Straight care

Hi everyone
im new to straight shaving so was wonderig what you all do to care for your razors. Do you strop after every shave? Is there a cream or oil to use on the blade before putting your blade away. Any other tips on how to look after your razors would be appreciated.

Michael

Most strop before and after each shave. I count on the very edge picking up a slight amount of oil from the strop. I live in DRY Colorado and have never had any problem with storing my razors dry. YMMV

Hi, and welcome! Water is your best friend while shaving, and your razor's worst enemy after you're done. Many of us use silicone sleeves to store razors. Some of us use some form of oil or petroleum jelly for storage, depending upon how long the razor will be stored.

All of us strop, it's safe to say, either before or after shaving, most of us probably do both. I strop the razor ~30 times (back and forth = 1) on leather before I shave, and then after I'm done I'll do ~20 on linen and another ~30 on leather.

You might also considering keeping a journal of your shaves. Many of us have found the process and the guys over there very helpful. I sure did.

Good luck!

So petroleum jelly would do the job on the blade?
With the stropping do you use the linen side first then the leather side? Do you hone your own blade? If so what stone would you recommend and how often should this be done?
Thank you.

Cushion94 said:

So petroleum jelly would do the job on the blade?
With the stropping do you use the linen side first then the leather side? Do you hone your own blade? If so what stone would you recommend and how often should this be done?
Thank you.

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Some use petroleum jelly for long term storage. It would be a pain to clean off all the time if the razor is to be used.

After the shave most strop on linen first to clean the edge, then on leather. Before my shave I only strop on leather.

I do touch ups only on my razors, when needed. Frequency varies and has been hard for me to predict. The more experienced shavers can go better than 100 shaves before needing to hone their razor. Newer shavers are tougher on their edges.

Hope this helps.

Thank you for all your help. Ill stay away from petroleum jelly then is there an oil you recommend? Also what stone would you suggest for when i do need to touch up the razor.

Hi and welcome to B&B, my care for my small collection is to do a pre-shave strop on one of several strops i have and then a post shave stropping on linen/leather, I never get water in the pivot area and ensure the blade is dry before putting away. I used to oil blades and pivot lightly but have since stopped that long ago and have never ran into a rust isssue.

Ill just make sure to get stropping and keep the razor dry then. I will take it out of the bathroom too so as to stop the humidity getting too it. Or is this not needed?

I keep all my razors in the bathroom and never have had a issue, it's a large bathroom and when showering we normally don't close the door.

Cushion94 said:

Ill just make sure to get stropping and keep the razor dry then. I will take it out of the bathroom too so as to stop the humidity getting too it. Or is this not needed?

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Humidity seems to be an issue for me. I'm new to the straights and I've had rust appear on my blade within a matter of minutes. Not sure how, considering I was careful about keeping it dry and stored outside of the bathroom. Actually, I put it back in its cardboard box with a few silica gel packets salvaged from pill bottles. And still, there's a bit of unsightly rust! I chalk it up to living in Florida, where anything made of steel rusts if you look at it funny. I refuse to get involved with messy oils or petroleum jelly on a razor that I intend to use more than once a week. So, I ordered those wonderfully ugly razor sleeves from TSS that will supposedly do the trick. The guy who runs the shop also lives in Florida and swears by them. Of course, he's selling them, so there might be some bias involved.
(Note: I'm not slandering his good name in any way; I do believe he is an honest guy.)

As far as the stropping sometimes I'd do it before the shave and sometimes after it depended on whenever I had time.

With the storage to prevent rusting I'd take one of those cloths that you use to clean your glasses with. I'd put a few drops of mineral oil on the cloth and just wipe the blade down with the cloth after I shaved with it, dried it off, and stropped it. I didn't need to apply the oil to the cloth every time but just once in a while if I noticed that the cloth needed it. The cloth left a very, very thin layer of oil on the razor that was enough to prevent any rusting but not so much that it was even visable.

I strop about twenty laps after the shave, fifty before. I don't oil the razor, I just keep it in a box between uses, and not in the bathroom. Just make sure it is 100% dry when it gets put away.

I do very little and everything seems fine.

1. I clean the soap off the razor with a dry flannel during the shave.
2. I dry the razor after use and use tissue paper between the scales.
3. Then few laps on the strop to make sure the edge is clean and dry.

Cushion94 said:

Thank you for all your help. Ill stay away from petroleum jelly then is there an oil you recommend? Also what stone would you suggest for when i do need to touch up the razor.

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As far as stones, there are tons of options. It really depends on what kind of edge you prefer. You can go quite awhile with strop paste on linen(as in the opposite side of the linen used daily). Past that it's just trial and error, or perhaps having you razor honed by members with different finishers, and see what you prefer. I've only shaved off of a couple of different stones. I went with a coticule because I enjoyed the edge of a razor I was pif'd finished on a coticule. Of course, I may like other finishes equally, but I'm a "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" kind of guy.
Also, I am not making any recommendations for a stone as I'm not as experienced as most, and it is definitely a YMMV situation.

I use a different SR each day. Post shave I dry it carefully, you can run a blow dryer on the blade for a few seconds to dry the blade and pivot. Or carefully dry it with a tissue. I strop before and after. I also put a small drop of oil on the blade and carefully wipe it over the blade. I store my SRs in a small tote box with gel packs that I pick up from work. You can make your own drying packs by buying baby socks and putting a teaspoon of uncooked rice and tie them off with a piece of string. Put one of those in the case where you store your SRs.

I strop before every shave. After shaving, I first strop on lapped diamond pasted balsa like in this thread: http://badgerandblade.com/vb/showthread.php/473580-How-To-Use-a-Pasted-Balsa-Strop , then, because I live on a small boat in New Orleans and the humidity is very high, I apply a small amount of ordinary motor oil. Motor oil leaves a film that does not break down or oxidize or bead up like mineral oil or the various vegetable based oils do. For long term storage I use petroleum jelly. I NEVER have to re-hone a razor. The diamond on balsa keeps the edge crazy sharp.

I dry my razors with a soft paper towel. Strop 20-30 laps on my Mastro Livi skin side of the loom strop and then put in a razor sleeve. It is woven cotton with oil like people use for guns but for razors. I have stored razors for a year in the sleeve with no rust. Much better then oiling it