Strange Miscolouring after cleaning/polishing

First of all I want to say Hello to all of you, this being my first post and I am new in this forum. This place is a wealth of information and the general attitude and atmosphere seems to be relaxed, friendly and helpfull. I have only touched the surface of straight razor shaving and have so much yet to learn. I hope that after a year or two of practice and with this forum's help I might even be able to get the hang of this straight razor shaving bussiness.

With that out of the way, let's continue with today's topic:

I bought a razor for around 10$ on ebay which I intended to clean and hone and use. So I took some stuff I had at home wich I thought would be good to clean the thing with, and after I was done I found that the colour of the blade changed in a few seconds, it just bloomed up. It seems more likely to me that it was the combination of some compounds in the various liquids I used that reacted together making the effect rather than one substance alone, since I recall I didn't think of wiping/cleaning the blade before applying the next liquid (stupid).

http://www.jx4.org/dump_public/razor_miscolouring.jpg
(Razor after cleaning/polishing with the miscolouring effect)

I live in Sweden and I do not know the translation of some of the liquids I used into english, so I will try to direct-translate some of it. However here comes the stuff I used in no particular order:

1 A polishing liquid called "Fubrima Puts" which claims to give "effective shine on copper, brass, aluminium, stainless steel, silver etc", which has the following ingredients listed: "Water, Silica Earth, Ammonium Citrate, Isopropyl Alcohol, Ammonium Qxalate, Soft Soap, Colour, Parfume"

2 "Chemically clean gasoline/petrol" used for "effectivly removing stains of oil, grease and glue." ingredients listed: "petroleum"

3 "Alsolsprit" which is a desinfecting and draining alcohol based medical liquid which label use says "for drying of wettening wounds/rashes, Eases discomfort of insect-bites." ingredients listed: "1 ml liquid has: Aluminiumacetotartrat 10 mg, etanol, ättikssyra (Sorry I dont know how to translate that) and purified water."

4 "Klorhexidin Fresenius Kabi" 0,5 mg/ml. Bottle uses says it's an antisepticum and kills bacteria. Ingredients listed: "Klorhexidinacetat 500mg, natriumacetat, ättikssyra, sterile water, ISOTON."

So I am curious if anyone can make out from the descriptions above what exactly happened and why the miscolouring occured. It would be interesting to find out what substance or combination of substances caused it.

My lesson learned from this: Don't just use whatever you have that you think will work to desinfect and clean your razor. And I'm happy it didn't happen to a razor that was more precious to me :)

Thank you for reading and for your answers, and I hope my first post followed recommending posting guidelines.

Best regards,

Jx4

You know my opinion from chat- something to do with the gasoline/petroleum. Try metal polish and if that fails, try some fine grit (1000-2000) sandpaper to try to get the staining out. If that doesn't work you could try something coarser, but at that point it may be permanent. If you don't care about the razor I'd do some serious experimenting!

Hello...
I think that maybe I can help you since my study is very much related to chemistry (chemical engineering)... All these ingredients that you listed are organic compounds so there is hardly any chance that this stains are related to electrochemical corrosion and those stains are mostly on surface... It looks to me like they are result of reactions between various ingredients, since you didn't wipe the blade before applying the next liquid... I also have experience in restoring old stuff (old hunting knives, etc.), so I would say that some 800 to 1500 grit sandpaper would do the job in removing those stains... Of course, if there aren't any gold engravings on the blade... And for the final touch use some polisher (paste or sth.) and don't forget to wipe the blade with dry towel/rag as long as there is no polisher stain left on the rag ... Whatever you do, don't press to hard, or don't press at all...:nono: Let the sandpaper do the work for you...

Hope this helps...

Does anyone else think this blade may be untempered?

X

Recently I discovered that water minimally polluted with trichloroacetic acid stains blades as well.
Just use clean water to wet the hone.

+1 on the metal polish. Semichrome, Maas, Flitz, any of those. Welcome to SRP ! :gl:

Re-reading the OP I wondered whether ammonium citrate and amm. oxalate would be the cause of the corrosion: both are salts and we all know that salts accelerate rusting.

FWIW, I've had a razor get a bluish tint along parts of the belly of the blade when I forgot to wipe the soap off after a shave. :o Didn't hurt anything but my pride and it must have been some sort of chemical reaction. Fortunately in my case no corrosion visible in the bevel and the discoloration came off with the fore mentioned Semichrome.

Jx4
Ta-Da you’ve discovered the catalytic reaction. Two or more of your chemicals got together and had a little party. Some chemicals are compatible, some are not. This is called cross linking. This can be good or bad depending on what you want to do.

Cross-linking is the process in which molecules react with each other to form a network. The mechanical and chemical properties of the compound typically change when this happens. Quite a caustic ****tail. Balls-ee, but don’t do that anymore unless you wear gloves and safety glasses so you don’t get any of that crap in your eyes.

Try what Jimmy and Alex recommended to repair or maybe something with some d-limolene in it might re-activate the acidic reaction. Good luck. be careful experimenting with unknowns.

Mike:)

I think maybe just maybe he sorted this out 2 years ago :D



10-23-2008, 11:15 AM

#1
(permalink) Jx4
St. Razor Newbie

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yee hoo! yee hoo! Ghosts in the machine! thanks "G"

:) One of my favorite cult classics film prints there, what an awesome scene with Slim Pickens