Thread: clippercide/barbercide Vs. rubbing alcohol?

str8razor,

Hydrogen Peroxide is a corrosive and it can harm metal. It is a mild one though at the strength you are using it. As with all corrosives, the longer it is in contact with the metal , the more damage it could potentially do. It would also depend on the type of metal. Softer metals would be more prone to damage then a harder one.
For your basic disinfecting like you are doing, I don't think you have anything to worry about.

Chuck

Originally Posted by jim28277

Tom, I generally wipe my blade with a 50/50 mix of common household bleach and vinegar. I read somewhere that the vinegar makes the bleach acidic and helps kill bacteria that bleach alone will not destroy. I always rinse the blade and thoroughly wipe the blade dry.

This is a bad idea, as the fumes can kill you. I would also guess that the resulting mixture is not acidic, just a weaker base (bleach has a very high PH). However it does release chlorine gas, which does help disinfect but is also hazardous to your health or deadly.

Originally Posted by straightman

Jim,

Vinegar is a carboxylic acid (OH). But I don't recall my chemistry well enough to predict the reaction resultant from mixing bleach (a.k.a. NaOCl or sodium hypochlorite) with a carboxylic acid. Uhhh, le'me see...OH + NaOCl > NaCl + H2O? Or, OH + NaOCl > NaOH + Cl2 + H2O.
How'd I do? Maybe someone on this board that's a little more up on their chemistry than I can verify which of these reactions is correct (maybe neither). Either way it looks to me like the possible by products of these reactions would be corrosive to steel...NaCl is salt and NaOH is sodium hydroxide (a.k.a. lye). And if the second reaction is correct one of the by products could be chlorine gas which is both corrosive and deadly. As I said, I'm a little rusty on my chemistry and I would welcome anyone who can set me straight on this.

Tom

The proper notation for an organic acid like vinegar (acetic acid, ethanoic acid) is R-COOH. The OH is not reactive, only the hydrogen. Bleach is actually a sodium salt solution (sodium hypoclorite). Household bleach is usually stabilized with exces NaOH (lye) during the manufacturing process. Household bleach will react with any acid (including vinegar) to produce chlorine gase and with any ammonia compound to produce chloramines, both of which are toxic. FYI most oxygen containing acids, including sulfuric acid (H2SO4) and nitric acid (HNO3) have the same chemical structure with the hydrogen atom bonded to an oxygen atom.

I don't thing that you need to sterilize your own instruments. A good wash with soap and water and a wipe with rubbing alcohol and a cotton ball is enough.

bleach and vinegar isn't that bad i have seen my father make mustard gas/mixed bleach with ammonia out side just to clean his cats litter box at times ......he is a wacky on for sure but it work dam will as long as you don't breathe any in or get to close ....but on you cleaning note i usually use a bit of rubbing alcohol on a cotton ball wipe everything for a quick clean or i will like it sit in a bit of it for no more then 10 mins it usually kills most gems as i readied