Razor Care

[tome]

Gents and Ladies (?),

While awaiting my first razor and strop I now wonder if my small bathroom will cause me problems. I have a medicine cabinet, but the bathroom does get foggy during a shower of almost any length.

Can I store my razor in the bathroom medicine cabinet without worry? Is there an easy way to do this safely or to clean it every once in a while to avoid problems?

I also ordered my first strop from Tony (yes yes, I'm going all out on my newbie purchases but I've always wanted to shave properly). Is it going to destroy the strop if I keep it hanging in the bathroom? Is there a way to take care of it so that it is ok, or must I find some way to store my razor and strop outside the bathroom if I want to keep both these quality tools for many years to come?

Now I'm worried within a few weeks I'll have rust, ruined the pins, and have a curling or cracking strop!

Come to think of it, can someone describe their general razor and strop care as well? How should I be cleaning them daily, weekly, yearly? Is there something I can do to maintain them? SO many things to learn!

[FiReSTaRT]

I'd keep it in the sock drawer (no joke). Mine stay in the living room.

[BBSWANNABE]

Keep the razors in a sock drawer, or if you wanna get a separate space for them, a nice cigar box. Out of the bathroom is best. I keep my strop in the bathroom closet, and bring it out to strop before I shower. This has worked fine for me, but I've conditioned my strops with a small bit of mink oil. Don't leave either razors or strops out in the shower fog, and you'll be fine.

[DwarvenChef]

I have all my stuff in a micro bathroom, read small apt... So far I've had zero problems. Not to say that they could happen, but I'm a bit nuts about carbon steel and don't let them go very long without inspection. So far I have seen nothing bad happening to them.

Alot has to do with the base humidity of your area. I'm dry here for the most part so the mist doesnt last but a few minutes.

[tome]

I have a feeling we have similar humidity if the SRP map has anything to say about it.

So you keep both your razors And your strop in the bathroom... that's good news. Is there any cleaning one Can do to prevent problems? I'm worried too about the strop, all that wetness can't be good...

[DwarvenChef]

As long as it's conditioned well and not high up, in the mist, I would not worry... but thats me. I just keep them dry and wipe them down well after use with a cotton disc. If the disc shows anything like corrosion I'll get a touch of MAAS, polish and wipe down the blade. So far that has only popped up once on a blade that was in bad shape to beguin with. It has sence been cleaned up and I haven't had anything sence...

[Blade Wielder]

My bathroom is constantly fogging up and it's never damaged any of my razors. The thought has crossed my mind of course, and just today I opened my mirrored, oak medicine cabinet to inspect a few of my razors. The one I grabbed first was naturally the one I paid the most for -- my Thiers-Issard 7/8. The thing's carbon steel, and allegedly the most tempermental (excuse the pun) with regards to moisture. (What do you mean you don't get it? Temper? Metal? Haw haw.)

And the moisture is in there. The thing shined like a mirror, though. I was impressed. All of my babies were very healthy.

[kuoytfouy]

How do you properly dry the razor after rinsing? I do dry the blade with a gentle stropping motion on a towel or paper tissue but it's really difficult to completely remove water from around the pivot area. I have a "Best Quality" Dovo which has been a learning razor for me and already in a couple of months it started showing signs of rusting near the pivot. I don't care much if this particular razor rusts but I don't know how to avoid this in a dearer blade.

[Rajagra]

How do you properly dry the razor after rinsing? I do dry the blade with a gentle stropping motion on a towel or paper tissue but it's really difficult to completely remove water from around the pivot area. I have a "Best Quality" Dovo which has been a learning razor for me and already in a couple of months it started showing signs of rusting near the pivot. I don't care much if this particular razor rusts but I don't know how to avoid this in a dearer blade.

I tap the razor against a towel to remove droplets from inside the scales, seems to work better than running a cloth between the scales. I hope this dries the pivot too, but I still worry about it. I've thought of using a dry old toothbrush to clean and dry the pivot, but so far that doesn't seem to be necessary.

[StephenSaenz]

I have the same question. And I do the tapping against a towel but then I move the blade and blow hard into the scales and pivot takes about half a minute to do because i move the blade a few time to attempt to remove the maxium amount of water from the scales but after a week I see black residue in the pivot which I make a paper football out of bathroom tissue a.k.a toilet paper and use the tip to remove the black residue what is the black residue