Thread: Hey, Let's Be Careful Out There

Picked up a nice Wade and Butcher at a country antique store near where my folks live this past weekend and promptly gave myself a cute little smiley cut on the pinky finger as I started polishing it last night After a few dunks in alcohol and hydrogen peroxide, followed by a good smear of triple abx, the polish job went much more safely. And the razor looks pretty darned good, although a bit more work remains.

As Sergeant Esterhaus of HSB days used to say, "Hey, let's be careful out there."

Yes, even an old straight razor, not used for many years, remains so very very sharp that caution needs to be used at all times. The new guys have a disadvantage in that they have to learn how to perform various operations in a safe manner. Usually, this only occurs after mistakes are made.

I nearly cut the end of my middle finger off the first time I tried to clean one up. Yes them babies stay sharp a long time.

when i started to restore an old razor i bought it wasn't at all shave ready sharp so i thought i would be clever and wrap it in a cotton cloth to save my fingers from the blade... who knew it was still sharp enough to chop up an old cloth hahaha.

Originally Posted by blitzt

Picked up a nice Wade and Butcher at a country antique store near where my folks live this past weekend and promptly gave myself a cute little smiley cut on the pinky finger as I started polishing it last night After a few dunks in alcohol and hydrogen peroxide, followed by a good smear of triple abx, the polish job went much more safely. And the razor looks pretty darned good, although a bit more work remains.

As Sergeant Esterhaus of HSB days used to say, "Hey, let's be careful out there."

A quick wound-care tip. Every so often someone in my profession (I'm a Family Practice physician, board-certified, I work mostly in Urgent Care) does a study on what's the best thing to use to rinse a wound? For the most part, the consensus is tap water. First, it's readily available. Second, it's relatively sterile (and contains chloride ions which may inhibit bacterial growth). Third, it's cheap. Fourth, it does little harm. Point is to rinse the wound as soon as possible after being cut.

Peroxide, in the words of my med school microbiology lab professor, "looks like it's doing a lot, but it doesn't really kill bacterial and does more tissue damage." Ditto alcohol.

Best bet for wound care that's NOT sutured is to rinse and use some kind of butterfly or steri-strip closures and keep the wound dry to let the edges seal.

YMMV.

Straight razor blades are most unforgiving. I have been cut more than once going through the learning process
for moderate restorations. Only needed a few stitches once. : ) Invariably it was a momentary lack of attention
that bit me.

Probably 40% of the razors I buy will still cut arm hair straight out of an antique store and two just needed stropping. Especially if they were in a box. I cut my thumb tip probably to the bone when I first started to do restores/cleanups.

I found an old 1920-30's era Boker at a hicktown sidewalk sale that hadn't seen use for god knows how long, and it still shaved arm hair no problem. Of course I didn't shave with it as is, but with minimal work it's a fine shaver now.

This, along with the above examples, just goes to show that you should never assume an old razor is butter knife dull.

Originally Posted by normbal

A quick wound-care tip. Every so often someone in my profession (I'm a Family Practice physician, board-certified, I work mostly in Urgent Care) does a study on what's the best thing to use to rinse a wound? For the most part, the consensus is tap water. First, it's readily available. Second, it's relatively sterile (and contains chloride ions which may inhibit bacterial growth). Third, it's cheap. Fourth, it does little harm. Point is to rinse the wound as soon as possible after being cut.

Peroxide, in the words of my med school microbiology lab professor, "looks like it's doing a lot, but it doesn't really kill bacterial and does more tissue damage." Ditto alcohol.

Best bet for wound care that's NOT sutured is to rinse and use some kind of butterfly or steri-strip closures and keep the wound dry to let the edges seal.

YMMV.

Thanks for the comment. Very interesting.