How many items have you ruined?

Please be honest. How many have you messed up? Razors or Brushes.

Myself, two brushes iirc. You'd think I'd have learned the first time. Well, I guess I deserve it for being stubborn. That's trying to remove the knot. Tangled two horses as well. Expensive lessons to be learned. .

 

I dropped a Grand Shave King self lubricating razor. It snapped the bolt off flush at the handle. Although the top cap and handle were ruined, I was able to give the comb away to another denizen who needed one with straight teeth. So I was stoked to think it wasn't a total loss.
I did buy another, but it was a costly fumble.

 

Bakelite safety bars are too brittle to turn into open comb.

Mixing every aftershave on the shelf, just to see what results, results in nothing worth smelling.

 

You are either extremely creative, or a mad scientist. I'll stick with creative if it makes you feel any better .

 

2 Brushes I Destroyed Them. Lol and I Killed a Fat Boy.
My Bad.
I donated the broken Fat Boy for Parts.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

Y'all are making me feel better already .

 

I killed a shave brush many years ago by soaking it in CLR (for lime build up). I have since learned that borax or even clarifying shampoo gets the job done without damage. I also put a TTO on the DL by dropping it with the doors open.

 

I've read that. I just plan on using regular ol Dawn. If it's gentle enough to clean oil off of ducklings I'm sold.

 

My suggestion is go with borax. Dawn is fine, but it's not as gentle as you might think since it's diluted industrial degreaser (as most liquid soaps are) and it might not address the lime build up as well as you might want. The duck thing is largely advertising although they do use this type of detergent in animal rescue situations.

 

I have soft water in my neck of the woods, I'm more concerned with soap buildup. I'm just careful because I ruined a boar brush once using vinegar. What's the proper borax to water ratio, and how exactly do you go about cleaning the brush? Man, I've ruined way too many brushes .

 

I have an empty Avon Army Jeep that originally held Spicy Aftershave; I had display piece on my desk at work. I moved offices, in the move the glass around the lid broke off...

 

I use about a teaspoon of borax to 6 oz of hot water. Stir the borax into solution and just let the brush soak for about an hour. It's helpful to agitate the brush every 15 minutes or so. In that way, the solution reaches all the bristles. After about an hour give the brush a good thorough rinse with cool water and you should be good to go. With the hot water, you don't want to go too hot so as not to damage any glue holding the knot in place.

Also note that your first lathering with the newly clean brush might be a little subpar due to possible residual borax. The Borax won't harm your skin but it might affect the lather the first time.

 

If I broke anything I managed to put it completely out of my mind and do the Zen thing.

 

I'm good with both.

 

Sounds like you should lather up right after the cleaning, thanks for the heads up my fellow nutmegger.

 

glad to help

 

i soaked my first brand spanking new omega 10005 boar brush in a sink of hot water, handle and all..well it split open in 3 places..bought a semogue 830 to replace it..i only soak the bristles today, lesson learned..

 

Great discussion @BigMark83!

Hi! My name's Rick and I've been careless. It's been a couple years since...

Not soap, it's detergent. Harsh stuff that takes the grease away and dries out natural bristles.

I didn't exactly ruin them, but I did a diluted vinegar soak on a couple fairly new Omega boar brushes. That's when I decided I like a scritchy boar break-in process. They got soft. Never again.

Shave gear is ephemeral. Soaps & aftershaves are consumables. Even vintage razors don't last for ever.
Relax. Enjoy the shave.
Be the shave.
You can get more stuff!

 

Well lets see, two ever ready brush handles that I broke getting the knots out. A Schick type E thing to figure out the best way to clean it. And a black super speed that I cleaned with scrubbing bubbles. I did not see it had bleach in it. The black turned a very weird shade of tan/brown.

 

Oh, how could I forget this classic: soaking a Super Adjustable in Purple Power degreaser overnight, wanting to see what the handle would look like stripped of (what I thought was) black enamel.

By the way, did I ever tell you about the time I learned that aluminum quickly dissolves in industrial degreaser? Same time I learned what the SA's handle is made of.