Cleaning the blade?

[renewingmind]

Greetings,

I've been around here for a while, but didn't have a DE razor until about a month ago. In the pawn stars DE commercial he shows the act of removing the blade and washing it between shaves. Do you do this? Should I be doing this? I'm still a noob at this. I don't get quite as close of a shave as I got with my sensor excel, but I still like shaving this way and want to get better...

joel

 

[mblakele]

It is not universal. Some do. I do not. Every time I manipulate the blade, I figure that is a chance to damage its edge or cut myself. That said I jeans-strop after every shave, but I leave the blade in the razor when I do.

Anyway, keep working on the basics – prep, pressure, angle – and the shaves will arrive.

 

[Jeff_H]

I personally do. I am careful with the blade, but I do whether I use a 3 piece head or a TTO. I also pat it dry gently, dry the rest of the razor and then put it back together. I've not cut myself yet. Does it make any difference...not sure. What I do know is that a dirty blade will certainly shave worse than a clean one.

I would not wipe the blade hard with anything though. If it has any type of a coating on it you might rub it off. Just a gentle pat dry is more than enough. I forget every one in a while though. You may find this does or doesn't work for you, but only you can say. Just exercise appropriate caution. Even the worst DE blade in the world is deadly sharp.

 

[watchiekong]

I wash the blade between after every shave and do a quick strop stroke on a flannel. I've had no blade problems in all 10 plus years of shaving. But this might vary for others.

 

[Shutterbug57]

I rinse the razor with hot water and open the head part way so the water can get to all parts of the blade, then close her up and shake off the excess water. I only get three shaves out I'm my blades, so they are only in the razor for 48 hours. I am not worried about, nor am I seeing rust or other issues.

 

[Joe_Karp]

After each shave I clean the razor and blade with a soft toothbrush and mild soap in hot water.

 

[Eeyore]

I don't. I rinse the razor, shake the water off, and put it away.

Once per month (or two months) I clean the razor with a soft toothbrush.

 

[Alpinebully]

I like to disassemble the razor after each shave and thoroughly clean the razor (handle, base and head) and while the blade is out ill just give it a rinse under hot water then pat it dry on a towel then reassemble the razor ready for use once again.

Travis.

 

[MacDaddy]

I do not. When I'm done I give my razor a swish in the basin as it's draining to get the bulk of the cruft off, and then a rinse under clear water from the tap. Give it a shake to get rid of most of the water and set it aside to dry.

It's possible that there may be some benefit to taking extra steps to dry the blade off -- alcohol dip, drying it separately, etc. -- but most if not all of those practices originated in the days of carbon steel blades, where nearly all the blades that we use today are stainless. Also the blades I use aren't remotely expensive enough for me to even begin to care about small, incremental extensions in blade life. Heck, even doubling or tripling a blade's life wouldn't really be worth it for me. I certainly wouldn't begrudge someone doing any of those things if they enjoyed it or found that it worked for them, but I would definitely not say that it's necessary.

 

[takeshi]

Do you do this?

Nope.

Should I be doing this?

Your call to make. If you want a definitive answer then try it both ways and do whatever works best for you. Polling isn't going to determine what's best for you.

 

[Atalk]

I take my razors apart and to get the blade off. I rinse the razor parts / blade and blow to get the excess water off the blade. Obviously, this is much easier with a TTO razor. I have done this mainly because my daily blade (Astra SP) tend to rust in the razor if I do not get the excess water out.

 

[Joe_Karp]

Shaving is in many ways an extension of cutlery care; If around moisture I always clean the blade before putting it away. Same applies to my DE razor and the installed blade. As a part of the daily ritual, the additional few minutes spent is always worth my time.

 

[athair]

Nope.


Your call to make. If you want a definitive answer then try it both ways and do whatever works best for you. Polling isn't going to determine what's best for you.

This. I don't either, never had corrosion issues or any reason to believe a blade would work better or last longer if I changed my rinse and shake routine. But that doesn't mean you won't see a difference.

 

[ArNav]

I also rinse the razor, shake the water off, and put it away.

 

[Eeyore]

Shaving is in many ways an extension of cutlery care; If around moisture I always clean the blade before putting it away. Same applies to my DE razor and the installed blade. As a part of the daily ritual, the additional few minutes spent is always worth my time.

But cutlery lasts a lifetime, and a blade three or four days.

 

[Haegar]

Shaving is in many ways an extension of cutlery care; If around moisture I always clean the blade before putting it away. Same applies to my DE razor and the installed blade. As a part of the daily ritual, the additional few minutes spent is always worth my time.

But cutlery lasts a lifetime, and a blade three or four days.

Of course, but depending on water quality even stainless blades can develop some rust which then has to be rubbed off the razor to keep it nice and clean.
That said I am lucky enough to live in a place where we have hard water which apparently acts to a certain degree like a rust inhibitor, so that I just rinse the razor and don't even bother releasing the handle a bit and much less open the razor after that.

 

[Kev Kev]

After every shave, I wash & dry the blade, as well as all the parts of the razor—which gets disassembled, cleaned, dried and reassembled for the next day.

 

[Lakebound]

I don't mechanically clean the blade. I use a vintage RazoBrite razor cleaner/soaker. After I shave and while I clean up, I loosed the razor up a bit and soak the razor and blade for about 5-10 minutes in alcohol. After I'm finished cleaning up, the razor is tightened up, shaken out and put back into it's holder. I don't remove the blade, I used to do that .... not anymore.



Frank

 

[renewingmind]

Nope.


Your call to make. If you want a definitive answer then try it both ways and do whatever works best for you. Polling isn't going to determine what's best for you.

Actually this is exactly what I was looking for.

I watched the commercial where he says "rinse it off each day" and I thought I had totally missed the boat on some obvious portion of razor care. I am not the type that will disassemble my razor each day. I think I'll continue with the rinse and shake method I've been using, just making sure I wasn't doing something important totally wrong

Thanks all.

Joel

 

[Badger Bill]

After each use I rinse my razor under running water and then, after letting it sit for a few minutes to dry, I dip it in a small glass jar that I have filled with isopropyl alcohol. I then let it air dry. I never take it apart until I am ready to throw out the blade.... this works very well for me.

This is the jar that I use... picked up a smaller sized one (don't remember which size exactly, off hand) at the container store for a few dollars. Great buy if you ask me.
http://www.containerstore.com/shop/kitchen/foodStorage/canisters?productId=10013282

- Badger Bill