How do I stop a razor from rusting?

[Alethephant]

I have a Gong Special that had obvious previous rust semi-circles about 3/8" in diameter on both sides of the edge. They were polished off before I bought the razor on ebay. A discoloration remained, showing shadows of the rust spots.

After obtaining the razor, I polished the blade and honed it.

Now I notice that the spots re-rust again even without use. I have sanded the spots off several times, but rust keeps reappearing. None of the other razors I store in the same way rust at all.

Any suggestions as to how to exorcise the Rust Demon that's taken over this blade?

[hoglahoo]

You can oil the blade after drying it to ward off moisture damage.

If the scales are celluloid, they may be rotting. Rotting celluloid can produce rust-inducing gases - I am not aware of any cure for such ill scales

[Alethephant]

"Rotting scales". Now that's an interesting concept. The Special does have fancy celluloid scales.

Celloloid is made from nitrocellusose, and decomposition would result in nitric acid formation, which certainly would be corrosive. I will look into seeing if any acid gas formation occurs and report back.

On the other hand, the corrosion is only where the prior rust spots are. So it would seem something catalytic is happening where the pitting is. I have sanded these spots smooth with fine emery cloth, but slight discoloration remains. Perhaps I need to go deeper, and waste the etched pattern on the blade to do it.

[Del1r1um]

If that's cell rot, quarantine that sucker and deal with it quickly

[wyldr]

rotting is mostly related to oxidization, it it were mine, I'd soak it in oil

[Alethephant]

An update:

1. Oiling slows the rusting, but does not eliminate it.

2. I've confirmed the celluloid scales degradation. I placed a piece of pHydrion paper between scales and blade where the rusting reappears, and the paper turned cherry pink (acid) over one to two weeks.

3. I've soaked the razor in 1% sodium bicarbonate to eliminate residual acid. This is probably not going to make a difference in the long term, but it's apparently controlled the problem in the short term.

I have yet to decide whether to salvage the blade with some new scales, or sacrifice the whole razor to experimentation.

This does suggest you might want to keep an open dish of bicarbonate of soda in whatever closed container you keep razors in, if any have celluloid scales.

[ScottGoodman]

That is a dangerous set of scales you have and you should either rescale the gong (they are great shavers) or have them rescaled. For most of us, the scales are like clothes and it's cool to change them...the blade is the important thing, so whatever you do in your experimentation...don't destroy it! I know it's yours & you can do whatever you wish with it, but it's a good razor that just needs a new pair of pants.