Your razor and Olive Oil

I have had a few requests to repeat this suggestion. Why people don't do this I cannot understand. I have been doing this since I started shaving, I had seen my Dad do it since I was old enough to stand by the old bathroom sink on 319 South Brown Street in Dayton, Ohio. As many know, my Dad was a Doctor, and in those days all Doctors offices had a sterilizer unit somewhere. They also had white utensils, with lids, where they placed the items in to be sterilized. Well, Dad used one of these to store his straight razor in, and, in that white container (which I am looking at right now, the lid has gotten misplaced, but we have the bottom) he regularly added Olive Oil, and after shaving, his razor would be thoroughly washed, shaken dry, and placed in the Olive Oil.

Why? What is the enemy of metal, air, right, so after he stropped the razor to get it nice and sharp, it was protected from the air by the Olive Oil.

I have a coffee cup in the bathroom with Olive Oil in it, and I get probably three months use from an inexpensive 3-blade throw away razor. I buy 1-3-pack a year. Make sure you wash the razor good, and shake it dry before putting it in the oil. Cooking oil works also.

Make your razors last so much longer, put them in Olive Oil, you will be amazed how much longer they stay sharp.

I thought many did the same thing ....

We had some friends in the other evening, and one of them, after a trip to the bathroom, asked, "Why is that razor in a cup of something?"

For many years, I don't know when it started, or who told me about it, but I keep my razor, in a cup with some olive oil in it. The blades stay sharp for a very long time.

The Gillette 4 blade in their now, I have probably used for a month, and it is still going strong.

I have the one of the razors that vibrates, and after shaving, I rinse it good, shake it dry, put it down in the cup of olive oil, and let the vibrator run for a short time, to get oil between the blades, and it is ready for my next shave. I rinse it under hot water prior to shaving.

I don't shave every day, so I don't know how many shaves I actually get, but at the cost of replacements now days, it extends the life quite a bit, and the blades stay sharper. My guess is that there is a coating of oil on each new blade that disappears after the first use. This puts it back on.

I remember my old Gillette "blue blade" gave me a couple of weeks of good shaves, rather than a blade a day.

I suppose any good machine oil will do, I have just always used Olive Oil.