I got an email the other day from a reader. He had never heard of soaking his razor in Olive Oil and wanted more information.
The history on it, simple, my Dad always coated his straight razor with Olive Oil after he used it. He had a double razor strop. As I recall, one was of a canvas-like material and the other a soft leather. He used the canvas one first, and it was even stained from the oil. He would clean the razor on that one and then sharpen with the soft leather one.
The strop hung from a hook next to the sink in the bathroom, and I can still see him taking that razor out of a small case, carefully open it, and start stropping the razor on the first strop, then on the leather one, and then he would start shaving.
I tried his straight razor a few times, too many cuts. In those days I used the old Gillette double sided Blue Blade. I was in college then, and I had an old shaving mug that I kept the Olive Oil in, and after shaving I would loosen the blade a little and put it in the oil.
My roommate saw me get many uses out of the old Gillette Blue Blade and finally started soaking his in Olive Oil.
It makes sense. Metal rusts and is corrosive, keep it in Olive Oil, or any oil, for that matter, to protect it.
I am using the 4 blade Gillette razor now, the one with the switch that vibrates. The blade I used this morning I started using in early December and it is still going strong. I get about two to two and a half months out of each blade. That's about the only way I can afford to use them.
