Cleaning DE razors

[MooingLizard]

I was thinking of using baking soda or borax to make a scouring paste with a little water, and rubbing that in with an electric toothbrush. Not sure how scratchy that would be to the finish though. Does anyone know?

Wasn't vinegar mentioned as having very good anti-microbial properties? At only 5% acidity my guess is that it wouldn't kill a razor, but I'll wait for more knowledgeable gents to chime in before I risk an expensive razor in it.

 

[AaronX]

Ok here are some steps I've picked up from all you gents and some I've experimented with.

TTOs
1) If open/close/lock mechanism isn't freely moving pour some CLR (or other brand calcium, lime, rust remover) down the hole in the center plate in the middle of the TTO doors. Often calcium, lime and shave gunk will cause some binding in the shaft. The manufacturer's web site for CLR says not to use on painted surfaces so I'd not recommend soaking an adjustable or any painted razor in it full strength for any length of time. You may also want to lubricate the spring from the bottom of the razor handle with mineral oil.
2) General clean up. Scrubbing bubbles soak seems to get off the majority of the shave gunk. Scrub with a medium tooth brush which seems to work well on the flat surfaces but is not too soft to get into the detail work on many handles.
3) Stuff still stuck in handle detail? Pick at it with a tooth pick. Soak and brush with scrubbing bubbles again.
4) Once clean. Barbicide soak for 10 min as per manufacturer directions. You want to do this before polishing because many metal polishes have a film or protectant layer they leave behind.
5) Polish. Now I've tried 5 different types of polish (Nevrdull, Brasso, Maas, Noxon, and Imperial 1 Nanopolish) and I'm going to give my opinion here. I find Brasso is more abrasive then it really needs to be on the nickel. This is because Brasso was first made for cleaning copper cookware and that stuff is solid copper so they didn't need to worry much about plate loss. I dislike the smell of Nevrdull and it seems to leave somewhat of a streaky film for me. Best of all was the Maas that I picked up at Walgreens. It is slightly abrasive, not as much so as Brasso, and works really well with a microfiber cloth. It also leaves behind a coating that helps protect the metal (water beads up on it, etc) so that should help protect your clean, disinfected, shiny razor.

 

[Androclese]

A compilation of information on cleaning would make a superb wiki entry.

I'd be willing to pull things together into a wiki article, but I do have one question, but it may not be appropriate for this thread. Does B & B have guidelines for what should be a wiki article and what should be a sticky? for my money a wiki article always makes more sence for something that you want to use for reference.

 

[moses]

I'd be willing to pull things together into a wiki article, but I do have one question, but it may not be appropriate for this thread. Does B & B have guidelines for what should be a wiki article and what should be a sticky? for my money a wiki article always makes more sence for something that you want to use for reference.

I am pretty sure we do not have specific guidelines one that. Or any guidelines really. The stickies are the traditional way of doing this, as they are part of the forum inherently, while the wiki is a fairly recent development, and still very much under construction.

Personally, I agree that the wiki is the best place to have a reference. Probably most people would agree. I think the goal is to gradually move reference materials from the stickies to the wikis as we build the wiki.

-Mo

 

[Hoos]

Another forum went through a similar "growing pain". For a while, info was kept in both the sticky posts and the wiki. Then, the content in the sticky posts was replaced with a link to the article in the wiki.

It took about a year for everything to transfer over, but it went smoothly. It helped get "the regulars" in the habit of referring to the wiki and posting info there. Newer members just expected to find info in the wiki, not in sticky posts.

That was a tech forum. So YMMV here.

 

[Androclese]

Ok then I'll start working on that today I'm recuperating from surgery and it will give me something to do.

 

[MooingLizard]

I soaked my Schick Krona in warm water with dishsoap overnight and noticed some gunk that had appeared around the Schick label on the end of the handle. Apparently it was adhesive- when I started to work on the gunk with a Q-tip, the label came off in pieces, revealing a shiny metal cap. It's only cosmetic damage, so no worries, but that was an awfully pretty label.

Conclusion: best not to touch any labels or anything that you don't know is metal or hard plastic.

 

[Androclese]

What is the purpose of foil with the hot water? Does that help "save" the finish? I've found that borax works just fine without it. Could I be missing something?

I dug out one of my college chemistry books and did a little research. In the simplest terms, Turns out that in the case of tarnished silver, the borax/salt solution makes the aluminum look sexier to the molecules in the silver tarnish than the silver looks, so they dump the silver for the aluminum, no more tarnish on the silver.

You shouldn't have to use an abrasive paste with this method.

 

[Androclese]

Folks,

I just wanted to update this thread with a link to the new wiki article I'll also be posting a seperate thread in the safety razor forum.

 

[MooingLizard]

Kurt,

Great job on the Wiki! It obviously isn't quite as comprehensive as this thread, but it manages to hit the important and less controversial aspects concisely and succinctly, and it's a heck of a lot faster than reading through this mile-long sticky. Nice to see that all the time and effort you put into this paid off.

Now if we can just get the more experienced users to help improve the content.

 

[asat00]

I just read a post where a guy used Wright's silver cream. I would imagine that any sliver tarnish remover would probably work on razors that are solid metal. have not tried it myself but sounds good to me.

 

[Confuzius]

What about just regular maintenance?
I've got a new Merkur, should I just tilex it every once in a while to bust the soap scum?

 

[rodd]

I searched and did not see anything on this topic, but I am sorry if I missed it. I bought a gillette new, with a lot of green, can I use the same methods on a brass razor as with silver/chrome plated? I thought about using a gentle brass wire brush to clean out the grooves in the handle, but brass on brass, I was afraid of scratching it too much. I worked with soapy water and a tooth brush, but that did not get it far. I thought about brasso but I was not sure how that would work with the grooves. Any advice would be appreciated.

 

[moses]

What about just regular maintenance?
I've got a new Merkur, should I just tilex it every once in a while to bust the soap scum?

That's what I do. Can't think of any reason to do anything else.

-Mo

 

[DirtyDave]

I searched and did not see anything on this topic, but I am sorry if I missed it. I bought a gillette new, with a lot of green, can I use the same methods on a brass razor as with silver/chrome plated? I thought about using a gentle brass wire brush to clean out the grooves in the handle, but brass on brass, I was afraid of scratching it too much. I worked with soapy water and a tooth brush, but that did not get it far. I thought about brasso but I was not sure how that would work with the grooves. Any advice would be appreciated.

Confuzius

I bought a similar razor last year and I let it soak in Simple Green for several days. It was nasty looking. Most of it floated off or came off by scrubbing it with a toothbrush and Simple Green. Finished it up with Maas and elbow grease and it come out clean and shiny.

 

[hmhoek]

What about soaking in a washing soda (AKA soda ash, AKA sodium carbonate) solution? It's not supposed to be used on aluminum but I don't see any warnings about brass or chrome. I just got a Gillette Slim Adjustable (date K4) off ebay today and soaking it in hot washing soda for an hour or so removed all visible traces of dirt.

As for gold plating, aqua regia (hydrochloric + nitric acid) and sodium cyanide are the only things I know for sure that dissolve gold. Don't soak your razor in either of those

 

[ShaveyMcShave]

Hi All,

I've read through most of this post, but haven't been able to find an optimal solution for my particular razor. I've recently purchased a Gillette 'Super Speed' razor with black tip. Apparently it's an aluminium handled razor, so I'm not really sure what would be best to use for polishing it up. I'm worried about either ruining the metal finish or stripping off the black tip...

I live in the UK, so unfortunately don't have access to CLR, which would probably be my first choice...

Thanks in advance!

 

[ShaveyMcShave]

To be more specific, the razor I have is in pretty good nick at the moment...here's a pic:

But I want to get it looking like this:

thoughts?

 

[tjtoml]

I'm surprised no one has mentioned baking soda and vinegar. The only problem I could see is that the plating could be compromised by the acidity of the vinegar. Has anyone tried this?

HC[sub]2[/sub]H[sub]3[/sub]O[sub]2[/sub] + NaHCO[sub]3[/sub] → NaC[sub]2[/sub]H[sub]3[/sub]O[sub]2[/sub] + H[sub]2[/sub]O + CO[sub]2[/sub]

Is the reaction for this (Acetic acid (HC[sub]2[/sub]H[sub]3[/sub]O[sub]2[/sub]) is the active ingredient in vinegar). As you can see, it really only creates a negligible amount of Sodium Acetate and some water and carbon dioxide. There is a neat foaming action, which probably does something to loosen the gunk or whatever, but this is effectively just cleaning your piece with water.

However, scrubbing with baking soda or soaking in vinegar may help - acids are generally very helpful when cleaning, and the baking soda would probably make a pretty good light abrasive.

To be more specific, the razor I have is in pretty good nick at the moment...here's a pic:

But I want to get it looking like this:

thoughts?

My 53' Super speed looked almost exactly like that before I cleaned it... I used Boiling Water, Some dish soap, Some spray-on Oxy-Clean, Some jewelry cleaner (didn't do much, if anything) some Kaboom! and some Goddard's Long Shine Brass and Copper Polish

 

[razorthief]

oh yeah now that makes sense!