Blade soaking mistake

Two important facts about me.

1. I live in Albuquerque, and the water is made of stone.
2. I'm ritualistic. This helps improve technique.

Last night's shave started off as a nightmare. I contacted my face with the blade (a Dovo) moved about 1/4 inch and stopped. It was not pleasant. I soak my brush, washcloth, lather bowl and soap tub in the sink while I take a shower. Last night I put my blade in a cup of hot water in the sink in order to warm it up. When I got out, the blade had some strange colored marks on it. I had already stropped it also. As I said, in the condition it was in, it was not going to happen. I almost reached for my Merkur safety but thought about it for a second. Why the sudden change? It was fine the last time I used it as a matter of fact it was excellent! So I re-stropped it and it was fine.

Minerals on the blade?

What do you guys think?

If it's a carbon steel blade (as are most Dovos), it will oxidize and rust. There is no need to soak the blade in water to warm it, holding it under running hot water for a second or two will heat it right up.

There are a lot of us who never put a blade in water or even hold them under the faucet.

Water and high carbon steel do not play well together.

Not Tellin Ya Nothin You Dont Already Know,, But Yes Razors Have A Tendycie To ,Look, Perform, Shave Without Drowning Them,,,,,,Ty

I'm not sure why you soak your razor. I think what happened was you likely mis-stropped your razor bad enough to make it unpleasant to shave with and then managed to strop it back into performance. It happens. I think it may be best if you are a wee bit more attentive to your stropping technique and you will likely find this goes away. Why do you soak your razor?

I used to soak my DE razors, then I thought about it and figured it made no difference so stopped. Guess what... It made no difference.

I have never soaked my straight razors and just wipe the soap off. Initially I rinsed them, but found to my dismay there are too many things in the sink that like to chip the edge. Now I only handle my razor to strop, shave, dry and put away. I figure the fewer times I handle them and the fewer things I do the fewer the opportunities for damage.

You will likely get discolouration over time anyway, but soaking will only hasten this IMHO.

Yes, it was a stupid thing to do, but like everything else in life, it was another lesson learned.

Thanks to everyone that replied!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by DaveStauffer

Yes, it was a stupid thing to do, but like everything else in life, it was another lesson learned.

Thanks to everyone that replied!

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Is it just me, or do those hard lessons become the ones we learn the most from?

That's the great thing about forums like this one, you can learn from other peoples mistakes because the people here are willing to share.

The water quality in ABQ is rotten especially since they converted to the Chama Water. In addition to the usual hard minerals there is iron. (ask me how I know).

Use distilled water for your shaving.

yep ,, 4 years drilling in New Mexico, and I learned to use bottled water real quick. Tc

Like you said...lesson learned.
I'm with TC and others on this one. Get on the bottled water quick. You never know when those strange things in your water will read their ugly heads again. I'll bet you see a big improvement in the way your soap performs as well.
Good luck!

Pete <:-}

Quote:

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Originally Posted by thebigspendur

The water quality in ABQ is rotten especially since they converted to the Chama Water. In addition to the usual hard minerals there is iron. (ask me how I know).

Use distilled water for your shaving.

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I'm going to take you advice, but I have a question. We have a filter pitcher and my wife runs all the water we consume through it. Will this suffice, or do I need to get distilled water instead?

I took the general advice and got some distilled water. I put some in a coffee cup and heated it in the microwave to 145 and started soaking my boar brush in it while I did a pre-wash.

My weekend soap is Colonel Conk's (currently the Amber) I've had a difficult time getting a good lather out of this and have had to load the brush heavily. Not tonight. The lather formed very quickly and was dense, slick and moist. Couldn't ever get the dense and moist in the same lather before. Tomorrow I'll try some water out of the pitcher and see how that does.

Edit: The "product" or quality of the post shave seems to have an improvement also.


Thanks for the discussion.

Soft water results in many improvements including your skin and hair and your appliances around the house. Col Conk is kind of a lower mid range soap. Try one of the top tier soaps we discuss the the soap forum and you'll really be in for a treat.

During the week I use PAA in most cases, and yes there is a difference!

Water filtered through a typical "pitcher" type filter won't really remove much of the dissolved minerals, though it does make the water taste better. There's no harm in trying it though.

Reverse osmosis filtering will remove the minerals if you decide to get such a system installed in your house, but it generally only makes enough for drinking and cooking and such, the system is neither cheap to buy or USE as some water is used for cleaning the osmosis filter and it runs off into the drain on a continuous basis afaik.

Whole house water softeners add small amounts of salt to the water if I recall correctly and that would not be a good thing for your carbon steel razors.

A gallon jug of distilled water is your best bet for shaving, unless you get bottled water delivered to your home, which is often reverse osmosis filtered and should work just as well.

Rinse and wash with tap water.... just use the good water for soaking the brush and making lather. If you wish to warm up the razor (I always do), just hold it under warm running tap water for a couple of seconds. Unless you have a big ol' wedge, it doesn't take long to warm it up.

Regards

Christian

Quote:

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Originally Posted by kaptain_zero

Water filtered through a typical "pitcher" type filter won't really remove much of the dissolved minerals, though it does make the water taste better. There's no harm in trying it though.

Reverse osmosis filtering will remove the minerals if you decide to get such a system installed in your house, but it generally only makes enough for drinking and cooking and such, the system is neither cheap to buy or USE as some water is used for cleaning the osmosis filter and it runs off into the drain on a continuous basis afaik.

Whole house water softeners add small amounts of salt to the water if I recall correctly and that would not be a good thing for your carbon steel razors.

A gallon jug of distilled water is your best bet for shaving, unless you get bottled water delivered to your home, which is often reverse osmosis filtered and should work just as well.

Rinse and wash with tap water.... just use the good water for soaking the brush and making lather. If you wish to warm up the razor (I always do), just hold it under warm running tap water for a couple of seconds. Unless you have a big ol' wedge, it doesn't take long to warm it up.

Regards

Christian

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This is what it is evolved into. I've got a think walled coffee cup that I put distilled water in, I don't need much water as you said, just enough to soak the brush. To warm the water I put it in the microwave for 40 seconds then it goes into the sink along with a washcloth, bowl, and the soap while I shower. I've got the sink full of hot water so it warms everything up and keeps the coffee cup warmer.