Thread: Another Question on "Sanitation" and/or "Sterilization"

Just wanted to chime in about the Barbicide, it's cheap insurance (purchased mine at a Sally beauty supply for $7) according to the directions, you mix 2oz. Barbicide to 32oz. water, then what ever item your sanitizing should soak for at least 10 min. and left to air dry. If someone covered this all ready sorry for the repeat....

Originally Posted by Theseus

Really, all you need is to hone the blade. If you want a little more, give it an alcohol dip. If you're anal about germs, Clorox makes a bleach free antibacterial wipe. Anything more, in my opinion, would be overkill. As far as hepititis, time is the best way to kill it.

+1. I have been using autoclave sterilization for 20+ years. Castle, Pelton Crane, Speedclave, American Sterilizer ..... had access to all. Pelton Crane the past 16 years. Anyway .... 265 Fahrenheit to kill bugs. Three minutes unbagged and 30 minutes for bagged instruments. Nowadays just about every jurisdiction demands bagged instruments and spore samples sent to an independent lab to guarantee the clave is killing the bugs. Google needle sticks by health care workers and you'll find it takes a certain amount of blood ..... in most cases way more than a drop ..... to transmit stuff like HIV.

Anyway, in 45 years of shaving I've never sterilized any shaving equipment. Not that I used on myself or the disposable blade straight I used to use on tattoo customers. BTW, I would change the blade at least once a month whether it needed it or not. Same with the old timers I broke in with. Before the early '70s most tattooers tattooed with no gloves, using the same needles , without more than a rinse, if that, and the same ink containers for every customer.

In the '60s they used a sponge and bucket with a drop of lysol in it to wipe the tattoo. No spray bottles, no paper towels. The first 3 or 4 tattoos I received were done in the '60s by guys who tattooed like that. Ain't got nothin' yet. Chances are I have a lot stronger immune system for it. Keep using your anti bacterial soap and what not. Builds stronger bugs.

Amateur question: What about these steam-cleaner boxes they uses to use for surgical tools in the OR or ambulant surgical practices? I guess they might adversely affect certain scale materials, but would certainly keep everything sterile...

Each of us hobbiests are free to do what we think is best for our own protection. My focus is to help protect hobbiest razor users from infection risks possibly associated with newly acquired used razors and also their razors from damage. Cleaning a razor with soap and water/Scrubbing Bubbles followed by a dip in most common disinfectants and a water rinse should do the job. However, there are different levels of confidence associated with various disinfection procedures. As a public health person, I am reluctant to propose any procedures less than those that would be considered professionally acceptable, even if I know that they will likely work out OK. Any procedure that cleans/disinfects a razor is safer than doing nothing. Time and drying will kill many bloodborne pathogens, but I would not like to experience the reaction were I to offer this as my method of sterilization upon an evaluation of the safety and acceptability of my instrument cleaning/disinfection procedures.

You may want to look at HYDROCIDE also used in barbershops sold at Sally's at a fraction of the cost of Barbacide .

The air we breathe is the #1 killer of "bugs" outside the body. Mix that (letting a razor "rest" for a bit) with a dip in 90% alcohol and a soapy environment and you really have a safe environment to shave in.

I have probably shaved with about 200 razors that I have honed for others using this routine. Think about it just a bit, just because you are online friends, we don't know squat about one another. My routine is fine for me.

One thing that I WILL NOT DO IS SHARE MY BRUSH WITH ANYONE.

For educational reference, I minored in Biology simply due to my fascination of virology & bacteria and our abilities to manipulate it. That was back in the late 80's and early 90's...who knows what can be done to them NOW with our current technologies. THAT is what scares me.

Sunlight is hard on a lot of things, too, but I don't know if it's hard on virus. Drying something out and subjecting it to direct sunlight for a while will likely not hurt anything.

(I wouldn't by any means use that as the only method, though. I use barbicide, like someone said above, it was cheap at sally beauty supply. When I get a new razor, I put it through a cycle (10 minutes or whatever it was, take the blade out, let it dry, and then go through reconditioning.))

I wondered about autosol and other things of that sort, like when you're reconditioning a razor. It's got to be pretty hard on viruses and bacteria. It sure smells like it's killing brain cells at a rapid rate.

I sure didn't mean to whip up a scary scenario here. I dont believe in being afraid, I believe in being careful.

For shaving the people I did, I never re-used razors. Each person got their own. It was a camping style event, and I was there for 2 weeks, so I brought a selection of gear, and a pile of razors and strops that I have been meaning to get online, and spent my off hours merrily honing and stropping and conditioning leather.
On the topic of Isopropyl(sp) alcohol, isn't 70% the preferred antiseptic level? I thought 90 was actually TOO high, as it evaporates before it has enough time in contact to be effective?

The razor/strop in question from my OP have been quarantined, even though they were well cleaned, just to be on the safe side.
Now, I would love to hear from some of the forge members, as to their opinion on how repeated sterilization at 300-375 degrees might effect temper?

I'm not a metal smith, but I do know damage mechanisms as part of my job. 375F isn't hot enough to affect a temper, I believe that shouldn't be a concern till you're around 500-600F for carbon & low-allow steels. The main concern is thermal fatigue. Since the edge is so much thinner it'll cool and contract faster than the spine, which causes microscopic cracks to form. Eventually, over enough cycles, enough of them form to start joining & that's when the problems start. The way to avoid it is to slow the heating/cooling process so the entire razor heats/cools and expands/contracts at the same rate. Usually the easiest way to do this is in controlled steps. Say the hold is at 350F, after the hold you'd turn it down to 325F & let it sit 5 minutes to allow temps to even out across the whole blade, then drop it another 25 for 5 minutes & so on. That'd be a 30 minute process to get it down to 200F, at which point it'd be perfectly safe to take it out & let it cool normally in still air. Heating would go the same way, 25 degrees at a time in 5 minute steps until you reach the hold temperature. Clearly this can't be done in a normal household oven as temperatures go up & down a great deal. Induction coils are out because temperatures change too quickly. You'd need an oven pretty much purpose-built where you can finely control temperatures, which isn't really worth the money for most people, myself included. Another good gadget to include if you chose to spend the money would be a laser temp gun so you could compare temperatures at the edge against the spine to know when it's ready to step down.

Bleach will destroy all dna/rna on the blade.