Thread: Best way to remove oil on straight razor

Don't use force at all. I use a very light cloth designed to wipe off water from drinking glass. You just want to remove moisture.

Originally Posted by frustratedSRuser

I was wondering. Would running a washcloth from the spine down to the edge of the blade bend the blade? I don't know how much it takes for the blade to bend.

Try to use some common sense. The razor will not bend as much as your steak knife will ever bend.

wrap your cloth, towel, tissue,... over the spine and while holding the razor with the edge facing away from you press your finger over the spine and blade, lightly squeeze your cloth by moving up and down the blade. Usually I only wipe from heel to toe several times so my fingers and towel or cloth exit the toe side.

Just eyeball and make sure not to get to close to the edge.

This is probably a stupid question, but can I blow on it instead?

Originally Posted by Otto

Don't use force at all. I use a very light cloth designed to wipe off water from drinking glass. You just want to remove moisture.

Just wipe the damn blade! Exactly as Max said! Its never going 2 bend..unless its a Zeepk

I am going to be brutally honest with you here.

If you cannot handle wiping moisture/oil off of the blade. Maybe straight razors are not for you.

It comes in somewhere around letter A in the ABC's of straight razor shaving.

I was just trying to figure out why my razor went dull on me. Now that I think back on it, it was probably how I was using the strop.

Originally Posted by Slartibartfast

I am going to be brutally honest with you here.

If you cannot handle wiping moisture/oil off of the blade. Maybe straight razors are not for you.

It comes in somewhere around letter A in the ABC's of straight razor shaving.

I keep a box of kleenex tissue in the razor area to wipe my blade. I do not wipe the edge. The linen strop will take care of that for me. That is before the shave. After shaving I wipe it, strop with leather only and then put it up until the next time. So far so good.

Originally Posted by Slartibartfast

I am going to be brutally honest with you here.

If you cannot handle wiping moisture/oil off of the blade. Maybe straight razors are not for you.

It comes in somewhere around letter A in the ABC's of straight razor shaving.

Go easy on the guy- he probably has one razor and doesn't want to screw it up. Aren't you a moderator? Way to be helpful. Granted, it isn't the most exciting question, but we aren't all confident and/or ingenious enough to go ahead with certain small aspects of shaving without asking questions first. THe initial answers he was getting weren't exactly descriptive either. I get sick of reading the same questions over and over in this forum, but I haven't seen a question about oil in this section yet.

You probably dulled the razor by stropping poorly. You could remove oil from the very edge by stropping on something other than your plain leather finishing strop such as the back side of the strop. Oil on the very edge shouldn't be much of a problem though after rinsing and using it for a pass or two.

Come on though, granted it may not be common sense to everyone, but after a few responses on how to do it - especially a full on method statement by Max, the guy still asks 'can I blow on it instead.'

Where do you draw the line on someone's competency?

Ok. So let me get something straight. You say i'm incompetent, but you think a straight razors edge is never going to bend? Um, isn't that what a strop is for? To re-align the edge after use? I'm not the incompetent one. Especially when you believe Max's comment that "razor will not bend as much as your steak knife will ever bend." Steak knives are made of stainless steel, not carbon steel, and they're a lot thicker. So you can see why I don't agree with his comment.

Originally Posted by Scipio

Come on though, granted it may not be common sense to everyone, but after a few responses on how to do it - especially a full on method statement by Max, the guy still asks 'can I blow on it instead.'

Where do you draw the line on someone's competency?