Thread: When you nick yourself...

There should not be much difference among them. The term alum usually refers to a class of aluminum sulfate compounds. Both blocks and pencils are made with one of such compounds. I have a styptic pencil that works really well on cuts and razor burn. Alum blocks are larger so you cover a larger area in one pass but also cost more.

Al raz.

Thanks guys! I'll have to experiment it sounds like, but at least now I have a better idea of what to look for!

Originally Posted by Alraz

There should not be much difference among them. The term alum usually refers to a class of aluminum sulfate compounds. Both blocks and pencils are made with one of such compounds. I have a styptic pencil that works really well on cuts and razor burn. Alum blocks are larger so you cover a larger area in one pass but also cost more.

Al raz.

This is not exactly correct. Most styptic pencils are aluminum sulfate. Alum is potassium aluminum sulfate, a totally different compound. Alums, as a class are bisulfates containing a monovalent cation (eg. potasium) and a trivalent cation (eg. aluminum).

Do the Alum blocks sting like the styptic pencils?

Originally Posted by kahunamoose

Do the Alum blocks sting like the styptic pencils?

Slightly less in my experience, more like alcohol based aftershave. They sort out minor nicks/abrasion but I reach for the pencil on the odd occasion that there's a major one. Personally I use the Alum in place of such aftershave as I seem to react to alcohol on my skin (obviously, I react to it when taken internally as well, but hey, that's cool).

I find that styptic pencils cauterize nicks, so a large nick will leave a scar as the tissues don't have time to grow back. On a small nick the scar won't be apparent, but on large ones, better use something that will let the skin regrow like an ointment or Vaseline even, anything that will keep the nick from drying out while the skin grows back.

I try not to use them.

McKie

i use a pencil on the small nicks but i have had a big enough cut that was bleeding to heavy for the pencil to do any good in which case i use t.p

I use lots of cold water, which seems to stop most of the bleeding. Bigger nicks might take a bit of tissue paper. Never used styptic or alum at all.
J.