Thread: Rust Removal Reccomendations

Hey all. I'm an NJ resident, and due to Sandy my entire razor collection recently got submerged in salt water.

I'm a Henckels man primarily, and surprisingly my 7/8 scalloped back Friodur came out completely unscathed. I cannot say the same for the rest of them, bunch of 50's, a couple 401s, and some other assorted non-Henckels blades.

All I've done so far is hose the lot of them down with WD-40 to displace the water and stop the rust on them from getting any worse. I have some time this weekend though, so I was hoping for a little advice on my approach here.

First question, my brother gave me a can of "Rubachem Loosey Goosey", which he claims will make the rust "fall right off". I'm currently testing this out on a blade I have that never honed right so I'm not worried about losing it. Anyway, does anyone know anything about this stuff, would I be putting myself at risk shaving with a blade that's been treated with it?

Second question, I've had some luck in the past removing surface rust and patina from blades that I've picked up using Maas metal polish and a Dremel with a buffing wheel, but I've never had to remove so much before and I know that the process leaves me with less steel to work with. I've never fully understood what patina is though, so I was wondering if leaving some behind is a bad thing, i.e. will it continue to spread and weaken the steel?

Any other tips or advice would be greatly appreciated, sorry for the long post and sob story.

I would be careful with the chemicals around scales. I saw Gssixgun using Blue Magic on a DD and I got some. Works great and didn't hurt the scales at all. It has to be surface rust and should come of with elbow grease. I have used steel wool also but it scratches and then you have to polish. My motto is start light and work your way up. otherwise you just create more work for yourself.

There have been 100's of threads about using Chemicals and various other methods of "Rust" removal, so far not one has been proved to be useful for razors.. basically no one has found an easy way around doing the work

Red rust, Can be removed with a DE or SE, razor it scrapes right off, the stains under there should be pretty light and come off with some work

Any other rust is going to have pitting under that and it becomes a different problem and solution..

Patina is oxidation (Rust) plain and simple it is controlled and left on the surface... A healthy Patina is formed with age and exposer to air not water and has no staining... Think bright shiny steel but with a slight Grey to the color

What many people here consider "Patina" is actually black spider rust and is much deeper into the steel

The rust you have should be new and active and should be taken off ASAP to keep the damage to a minimum


ps; Your Friodur is INOX steel ie: Stainless Steel it should have faired much better

A lot of rust can be removed by scraping, with steel wool, or with sandpaper. There have been a few discussions of chemical products and processes in the forum here. The general consensus seems to be that most seem to prefer the manual approach (scraping, sanding, buffing).

If you do use a dremel, please be very careful! While they can remove rust and polish quickly, they can also destroy the edge if you aren't paying attention, and as with any rotating tool, have the potential to fling the blade in a decidedly unwanted direction.

Removal of patina is very much a personal decision. Patina will not damage the blade and lots of guys (myself included) actually prefer to leave some patina on vintage blades. So really you can polish it out, but you don't have to. Patina is essentially tarnish.

EDIT: Glen clearly types faster than I...

You need to soak and completely flush those out with several changes of fresh water, if you have not already done so. If not, the salt is going to keep coming out of the pivot area and rusting the blade.

Thanks very much, I did not expect such a quick response! Looks like I have my work cut out for me with polishing then.

What I've discovered so far, if anyone might find this useful to know, is that the black material (bakelite?) that the scales on most of my blades are made from held up fine, but the yellowish material (celluloid?) scales on my 401s warped pretty badly. I don't know if this was from the salt water or the WD-40, but I do know that they're going to need to be rescaled.

It was probably not from the WD-40 I have never had an adverse reaction to razors scales using WD-40 but I still say probably because one never know for sure, I would say the odds are against it

As to salt water I haven't ever tried that experiment and have no plans to, it could be I guess, it could also be that the scales were starting to break down as the dowsing happened and the salt water just exacerbated the normal celluloid breakdown process...

Having been a boat owner I have to agree. GET the salt water off fast !!!!!!

Sorry to hear about your troubles. There are a lot of people's stories of struggles after Hurricane Sandy that aren't getting covered as the media has moved on to the next news cycle. Stay Jersey strong.

That being said, if the blades were in good condition prior to the flooding, your prompt action will go a long way in keeping damages minimized. Deep pitting from rust takes a long time so it's likely what you see is pretty superficial. Starting with the Mothers or Maas is your best bet to start. See what the condition really is. Then, instead of a Dremel, I would start a reverse progression of sand paper by hand. That is, 2000, 1500, 1000, 800 until you see results. Then go back up the progression until the blade is clear and then hand polish.

For my rotation, I dip the blades of my razors in a mix of 2/3 rubbing alcohol and 1/3 mineral oil up past the pivot. The oil floats on top of the alcohol. Or maybe it's the other way around. The alcohol displaces the water and the oil coats the blade.

For longer term storage, get some Camellia oil from one of the SRP vendors.