Thread: Actual Testing OMG - Alcohol and Razors

Maybe the next test should be a shot of a good single malt every hour, followed by shaving a volunteer thirty minutes after the shot. Continue until bottle empty or no more volunteers.

Originally Posted by sharptonn

Hows the head, Glenn? Rusting above the liquid line would indicate to me that water evaporating from the alcohol is condensing on the blades. I think I read that the guy just bought 2 razors and Immersed the whole things. Gee, scales and all? "The effects of celluloid scales and blades totally immersed in alcohol!" No telling what melting scales mixed with alcohol would do!

Plus don't forget all the other "Stuff" on the scales the soap, skin, blood, crud... all that has a chemical make up... I thought about tossing in a whole razor, and trying one in just water during this test...
The spots that are rusting I was thinking a droplet splash when I poured the alcohol, I should have poured it first, and then set the razors in but I didn't...

Thanks Glen for doing the testing! I believe that it does show that Alcohol won't harm a razor when used as a sanitizer.

Originally Posted by whavens

Maybe the next test should be a shot of a good single malt every hour, followed by shaving a volunteer thirty minutes after the shot. Continue until bottle empty or no more volunteers.

Loved it!

Great study Glen. I once wiped a carbon steel blade with alcohol, wiped it dry and walked away. The next day black spots had appeared. They polished out fine and I learned a lesson about oiling / re-oiling after disinfecting.

Originally Posted by dmcconnell

Great study Glen. I once wiped a carbon steel blade with alcohol, wiped it dry and walked away. The next day black spots had appeared. They polished out fine and I learned a lesson about oiling / re-oiling after disinfecting.

This is exactly why I wanted to try it out as I have had a razor turn black after an hour or so too...
So with all kinds of different responses/results every time this comes up, I figured we could at least have some testing on real Straight Razors since I had them sitting around and IIRC the Alcohol cost me all of maybe $2

Alcohol (C3H8O) itself obviously won't cause rust. But if you are using a low concentration solution that has WATER in it, then you will run the risk of rusting. I guess Glen's experiment sheds a little light on how low you can safely go. I would assume that the rust spots from the splash occurred because the alcohol there quickly evaporated, leaving behind some water residue. But in the solution itself, there must not be enough free water to cause rusting.

I wonder how long you'd have to let it sit for enough alcohol to evaporate to cause rust under the liquid line.... And how low (in concentration) can you safely go. Those would actually be interesting tests.

Originally Posted by holli4pirating

Alcohol (C3H8O) itself obviously won't cause rust. But if you are using a low concentration solution that has WATER in it, then you will run the risk of rusting. I guess Glen's experiment sheds a little light on how low you can safely go. I would assume that the rust spots from the splash occurred because the alcohol there quickly evaporated, leaving behind some water residue. But in the solution itself, there must not be enough free water to cause rusting.

I wonder how long you'd have to let it sit for enough alcohol to evaporate to cause rust under the liquid line.... And how low (in concentration) can you safely go. Those would actually be interesting tests.

How would wood working/painting denatured alcohol work? It's a lot more expensive, and I'm not sure if there is H2O in it! Any thoughts?

The alcohol's evaporation leaving H20 makes sense. Thanks!

Just wondering!

Originally Posted by holli4pirating

Alcohol (C3H8O) itself obviously won't cause rust. But if you are using a low concentration solution that has WATER in it, then you will run the risk of rusting. I guess Glen's experiment sheds a little light on how low you can safely go. I would assume that the rust spots from the splash occurred because the alcohol there quickly evaporated, leaving behind some water residue. But in the solution itself, there must not be enough free water to cause rusting.

I wonder how long you'd have to let it sit for enough alcohol to evaporate to cause rust under the liquid line.... And how low (in concentration) can you safely go. Those would actually be interesting tests.

Except the higher concentration started rusting the razor faster under the line.... we had to wait about 3 hours to start seeing the changes... You must have missed that part, it is very subtle change but it is there

Originally Posted by gssixgun

Except the higher concentration started rusting the razor faster under the line.... we had to wait about 3 hours to start seeing the changes... You must have missed that part, it is very subtle change but it is there

No, I didn't miss that. I said that pure alcohol won't cause rust, but the water used to dilute it might; from the information you provided, all your alcohol solutions were diluted. Your setup begins to suggest a timeframe in which that might happen; the importance of which I alluded to in my proposed followup question. Did you happen to note more precisely than at the next complete hour when that started to happen for the different concentrations? Do you know what the alcohol contents actually were at that time?

(The mental picture I'm forming suggests that at higher concentrations, the change in concentration with respect to time will be higher than at lower concentrations - a greater concentration of alcohol near the surface means a greater rate of alcohol evaporation than if there was water occupying the surface and preventing the alcohol from escaping. No idea if the rate of change of concentration vs concentration would be linear or not... but I'm inclined to think not.)

Also interesting that the buffed razors show rust first... more information about the surface textures of the razors would be helpful, as that appears to be a variable that affects the outcome. That is another possible reason (different surface texture) that one of the buffed razors began to rust before the other. Many variables makes it impossible to figure out which one (or more) is actually causing the varying outcomes.