Thread: cleaning a filthy eBay razor

Just bought a black king (tang says "GEBR. BECKER, SOLINGEN GERMANY" and "BLACK KING") razor with celluloid scales. from eBay and it was positively filthy. No rust, but a few black tarnish spots and there was a ton of gunk caked up inside the scales. It reeked also, no way in hell would I want to put it next to my face.

So, I figured it needed a good scrubbing. I wasn't sure what to use so I broke into my brewery cleaning supplies (I am extremely anal about sanitation and cleanliness of my brewing equipment). I use PBW (powdered brewery wash) in warm water to soak crusty gunk and crap out of glass carboys, plastic hoses, etc. so I figured I'd try it.

Well, I made up some and gave the entire razor a soak while I ate dinner, then swabbed it out with q-tips, a soft cloth and then gave it a really good rinse. The PBW completely ate all the crap and gunk out of it and cleaned it up nicely without hurting anything. This stuff is amazing, it will eat the nastiest crap right out of the inside of a plastic tube and not hurt anything, works on glass, stainless, carbon steel, vinyl, silicon, etc. Don't even have to scrub it if you just want to let it soak. You more experienced guys might take a look at this stuff and see what you think about it. You can even use it for a turbocharged laundry detergent to get really bad grease and stains out although it's a bit pricey for this

Now that it's clean I can see that it's in fairly good shape but there's a little bit of a tiny sliver missing from the inside edge of one of the scales but it's not obvious unless you really look at it. Anyway, I sprayed it down with starsan (a contact food grade sanitizer that basically kills everything on contact) then rinsed it again. It's duller than crap, so I'll send it off for a honing but at least it's clean now!

In the pic it looks like it's got a small nick out of the blade but it doesn't, just a trick of the flash. Not the greatest razor in the world but when I got it the thing was black with gunk.

-- Gary F.

That PBW sounds like good stuff. Do you have the chemical name for it so I can try to find some in NZ ?.

Cheers

Gary

Don't know of any other name for it, but you can get the MSDS and the tech sheet at the mfgr website: http://www.fivestarchemicals.com/products.asp?id=7

Pretty much any homebrew shop here in the states sells it, I'd imagine you can probably get it there too.

-- Gary F.

Thanks Mr Foster.

I'll see what I can find coz we drink heaps of beer down here too.

Gary

I'm wondering if it might be too agressive for the steel to hold an edge afterward. You might need to wear down the edge a little before one takes. That's not such a bad thing thoug since most ebay specials already need some edge work. Can't wait for other to weigh in here.

X

Well, now that it's clean I'm going to send it to Joe to hone for me. If he notices anything weird with the edge or the metal I'm sure he'll let me know.

-- Gary F.

Gary, if you mean Joe Chandler I can definitely say I received a razor from him that shaved at 20'.

I'm sure the edge was nuclear honed or something, boy does it shave.

Gary

The tech sheet in your link suggests heating the entire solution. Did you heat your solution up when cleaning the razor, or just let it soak? Might have to pick up some of that stuff.

I always mix it using hot water, I've found that it works loads better when it's hot... so yeah, I guess you could say I heated it first because I mixed the powder with hot water.

It works well cool or near room temp too, but it works more quickly and more effectively when it's hot.

-- Gary F.

Originally Posted by gfoster

I always mix it using hot water, I've found that it works loads better when it's hot... so yeah, I guess you could say I heated it first because I mixed the powder with hot water.

It works well cool or near room temp too, but it works more quickly and more effectively when it's hot.

-- Gary F.

Probably similar to dissolving sugar into hot water versus cold water.