I saw Lynn Abrams use a piece of toilet tissue to dry out the inside of the handle (schales) of a straight razor on a video after he got done shaving and before pitting it away. I have done that but at times the paper didn't want to co-operate and was a PITA to get up in there. Now, it's a piece of cake. I use the "hook" at the end of the tang, the "monkey's tail" and put the paper on the razor scales and use the hook to pull it though. Quite easy now to get the paper in. Merely move the razor blade so that the "end" is out of the scale and pointing back to the handle and put the paper on the handle and rotate the blade so that it grabs the paper and hooks it and drags it though the handle. When on the other side, the paper comes off the blade "hook" but the TP is now on the inside and you merely swipe up and down with the paper to get rid of any latent water that might still be in there. You don't want water in the handle part when you close up the blade and put it away. Now if this is old news, or been beat to death, let me know and I can delete this. Just thought it might be useful for some newcomer as I found it now a breeze to dry out the inner part of the handle after shaving.
Thank you for posting this. I am just getting started in str8. Do you spray the pivot point with alchol or anything to remove moisture? or is that nessary. B
Yep, pipe cleaners would do well for drying out the handle as well as canned air, but usually everyone has toilet paper in their bathroom, and I'm cheap.
This is actually an excellent point and should be reiterated. having restored a few hundred razors, one of the first things you will notice on even nice straights, will be rust around the pivot. Keeping it dry and oiling it regularly helps this. While stainless razors will not have this problem as bad, they can still rust over time. SOmeone mentioned using alcohol. WHile this might help and I use it for sterilization, I would recommend using a machine oil, or camelia oil which is commonly used. I love carbon steel better on the whole because I feel they shave better for me and are slightly easier to hone, but you have to maintain them because failing to dry the pivot may leave a nice blade, over time it can damage the razor.
Thanks! I'll def have to try this next time. Right now I use a combination of the huff and puff method and a paper towel, but I always feel like I'm being wasteful and overdoing it w/ the towel.
I liked the paper towel/paper napkin, and used them more than once in a while. But it was the going and getting of the paper towel all the time that led me to try the hook and pull though method. Pivot pins areas are also a very often overlooked area, and if you have canned air, like Stinky said, it can be a very useful way to get out that water in that area as oftenimes toilet paper just won't get it all. I have tried tiny drops of WD-40 at the pivot pin, but that ususally ended up with so much lubrication that I ended up with loose blade in the handles, flopping around like a dead fish. WD-40 was used as a Water Dispersant (formula 40) hence it's name. It has anti rust and anti corrosion properties, but as an excellent penetrant, like I found out, it leaves things so loose I had to re-tighten up some of the pivot pins so that the blade acted normal. But, at the very least, and it's handy, the Toilet Paper should be a minimum. It's t here, it's handy, and it works.
Probably could be used. My wife also has one there, but I just use the TP method and don't bother dragging it down to turn on all the switches and power it up. It "would" help to dry the pivot area, barring any alcohol, to dry that area out better.
