Safety razor maintenance

From ShaveWiki

Cleaning Safety Razors

The topic of how do to clean those treasured safety razors that you've recently picked up at the local flea market or antique mall has come up so often in the forum threads that it seemed like a good idea to consolidate the information into a wiki article for reference. Most of the information in this version of the article comes from this sticky. As folks come across other threads related to this topic, please feel free to add additional information that might be missing from this article. If you don't have time to update this article yourself, pm Androclese with the thread information and I'll be happy to add it to this article.

I'd like to reiterate that the entire content is based on the sticky thread that started it all. This is just a summary or a synthesis of the content. All the credit for the knowledge and experience in this article belongs to the folks who originally posted to the thread. As soon as I find out how to foot note some of this stuff I will.

Before we dig into the how to portion of this article, a word of caution might be a good idea. Mixing or using different cleaners together can be dangerous. For example you probably wouldn't want to mix or use something like Tilex which has a lot of chlorine in it with another cleaner that has ammonia in it.

Threads About Cleaning Safety Razors

What You'll Need

The tools cleaners and polishes that you can use to clean your razors are many and varied. This is just a representative sample to get us started.

Tools

• Old tooth brushes - great for scrubbing and getting into corners and crevices. Electric tooth brushes can be used, but be careful on your mint condition razors
• Brass bristle brush - The bristles are soft enough that they shouldn't scratch nickel or chrome plating
• Q-Tips
• Pipe cleaners
• micro-fiber cleaning/polishing cloths - for use when you don't want to take a chance on scratching those mint condition razors with one of the other brushes.
• ultrasonic cleaner - This could be a little pricey. I've got one of those Norelco razor head cleaners from my electric razor days and I've used it to successfully clean my wife's jewelry. Avoid using these on painted surfaces.

Cleaners

• Removing Dirt, Tarnish & Stains
  • Scrubbing Bubbles
  • Dish soap
  • Simple Green
  • Toothpaste
  • Oxyclean
  • Borax, Baking soda etc.

• Disinfectants etc.
  • Barbicide
  • Alcohol
  • Hydrogen Peroxide

Polishes

• Maas
• Brasso
• Neverdull

Aesthetic Cleaning

Soap scum removal

Successive soakings in a tub and tile cleaner like scrubbing bubbles and then some minor scrubbing with a tooth brush is all that is usually needed to clean the exterior of the razor.

Boiling will also work on chrome and nickel plated razors, but avoid using it on razors with painted or plastic parts or on gold plate with lacquer.

Surface rust/tarnish removal

Chrome & Nickel plate

Most DE razors are either plated with nickel or chrome. The plating on these razors should not rust, but if the plating on the razor has been compromised the underlying brass is rusting (note brass does not rust, but can corrode). The only fix other than re-plating the razor is simply removing the rust down to the base brass and simply living with the plate loss. If the plate is in tact then the any rust stains are on the surface, probably from a rusting blade left in the razor. Surface rust can be taken care of with some polish, soaking in scrubbing bubbles and then brushing, or soaking in a Calcium, Lime, and Rust remover like CLR. It should be noted that CLR is mildly acidic and should be diluted or kept away from painted parts of the razor (nor would I use it on a gold plated razor).

Gold Razors

My Jeweler says that gold plating didn't show up until some time in the 50's. Razors older than that should be gold filled and won't have any lacquer coating. Gold doesn't rust and neither will lacquer on top of gold plate, but gold plate can have the same brassing problems as the chrome and nickel plated razors (see Chrome & Nickel plate above). Care for these razors the same way you would any other gold tableware or jewelry.

Silver Razors

Tarnish can be removed from silver plated razors as follows:

1. Put the razors in an old pot/pan lined with aluminum foil
2. Mix about 2 TBs of powdered Borax and about a teaspoon of salt in almost-boiling water
3. pour the very-hot water over the razors, completely submerging them, and let soak for about 30-45 mins. Once the water gets somewhat warm you can go to work with an old toothbrush to get a lot of surface junk off, then put back in the water to finish the soak
4. rinse the razors and work each one over with the old toothbrush and Barkeepers Friend, preferably the liquid version b/c it's possibly gentler on metals than the powdered form, however I've used the powdered kind with no ill effects
5. rinse the razors in hot water
6. place back in the pan and repeat the hot water / Borax / salt treatment for another 30 minutes
7. dry them off

The process described above should work pretty well for chrome and nickel plated razors as well for razors with real silver in them, you shouldn't need a whole lot of scrubbing because the borax/salt solution actually makes the molecules in the silver tarnish want to move off the silver and onto the aluminum foil.

Mechanical Cleaning

This section really only applies to razors which are TTO.

Stiff TTO Action

The TTO operation of the razor seems stiff and rather hard to operate or it's simply not smooth. This can be caused by a few things one of which is calcium or lime build up in the internal workings of the razor. Simply pouring small amounts of CLR slowly down the center hole in the plate beneath the TTO doors will often dissolve those built up deposits.

Inability of the TTO doors to lock

Some TTO razors like the Adjustable Fatboy and Slim have a spring in the base which will compress when the knob is turned fully and will lock the TTO doors in place. There are a few things you can attempt to do to fix this. Some users report boiling the razor and then oiling the spring with mineral oil will help.

Step by step instructions that illustrate aesthetic and mechanical cleaning process described above

1. If open/close/lock mechanism isn't freely moving pour some CLR (or other brand calcium, lime, rust remover) down the hole in the center plate in the middle of the TTO doors. Often calcium, lime and shave gunk will cause some binding in the shaft. The manufacturer's web site for CLR says not to use on painted surfaces so I'd not recommend soaking an adjustable or any painted razor in it full strength for any length of time. You may also want to lubricate the spring from the bottom of the razor handle with mineral oil.
2. General clean up. Scrubbing bubbles soak seems to get off the majority of the shave gunk. Scrub with a medium tooth brush which seems to work well on the flat surfaces but is not too soft to get into the detail work on many handles.
3. Stuff still stuck in handle detail? Pick at it with a tooth pick. Soak and brush with scrubbing bubbles again.
4. Once clean. Barbicide soak for 10 min as per manufacturer directions. You want to do this before polishing because many metal polishes have a film or protectant layer they leave behind.
5. Polish with Maas and a microfiber cloth. It leaves behind a coating that helps protect the metal (water beads up on it, etc) so that should help protect your clean, disinfected, shiny razor.