When I receive some electronic gizmo I usually take the desiccant packs and toss them in one of my SR storage boxes. I amuse myself by thinking they are doing some good. But I wonder if this is the case -- are they useful? I can't imagine they last forever...once they absorb a certain amount of moisture they must be rendered less effective and should be replaced. How often to replace? How do you control humidity of your SR storage?
What are your thoughts on desiccant packs?
- Thread starter Rusty Blade
- Start date
I use them. But not with horn or ivory scaled razors, since they can make the air in a sealed box too dry, and maybe crack the scales.
If you want to reuse the packets they can be dried by putting them in the oven, on the absolute lowest heat, for a couple of hours.
If you want to reuse the packets they can be dried by putting them in the oven, on the absolute lowest heat, for a couple of hours.
I keep my blades in sealed Tupperware containers with silica packets. The containers are sealed so I don’t see the silica having to suck up any excess moisture. Perhaps if you live in Florida or on saltwater the packets could be changed. Warming them in the oven will remove any moisture. There are silica packs that change colour when over moisturized (red) and turn green after drying them in the oven. You can also just throw them out and replace them with cheap packets from Amazon you can buy by the hundreds for peanuts.
Visit your local camera shop and be nice. Or better yet, send a pretty girl in for you.
Camera bags come shipped with dozens of packets, and camera stores throw out pounds of the stuff. The irony is, they also sell prepackaged silica, so....
Camera bags come shipped with dozens of packets, and camera stores throw out pounds of the stuff. The irony is, they also sell prepackaged silica, so....
I think they taste better than freeze-dried meals.
I use them because I don't keep my razors in sealed tight containers. I use speedball pencil cases and I find that the desicant is most useful after a razor was used. I move the desicant pack close to the used razor to absorb any left over water on the pivot area. I've had good luck with that method as I haven't seen any rust issues at the pivots.
Larry
Larry
I keep my razors in draws and I use them in those draws and no rust up to now. Living in the UK we have a lot of damp here.
I do not eat them.
Slash McCoy
I freehand dog rockets
When I send someone a razor in the mail I always include a dessicant pack. It and the razor are sealed up in a ziplock bag. Just a bit of healthy paranoia. They are cheap. Really cheap. Cheap enough that i don't bother recycling the ones i get in stuff I buy or is sent to me. But yeah you can dry them out and re-use them if you want. Lowest temp in the kitchen oven works fine. Don't try to microwave them. It will end badly.
- Thread starter
- #10
I have a large tote box with several layers of smaller totes inside with vintage DE and SE razors and my DE blade collection. I put in a couple of these closet dehumidifiers in to attend to dampness, especially in summer months. I replace them a couple of times a year. Couple of bucks each at Dollar Store.
- Thread starter
- #11
I am going to order some packs from Amazon. I have a bunch of 7 day rolls for SRs made from felt. I am going to put a couple of desiccant packs in each roll.
I skip the desiccants altogether. I've heard too many horror stories of desiccant packs that were forgotten, got saturated, became humidifiers, and did thousands of dollars worth of damage inside gun safes. These days, I use Volatile Corrosion Inhibitor (VCI) tabs. Way more effective, and safer than desiccants. They're used to extensively in industry to prevent corrosion of high value parts. They work like magic and they're cheap to boot. I get mine on Amazon.
Kousuke Iwasaki was a big proponent of VCI. He experimented extensively with various oils and found VCI paper significantly outperformed everything else for preserving his carbon steel razors. Iwasaki wrote about VCI in his textbook for barbers, which was translated to English a few years back. My Iwasaki tamahagane western SR still sleeps in the VCI blanket it came shipped 50 years ago. I put a fresh VCI tab in every year. It still looks brand new.
Kousuke Iwasaki was a big proponent of VCI. He experimented extensively with various oils and found VCI paper significantly outperformed everything else for preserving his carbon steel razors. Iwasaki wrote about VCI in his textbook for barbers, which was translated to English a few years back. My Iwasaki tamahagane western SR still sleeps in the VCI blanket it came shipped 50 years ago. I put a fresh VCI tab in every year. It still looks brand new.
I also use VCI paper. Every razor I own is wrapped in VCI after it has been dried and then placed into a narrow ziplock bag.
I use them extensively.
Straight razors get wiped dry (the pivot gets a drop of oil on each side) and stored in a toothbrush case with a cotton ball in each end to prevent rattling, and a silica packet.
The toothbrush cases then go into a plastic shoe box, with a silica packet the size of a wallet.
When my brushes are completely dry, they go into a pill bottle with a silica packet.
The pill bottles then go into another plastic shoebox with a silica packet the size of a wallet.
Straight razors get wiped dry (the pivot gets a drop of oil on each side) and stored in a toothbrush case with a cotton ball in each end to prevent rattling, and a silica packet.
The toothbrush cases then go into a plastic shoe box, with a silica packet the size of a wallet.
When my brushes are completely dry, they go into a pill bottle with a silica packet.
The pill bottles then go into another plastic shoebox with a silica packet the size of a wallet.
I make my own dessicant containers. Not for razors, but for tools in the tropics. But it would work fine for razors.
Buy bulk silica. Buy a bulk pack of a dozen salt shakers from amazon. glass with metal lids. fill with silica. dry it out in a warm oven. put one or two in a container that seals tightly and put your steel objects in the container as well.
you can dry out the salt shakers over and over.
avoid buying the "other" dessicant, which is salt based. you can't dry that stuff out. it gets wet and you have to throw it out.
Buy bulk silica. Buy a bulk pack of a dozen salt shakers from amazon. glass with metal lids. fill with silica. dry it out in a warm oven. put one or two in a container that seals tightly and put your steel objects in the container as well.
you can dry out the salt shakers over and over.
avoid buying the "other" dessicant, which is salt based. you can't dry that stuff out. it gets wet and you have to throw it out.
