Is it my water?

[TravelingMan82]

I've noticed that my razor seems to get a lot of soap scum on it after use. Despite the fact that I rinse it with cold water and shake it out when I'm finished. It gets a gray sort of filmy haze on it.

Also, my blade seems to rust after about 2 uses. Any suggestions?

[Pike]

hard water will leave the dull film for sure....but rust on the blade? I've never seen a modern blade rust!?! I just wipe down my razor once a week with a tissue or cotton pad...the dull film comes right off.

[TravelingMan82]

hard water will leave the dull film for sure....but rust on the blade? I've never seen a modern blade rust!?! I just wipe down my razor once a week with a tissue or cotton pad...the dull film comes right off.

The blade is a Gillette 7 O'clock. So yeah, it's a new blade.

[ChaosSix]

My wilkinson sword blade also seems to have a brown spot on its underside and I've only used it like 2 or 3 times Is it really rust?

[koso]

I just hit my razors with Scrubbing Bubbles when I'm done with the blade - shines them right up.

As to the blades, what I do is give the razor a shake or two, then swish the head in a bowl of isoprophyl alcohol. I keep one of the small Anchor Hocking bowls with lids that I use for soap full of it.

This is to displace the water and help the blade dry more quickly. I haven't ever seen rust on my blades, but I'm getting more shaves per blade than I used to. I'm convinced this is from the elimination, or at least retardation, of micro-spots of rust damaging the blade.

[jgjoneslaw]

I use a bowl of distilled to water to rinse my razor while I shave. This has eliminated the soap scum issue for me. It is a symptom of hard water so adding a water softener would probably have the same result.

[soapbox]

I've noticed that my razor seems to get a lot of soap scum on it after use. Despite the fact that I rinse it with cold water and shake it out when I'm finished. It gets a gray sort of filmy haze on it.

Also, my blade seems to rust after about 2 uses. Any suggestions?

Yeah, your water is hard. The haze is soap scum and possibly hard-water scale; if you can scratch it off with a fingernail, it's more likely soap scum.

I use a bowl of distilled to water to rinse my razor while I shave. This has eliminated the soap scum issue for me. It is a symptom of hard water so adding a water softener would probably have the same result.

Distilled water can be a real boon in areas with very hard water.

As for the rust, there are a couple of possibilities; notably, the rust might be coming from iron content in your water? Modern stainless blades are pretty rust resistant. But after a week in my shower, the Tech I use to shave my head does get rust on the blade, just seemingly not on the edge or the hone -- more on the table/flat part of the blade under the Tech's cap.

Using distilled water is a great way to test and see if the rust is coming from your municipal water source.