Thread: Wipe or Rinse?

During the shave I rinse off my blade, after the shave I rinse and then wipe. I find rinsing easier than having to wipe, set the lather/hairy mess down, pick it up, move to a clean part, do it again. Some guys in the past posted about wiping off the razor on one of those beer can insulator things, which sounds like a good solution - wipe, turn, repeat and rinse it at the end of the shave.

I've been wiping on a soft cloth, followed by splash of hot water from kettle.

I like having the hot blade for the shave... but I might experiment with just wiping. (We've got water restrictions, so every little bit can help). (Plus I'm working on a more efficient and better shave).

Could there be a mild stropping effect from wiping on paper, rather than on soft cloth? Has anyone used say some denim for wiping on?

All the best,
Michael.

Hey Obie,

I can understand wiping the blade to avoid water on the pins, etc. However, I'm a hot water rinser myself (I don't bother to wipe of excess water, just rinse n' go) and have never had any rust on the pin issues to date, nor have I dinged the blade on the faucet. I'm too paranoid to let that happen.

I'm not totally opposed to wiping, it's just that I do find it messier and I believe it can also increase the chance of folding the fin if done incorrectly. Plus I find the feeling of a hot blade slicing through whiskers to be quite nice. Just my $0.02

Originally Posted by JimmyHAD

I've always stuck the blade under hot running water and I don't dry it between passes. I only rinse, dry and wipe when I'm done before the clean up stropping.

Yep, that's me too Jimmy. Something about the feel of the hot, wet blade against my lathered skin that I like a whole lot. With a really sharp blade, it's a little bit of heaven on earth. The best shaving experience possible, I think.

The only hassle I don't like about straight shaving compared to DE shaving is the struggle to keep my hands dry between and during passes, so I can see dry-wiping as an option. When I DE shaved, the more water the better - wet hands, wet face, wet razor, all kinds of messy fun. But I'm so worried about rusting one of my good high-carbon steel straight blades that it can be a challenge to keep the blade and face really hot and wet, but the tang, scales, and hands dry. I keep lots of clean, dry, white, scrubby terrycloth hand towels available.

I don't have a hard & fast rule on this but... whatever method one uses, one must ALWAYS be aware of the edge relative to any surface, hard or fleshy

I hit the blade on the faucet on my first shave with my first straight razor. I think I'll be wiping from now on.

I like to rinse under hot runnign water too. I like the feeling of the hot steel on my face, and it makes less mess with stubble on my flannel, since I only shave once every 3 or so days.

Rinse with hot water when shaving. Most of the time, it gets rinsed in a the bowl of hot water. After shaving, wipe with a dry towel, and do a final dry and wipe with TP.

Pabster

I soak a wash cloth in warm water and wet the razor before the shave, helps with if the lather is too dry which I'm getting better at making sure its not, and then to get the lather off I use the wash cloth. Iv hit the razor off the sink before, don't want it to happen again.

I wipe the lather off between my fingers (the same way you would after pasting, w/ a towel) & rinse those under the tap--avoids the risk of dinging the edge.