Razor Cleaning Guide

Let's talk about single and double edged razors and the blades that they use.
slackskin
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Re: Razor Cleaning Guide

Post by slackskin »

A new method -- thought it may be of interest to forum readers.

Those living in areas with soft water may not be familiar with a kitchen product called Finish. It is a blue liquid sold at the grocery store, Costco, Target, etc and is intended to put into your dishwasher to remove soap scum and spots from glasses and dishes. My "brilliant" idea was -– if it gets rid of soap scum in the dishwasher, perhaps it would get rid of soap scum on razors. Voila! I took a plastic cup, put two razors in it without disassembly, and soaked in a solution of 25% Finish and 75% water. After doing other things for an hour, I went back to find all the crud gone, and the razors were clean as new. No scrubbing, no work. All nooks and crannies absolutely clean. It occurs to me that this would be especially good for TTO razors, which have a lot of difficult places.
CMur12
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Re: Razor Cleaning Guide

Post by CMur12 »

Wow, that is good to know! I have a lot of old Gillettes, from user grade to near mint, and some of them might still benefit from this.

It's disappointing that the market for vintage razors has almost completely dried up. A user-grade Gillette is still an inexpensive way to get started, but a plethora of new razors for reasonable prices put the vintage market out of business.

Thanks for the good tip, slackskin!

- Murray
brothers
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Re: Razor Cleaning Guide

Post by brothers »

Craig, thanks for passing along this good information!
Gary

SOTD 99%: Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, soaps & creams, synthetic / badger brushes, Colonial General razor, Kai & Schick blades, straight razors any time, Superior 70 aftershave splash + menthol + 444
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Pauldog
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Re: Razor Cleaning Guide

Post by Pauldog »

I wonder if other dishwasher and laundry "boosters" would have the same effect.
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Pauldog
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Re: Razor Cleaning Guide

Post by Pauldog »

I only had one razor with some buildup, and it was pretty mild. I soaked it in some (approx) 5% Oxi-Clean dishwasher booster with hot tap water, swished the razor around for a little while, and waited 5-10 minutes, and got good results.

My guess is that I'd get good results with a cruddier razor if I waited longer, maybe concentrated the solution more, and used somewhat hotter water.
brothers
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Re: Razor Cleaning Guide

Post by brothers »

Worth trying!
Gary

SOTD 99%: Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, soaps & creams, synthetic / badger brushes, Colonial General razor, Kai & Schick blades, straight razors any time, Superior 70 aftershave splash + menthol + 444
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Pauldog
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Possible caution about electric dishwasher boosters

Post by Pauldog »

I tried a longer soaking with Oxi-Clean booster and a Schick adjustable injector razor (Type M2), and something happened that might or might not have been caused by that. I had just gotten the razor in the mail, and I didn't check the condition carefully except to notice that it was dirty. After I removed the razor from its overnight soak and scrubbed it gently, I noticed some of the plating on the head peeling off. One layer came off, but the head didn't look any different, so there must be at least one more layer of chrome there.

I took a closer look at the head, and there was some yellowish metal already showing on the edges, so it's possible that the plating would have peeled off anyway. But it means that we can't feel 100% safe using these boosters yet.

I'd never seen plating peel off that much. It wasn't as though it was bubbling and coming off easily all over the place, but some areas near the edges were loose, and easy to peel off with a fingernail, and then it was fairly easy to take off one whole layer.
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John Rose
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Re: Razor Cleaning Guide

Post by John Rose »

A G*U*M Proxabrush is great for scrubbing between the moving and fixed plates in the head of an adjustable.
Image

I use the blue ones, because they are larger.

Also good for Schick injector razors with HydroMagic, and those little tiny alignment holes in a RazoRock Hawk baseplate.
Image
"If this isn't nice, then what is?" - Kurt Vonnegut's Uncle Alex
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