Quote Originally Posted by beluga View Post
A long time ago I somehow got a few of those. From what I remember, they were essentially little cloth sacks impregnated by some protective oil, but I never really used them since they mainly “lubricated” the scales, which don’t need any. Any protection these sacks provide is more due to the oil than due to the sack and if they have been lying around for ten years that oil impregnation may need to be refreshed.

I tend use my straight razors sequentially one after the other, so it might be two to three months before I use the same razor again.
I have made it a habit of drying a razor after a shave with a (toilet) paper tissue (careful that you don’t rub the tissue lenghtwise along the edge), give the blade about 20-30 laps on a strop*, then let the razor dry, and finally coat it with Ballistol before it goes back into one of my razors cases.
I use Ballistol because it works and I can easily get it, but you can also use other small arms gun oils (also known in the military as LSA - lubricant, small arms) and I believe I have once used a Tuf-Glide product while in the US.

I would not recommend baby oil and I even avoid camelia oil. I have experimented with products like these and found that (most likely because of their thicker viscosity) they tend to form small beads of oil on the surface of the blade, which tells me that to form these beads the oil film on other parts of the razor will become thinner.

On a related note, I also avoid current production Thiers-Issard razors even though I have classic Thiers-Issard and Le Grelot (now owned by Thiers-Issard) razors in my collection and enjoy them very much.
I recall some reports that newer Thiers-Issard razors are prone to corrosion and even recall someone claim that they can even form water spots during a single shave. I cannot confirm the latter from my own experience, but it made me cautious and I have stayed away from new Thiers-Issards.


*I also give a blade at least 80 laps on a strop before a shave.


Hope this helps…



B.
Thank you. Do you remember where you read that report?