It could be that your lather is a bit on the dry/pasty side and that can cause it to not cleanly rinse off under running water.

You really can't be too fussy about properly drying a razor lade off. It is amazing how quickly you can get rust on a blade under the right conditions.

Bob

Soap is not needed. Just a rinse is fine. The shave lather should mostly come off when rinsing. Like others said, dry it on a towel. I let mine air dry while I clean up then strop it a little, a few to 10 strokes just to get residual water of the cutting edge. If water got in the scales or near the pivot pin the use a qtip to dry too. Dryness is paramount.

These guys have given some great advice, BUT !!!!!!!!:rofl2: If you live in America Dairy Queen napkins are great for this purpose. They will take off soap scum, hair, blood, and rust I think. :thinking: They will not remove ketchup or chili from your face or hand this will cause the 4"x something size napkin to disintegrate instantly. If you ask for extra napkins the girls that work there will pile them into the bag for you. :) As soon as I finish shaving I wipe the blade with one of these napkins. Then rinse it with cold water, and dry it with something more absorbent. Don't thing the Dairy Queen napkin will dry it . It will not, but it will clean it .

I think I know about you are talking, Almond. Some soaps leave a whitish film of talc or something on the blade. Water only is not enough to wash it out. My black mug also needs a good cleaning after a shave. A moist paper or towel do the job, just remember to dry the blade completely, and to give it a couple of strop passes before put it to air dry. Don't forget to dry the inside the scales, and do not let the blade touch the scales when drying. Lots of razors have longitudinal scars at the toe, below the spine, where the blade touches the scales, because were closed still moist. Don't need to keep the razor with the edge exposed, just opened enough to keep scales not touching the blade.

I have always wanted to ask this:

Doesn't rubbing around the edge with towels, TP etc blunt the edge a bit. I see even honemeisters making youtube videos do the same thing. You can clean an edge to perfection with a towel, but won't it either cut the towel or dull the edge ?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by almond

I have always wanted to ask this:

Doesn't rubbing around the edge with towels, TP etc blunt the edge a bit. I see even honemeisters making youtube videos do the same thing. You can clean an edge to perfection with a towel, but won't it either cut the towel or dull the edge ?

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Use a stropping motion to clean and dry a blade. Spine leading run it across your towel or whatever you use to dry just like stropping on leather.

Bob

Yup, depends on your soap or cream. Caned cream is especially sticky and will harden if left unattended. Many a double edge TTO has been gunked up and glued immobile because of it.

Rinsing will not remove some soaps. MWF is especially tenacious and will also coat a blade and sink with a soap film. Hard water also plays a big part.

I wipe with a damp microfiber towel a couple times, and dry on a dry part of the towel. That will remove 90 percent of the soap, but some still remains. Just look at your bevel with magnification the next morning and see what has dried on it.

As said paper towels or napkins, work especially well, I like the unbleached napkins and use them and blue work towels to wipe a razor of swarf when honing, before looking or photographing with a USB scope. They do work especially well. Starbucks or you can buy a pack for a couple dollars from Wal-Mart or restaurant supply

Which is why you strop on linen, to remove, all that gunk and keep it off your leather finishing strop.

The need to oil, is dependent on the humidity in the bath or where you store your razor. Don’t know about your bath oil, but a lite 3 in 1 oil or gun oil might give you more protection, though your oil is probably removing more soap just by applying it. You only need a drop or two to coat a blade. I oil blades with a drop of Ballistol, on a Q-Tip before shipping.

Bottom line, try a good microfiber, and leave your razor open, so the blade is out of the scales to dry. Wipe the razor with the towel wrapped around the spine and lightly pinch the blade with your thumb and forefinger. That should keep your fingers away from the edge.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by almond

I have always wanted to ask this:

Doesn't rubbing around the edge with towels, TP etc blunt the edge a bit. I see even honemeisters making youtube videos do the same thing. You can clean an edge to perfection with a towel, but won't it either cut the towel or dull the edge ?

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Quote:

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Originally Posted by BobH

Use a stropping motion to clean and dry a blade. Spine leading run it across your towel or whatever you use to dry just like stropping on leather.

Bob

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This. I mean if you're using toilet paper or a paper towel you won't know the difference in sharpness if you nick the paper. That doesn't mean go nuts and start using your straight razors as a paper shredder either, but a little nibble here or there is hurting the toilet paper far more than the carbon steel blade. But it's easily avoided entirely by using a spine leading stoke, just like stropping.

I get the same question when people see me use the paper test on a pocket knife. If your blade is so cheap that making a single cut on a piece of computer paper dulls it noticeably you seriously need to get a blade made with better steel.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by AlienEdge

These guys have given some great advice, BUT !!!!!!!!:rofl2: If you live in America Dairy Queen napkins are great for this purpose. They will take off soap scum, hair, blood, and rust I think. :thinking: They will not remove ketchup or chili from your face or hand this will cause the 4"x something size napkin to disintegrate instantly. If you ask for extra napkins the girls that work there will pile them into the bag for you. :) As soon as I finish shaving I wipe the blade with one of these napkins. Then rinse it with cold water, and dry it with something more absorbent. Don't thing the Dairy Queen napkin will dry it . It will not, but it will clean it .

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,,,,,,,,,,,,:roflmao this is strange

As a 5 a.m. riser who showers mostly in the evening, I use a sponge to wash and thoroughly moisten my face before the morning shave. This is supposed to emulate the part where old-fashioned barbers used to put a wet towel on a customer's face before the shave. :-)

Then I squeeze as much moisture out of the sponge as possible and use the same sponge to wipe off excess water after rinsing the blade following each pass, or in-between if it should have become necessary to rinse accumulated lather off the blade.

After the shave, I hold the blade under the hot faucet to rinse off lather, dry the blade initially with the (freshly rinsed and squeezed) sponge and then with some toilet paper.
When using toilet or facial tissue paper (or yes, even napkins), I first wipe length-wise along the blade but make sure that I do not touch the edge and then - for the edge - wipe along the same direction that I use for stropping.
This avoids prematurely dulling the edge.
(Think about it as palm stropping [which is not as dangerous as it may sound] with a tissue in your palm.)

As precaution, I finally use the tissue paper to remove any residue or moisture that might have accumulated between the scales, even though I am careful to keep the inside of the scales and pivot area (that is prone to corrode if water gets there) dry.

I own quite a few razors, live 1/2 a mile from the sea, and it could be weeks before I use the same razor again. Hence I made it a habit to give carbon or stainless steel razor alike a thin coating of Ballistol, which may not be necessary if the razor is used frequently or you live in a less corrosive environment.

My preference is not to strop the razor after the shave, as I believe that the often mentioned "drying" of the blade is already achieved by the tissue paper, which IMO is more effective in drying a blade than stropping.


It seems to work, as in years of straight shaving I never had trouble with corrosion.

As with many aspects of straight shaving; over time people develop their own technique and develop their own preference.


B.


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I rinse the blade off with hot water, and then use a moist towel to wipe it off. I then use a clean towel to dry the blade and use TP to get the scales and pivot dry if I got any water in those areas. The blade gets finished by running 20-30 laps on the linen strop and then the razor is left open on my dresser to get leather stropped later that evening.

Some times if I am in a hurry I just blow the water out of the scales like it was a harmonica, swing it around like a samarai sword. Then slap it against the door facing and leave it stuck there like a machete until I am ready to shave again !!! :rofl2:

I rinse with the hottest tap water I can get out of my faucet then wipe with a soft towel and then strop 20 times to clean and dry the edge then I leave the blade open to air dry. This has worked well for me.

I wipe the blade with a wet wash cloth (old, so my wife doesn't kill me for ruining a washcloth), wipe it dry with a towel, strop on cloth 25x, and then on leather 75x, so that it is ready for the next shave (every other day). I put the razor in a snack sized ziplock bag, that has several desiccant packets in it. If I'm not going to use the razor for a while, I put a light coat of oil on the blade and a drop on each hinge.

If I get the blade & or scales wet I wipe them off & use my wife's blow dryer to get the hinge area & the whole razor really dry. Just works for me! If I am not going to use a razor for a while I wipe it down with a Hoppe's Silicone cloth used for guns & fishing tackle. Works great!

Slawman

I rinse mine, then tie it up in one of my hiking socks and toss it in the clothes dryer for a good 20 minutes. It can damage the razor, but I've never had any rust problems.




(Yes, I'm kidding...)

Rinse my razor. Then use my towel to dry it leading with spine. Then pass towel between scales and crevices. And store in a sack-up sleeve.


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