In your city you will be fine with that, unless you are right near the beach. I lived in Black Rock, and I still didn't have any issues.
Straight Razor Storage
- Thread starter redwoolf
- Start date
The tidy Japanese woman - Marie Kondo - folds t-shirts into narrow rectangles that she then stores upright (to save space) in a drawer.
Storing stones upright seems the most efficient, but you need to ensure that the stones do not topple onto one another causing chips which now requires thin, soft separators. I still have not found the time to focus on this one.
Storing stones upright seems the most efficient, but you need to ensure that the stones do not topple onto one another causing chips which now requires thin, soft separators. I still have not found the time to focus on this one.
But what stones spark joy?
I’m still wrapping the stones and piling them in a box. But I will Kondo my stones one day. For sure.
I’m happy to report that my new low-tech razor storage system seems to be working. But being me, I could not completely relax. At least not without some hard data to comfort me. So I went and picked up a Bluetooth hygrometer. The Sensorpush extreme also measures temperature and barometric pressure. It stores up to 30 days of data on the device and sends the readings to your smartphone when it’s within range. The smartphone app plots the data on a graph. Upon receiving the device, I calibrated the hygrometer against two Boveda humidity packs (69% and 72%). I would have preferred a wider calibration range but this was all that the local cigar shop had in stock. Within 24 hours the the factory calibrated hygrometer read within 0.1% of each humidipack. I didn’t do an further calibration. The factory calibration of this unit seems to be spot on.
I now have over a month worth of readings. My indoor humidity is higher than I expected. As a background, we are currently in the middle of an unseasonably wet La Niña spring. The wettest in 30 years. There has been a lot of rain and widespread flooding across the state. Even so my indoor humidity is in the ‘safe’ range under 80%. I expect it will go down when things dry out in summer.
There is one other factor to consider and that is the daily temperature fluctuation. As the air temperature rises and heats the razors the metal spends half the day slightly cooler than the ambient air. If the razor temperature is at or below the dew point, condensation will start to develop on the blade. At 70% RH the dew point is about 5 degrees C lower than the air temperature.
The readings suggest that my razors are safe from rust, however, there is only a small margin of safety. In this situation I take the extra precaution of oiling my razors with Balistol. I also make sure to use my razors regularly and check them for any problems. It’s nice to have humidity readings within the razor storage box. Without that you’re only guessing.
Attachments
Last edited:
Since I live in Brisbane, and summer here tends to be VERY humid, I am keeping my razors in Sack-Ups, and on top of that I am also applying petroleum jelly to the blades.
Perhaps you can tell or remind us what are the white holders that you use to hold your razors?
I just store my razors in their box in a drawer. On the hunt though for some wooden box with dividers ro hold my razors and stones though.
The tropics are a challenging environment. Some of our members use a dry cabinet to store razors in the tropics. These are available at camera shops and use electricity to dehumidify a storage box. They look like a small bar fridge.
The dividers are foam toe dividers for manicure/pedicure. Not the best looking but they work really well. I got them from Muji.
Last edited:
I live in Florida and use silicone sleeves in a razor rack. Not one has rust. If you want to store them, go to Ebay and pick up a humidor.
I've started running up felt rolls to stop the razors clattering against each other in their climate controlled pickle jars.
@Legion, do you put anything to absorb humidity in the climate-controlled jars - like desiccant packs or silica beads?
I ask because I store my razors in Sack-Up sleeves and have one Wade & Butcher whose original horn scales continue to develop a scaley texture on the surface, but they had this condition when we first met. I continue to treat them with 100% neatsfoot oil. Could be that they just require that special TLC.
Anyone ever have problems with horn in silicone-treated sleeves?
I ask because I store my razors in Sack-Up sleeves and have one Wade & Butcher whose original horn scales continue to develop a scaley texture on the surface, but they had this condition when we first met. I continue to treat them with 100% neatsfoot oil. Could be that they just require that special TLC.
Anyone ever have problems with horn in silicone-treated sleeves?
I keep a silica pack or two in the containers with synthetic scales, and nothing in the containers with ivory and horn, as the atmosphere can become too dry, and cause those materials damage.
This is pretty cool. I do the same with some very colorful acrylic felt, I then keep a few rolls in plastic tubs with a vci bag or two for moisture.
i also found little felt squares at a local sewing shop - equivalent of usd 0.30 cents a piece. They’re a perfect fit for 2 razors at a time with sewing technique as above. Leaves a very colorful storage box but it works well to protect the razors all bunched together.
After buying many silicone-treated sleeves, I decided to make my own (6.5 x 1.75) sleeves out of VCI paper:
Is the method shown below a good one or would I be better off putting the razors into poly bags with a VCI paper rectangle inserted into each bag?
The finished product. I think I fixed the crooked tape on the bottom
.
Razors in sleeves in Ziploc tub with desiccant packet.
- Buy 8 x 8 sheets of VCI paper.
- Cut each sheet into 2 - 4 x 7 rectangles.
- Fold the long side and bottom to form 0.5 inch seams.
- Fasten the seams with blue painter's tape.
Is the method shown below a good one or would I be better off putting the razors into poly bags with a VCI paper rectangle inserted into each bag?
The finished product. I think I fixed the crooked tape on the bottom
.Razors in sleeves in Ziploc tub with desiccant packet.
I think your method is well chosen. I would avoid poly bags. Any trapped moisture is too well trapped, in a very small volume.
I use silicone sleeves, but I store my SRs in a non-airtight flat file. I also used to put small trays of desiccant in the file drawers, but that required too much fussy renewal.
Yeah, I wanted to avoid trapping moisture next to the razor and the blue painter's tape does not absorb water.
In case anyone finds this idea useful... I purchased some test/storage tubes off of Aliexpress. Perfectly fits my smaller/Swedish razors. I leave the razor and tube in direct sun for a bit before sealing up with a silica/desiccant packet.
Similar threads
