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how to remove soap buildup from razor head?

I dunno. After each shave I take the blade out, rinse it and place it on a block I have for that purpose. The razor I rinse and wipe down. Never had a problem and we don't have soft water either.
 
Here are the before and after pictures. What I have tried so far:
(1) soak in laundry rinse for a few hours then scrub with ultra soft tooth brush (my only option)
(2) soak in hot water for a few hours (water cools off obviously) then scrub with same ultra soft toothbrush
(3) use alcohol wipe to try and scrape off some of the difficult bits.

As you can tell it's still not clean and I have no idea how to get the various holes cleaned.
 

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Most times Dawn and a toothbrush will do the job.

Until late last year I lived in a house with well water, so I got into a routine of breaking down my DE after every shave and quickly wiping any leftover scum off with a wet paper towel and letting it dry before I put it away. 3-4 times a year I'd use Dawn and toothbrush for a good cleaning. Scrubbing Bubbles and other cleaners and polishers were only used on new ebay purchases.

I now live in an apartment with softer water, so I only wipe down my DE when I change blades - every 2 uses. The razors that I've been using for 11+ years, including a 1952 SuperSpeed, could almost pass for brand new. They still look that good.
 
I'm calling pics or it didn't happen. OP's razor is stainless steel. If you can etch SS with BKF and a toothbrush, I'd be genuinely interested in such sorcery. I've included a pic of my 6 year-old SS ATT razor that I've used this method on consistently. And just for fun I threw in a brass head as well - brass being considerably softer than SS.

Both cleaned prior to pic with BKF and toothbrush.

View attachment 1260432

we have etched all clad stainless steel lids with bar keepers friend on accident. The active ingredient is oxalic acid. There is a reason the instructions say leave the paste on for just 1 minute or so. If you leave it longer it will etch the steel.
 
we have etched all clad stainless steel lids with bar keepers friend on accident. The active ingredient is oxalic acid. There is a reason the instructions say leave the paste on for just 1 minute or so. If you leave it longer it will etch the steel.
I have etched stainless cookware as well. BKF is a last resort.

NotthatMatt your razors look to be tumbled finishes so you may not notice anything other than a swirl here or there. Not adised for plating or high polished finishes.
 
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Here are the before and after pictures. What I have tried so far:
(1) soak in laundry rinse for a few hours then scrub with ultra soft tooth brush (my only option)
(2) soak in hot water for a few hours (water cools off obviously) then scrub with same ultra soft toothbrush
(3) use alcohol wipe to try and scrape off some of the difficult bits.

As you can tell it's still not clean and I have no idea how to get the various holes cleaned.
Try some toothpaste or baking soda.
 
You might try a baking soda containing toothpaste. Most pastes today don't have it. Look carefully at the contents. Vinegar dissolved in water is also good. Put say 3 parts water and 1 part vinegar. First wait for 1-2 minutes and inspect the razor. If it doesn't work keep for 1-2 minutes more. Do not leave for more than 5 minutes.
 
Most times Dawn and a toothbrush will do the job. A word of caution about pipe cleaners. Some had a internal metal wire that can pop out and scratch what your cleaning.

This is what I do. Dawn and a soft toothbrush. Works for me!
 
I use this for razor cleaning. Just a quick squirt, let it soak for a while, rinse off (geez...almost like a sex lesson).
Works great on gunge deep down in the Fatboy handles too.
Depends where you live...a similar shower scum eating product may be available near you? But it probably won't have such a cool name.
Shower Bastard 2 Litre Shower Cleaner and 500ml Spray Bottle | Trade Me Marketplace - https://www.trademe.co.nz/a/marketplace/home-living/cleaning-bins/cleaning-supplies/listing/3071248924?bof=iS2sTFEz
 
Nice try, NotThatMatt, but the OP razor is a Feather AS-D2. It is not raw stainless steel like your ATT razor. It is coated with an extremely thin layer of chrome. BKF could potentially mar the coating.
we have etched all clad stainless steel lids with bar keepers friend on accident. The active ingredient is oxalic acid. There is a reason the instructions say leave the paste on for just 1 minute or so. If you leave it longer it will etch the steel.
I have etched stainless cookware as well. BKF is a last resort.

NotthatMatt your razors look to be tumbled finishes so you may not notice anything other than a swirl here or there. Not adised for plating or high polished finishes.

I would LOVE for someone to show me an example of this destruction. Seriously, I restore a lot of vintage things and I rely on BKF and GoJo for 90% of it. BKF if it's organic matter (including oxidation), and GoJo if it's petroleum based gunk. Naptha if your doing really intricate watch parts. I've tried so many things to clean and restore, and I've found what works for me. If you don't want to use it, by all means don't; totally up to you. But I keep hearing "potentially" and "accident" and "may not." No one is showing pictures of any of this. If this is really happening, it's in my best interest to be educated about it so I don't mess up something that really matters. What I'm telling you is that BKF is far less abrasive than any metal polish, and far more productive than vinegar or toothpaste or eye of newt or whatever. But again, don't use it, not my business.

What I find more often than not is that people tend to look at precious things and believe them to be perfect. Even under layers of gunk. But that gunk is filling in some gaps; when we actually remove the gunk, and reveal the scars, do we blame ourselves? or oxidation? or time? or the 100 times we dinged our pot lid against a spatula? Nope, we blame the cleaner. Cuz those blemishes weren't there before I cleaned it.

At great peril to my own collection of razors, I went upstairs and proceeded to clean any number of things I could find that would persuade the casual reader. A brass Gillette New that I had replated in chrome (chromed nickel anyway). A Fatboy also plated the same way. A SS RazoRock Hawk with a bright finish. And just for fun, the cap of my Schick type C Injector that has a whisper of gold plating over brass. You could breath on it and take the gold off. Magnification to show that there are no swirls, or brush marks, or etches.

So here is my genuine and humble request. Please take a picture and post. I've put several hundreds of dollars worth of my own stuff on the line to make a point. Please return the favor. And if anyone want's to really drive home their point, take a before and after shot where you were able to etch something, and then etch it again in a predictable way. I'm not looking for anyone to destroy anything of value, go to town on a spoon in your drawer. Anything.

bunch.jpg
hawk10x.jpg
fatboy.jpg
 

shavefan

I’m not a fan
For those of you concerned about the aggressiveness of Barkeepers Friend, there's Bon Ami as a gentler alternative. I use both, depending on the situation (not necessarily shave hardware related).
 
I would LOVE for someone to show me an example of this destruction. Seriously, I restore a lot of vintage things and I rely on BKF and GoJo for 90% of it. BKF if it's organic matter (including oxidation), and GoJo if it's petroleum based gunk. Naptha if your doing really intricate watch parts. I've tried so many things to clean and restore, and I've found what works for me. If you don't want to use it, by all means don't; totally up to you. But I keep hearing "potentially" and "accident" and "may not." No one is showing pictures of any of this. If this is really happening, it's in my best interest to be educated about it so I don't mess up something that really matters. What I'm telling you is that BKF is far less abrasive than any metal polish, and far more productive than vinegar or toothpaste or eye of newt or whatever. But again, don't use it, not my business.

What I find more often than not is that people tend to look at precious things and believe them to be perfect. Even under layers of gunk. But that gunk is filling in some gaps; when we actually remove the gunk, and reveal the scars, do we blame ourselves? or oxidation? or time? or the 100 times we dinged our pot lid against a spatula? Nope, we blame the cleaner. Cuz those blemishes weren't there before I cleaned it.

At great peril to my own collection of razors, I went upstairs and proceeded to clean any number of things I could find that would persuade the casual reader. A brass Gillette New that I had replated in chrome (chromed nickel anyway). A Fatboy also plated the same way. A SS RazoRock Hawk with a bright finish. And just for fun, the cap of my Schick type C Injector that has a whisper of gold plating over brass. You could breath on it and take the gold off. Magnification to show that there are swirls, or brush marks, or etche.

noSo here is my genuine and humble request. Please take a picture and post. I've put several hundreds of dollars worth of my own stuff on the line to make a point. Please return the favor. And if anyone want's to really drive home their point, take a before and after shot where you were able to etch something, and then etch it again in a predictable way. I'm not looking for anyone to destroy anything of value, go to town on a spoon in your drawer. Anything.


So we did this ( the dark spots ) to a new all clad polished stainless steel lid (from a copper core set ) within a few months of buying it. This is the powder bar keepers friend and I believe it was on as a paste for 10 - 15 minutes or so ( so not following the instructions of immediate rinse after 1 minute ). The set was bought from William Sonoma ( so legit. ). I even tried calling up all clad about getting a new lid but this was one of the few weird sized lids that one can not get anywhere separately ( some of the other ones you can ). At the end of the day it’s just a pot and a lid and they are in my mind not meant to be art work but functional. That said I definitely take bar keepers friends instructions pretty seriously .. the chemistry of strongish acids and metals is not really controversial. We use bar keepers friend still but with far more care than typical cleaners.

C75F4612-FE8E-41C2-BE1F-0DA0997EE2AC.jpeg
 
Throw it out!

Just buy a new one.

After all, when a razor gets dirty, it's the razor's fault, not yours.

Time is money. No time for sentimentality. There are plenty of new, delightful razors just aching for your attention. Don't get stuck in the same old rut.

Soap buildup? Never seen nor heard of it. That's someone else's problem.
 
Sentimentality is for saps!

Throw it out!

Just buy a new one.

After all, when a razor gets dirty, it's the razor's fault, not yours.

Time is money. No time for sentimentality. There are plenty of new, delightful razors just aching for your attention. Don't get stuck in the same old rut just because it reminds you of an old shoe.

Soap buildup? Never seen nor heard of it. That's someone else's problem.

Only 1 in 10,000 men, nay, 1 in 1 million men, know the long hidden secrets of satisfying a three-piece DE razor in the wild and conquering the dreaded nihilism of soap buildup.

But with our proven correspondence course, you too could become a master of satisfying the secret longings of a three-piece double-edge razor, whose roots stretch back into the mists of ancient single-ring razors, and whose barrel you could crush with an errant sneeze.

Only one man, Henry Jacques Henri Gaisman, knows what lies in the great beyond, and he ain't about to spill the beans to some Ivy League dropout who failed French 101.
 
I avoid all this by just giving it a good rinsing under hot water and wiping it down after each shave. It only adds an extra minute to the process but pays dividends later. Then every month or two a lite scrubbing with Dawn and a soft tooth brush. Problem solved...
 
@anoop
First off I would seriously think about using a different soap in the future!! I at one time was a big fan of Proraso but had the same problem as you with build up on everything, long story short I don't use Proraso anymore and don't have soap scum issues...

Secondly you may want to think about breaking down your razor after every shave to rinse and wipe down everything to keep this from happening in the future, but as far as maintaining you razors to keep them clean you might want to invest in an ultrasonic cleaner. Nothing too expensive but its a great investment and you can use one on more than just your razors!! Here's a link to the one I have been using for almost 2yrs now once a month and my Titanium Timeless is still looking new...

 
I avoid all this by just giving it a good rinsing under hot water and wiping it down after each shave. It only adds an extra minute to the process but pays dividends later. Then every month or two a lite scrubbing with Dawn and a soft tooth brush. Problem solved...

If you have very hard water, rinsing and wiping often just isn't enough, and even Dawn will be challenged.
 
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