Styptic pencil

Slo-mo | 20:21 Thu 12th Apr 2012 | Science

25 Answers

Why is there an expiry date and a warnng not to exceed it on my styptic pencil?

Cancer - are they building peoples hopes up too high?

metal endurance

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theprof

Best Answer

Without thorough drying, alum styptic pencils degrade and fall apart quite rapidly. The pencil manufacturers' rely on the this in order to sell more pencils - after all, most people will be too preoccupied in stopping the bleeding rather than taking care of the pencil afterwards.

00:14 Fri 13th Apr 2012

Go To Best Answer

Old_Geezer

<shrug>
Perhaps they want to sell you another one ?

vulcan

perhaps for the same reason there's one on my bags of coal, the world is slowly going mad.

mike11111

Because like most things the active chemicals involved will become inert after a sufficient period of time. I remember them from my youth when I first started shaving. After tearing my face to shreds on numerous occasions my mother said I should go to the chemists' and get a septic pencil!

bigbadmarty

on some bottled water the label boasts the water has been filtered through layers of igneous rock for thousands of years ...
then it says " best before ..(a few months)

sherrardk

What's a styptic pencil?

mike11111

A cauterising thingummy to seal off a minor blood flow, very popular in the days when 'safety' razors were anything but. Looks a bit like a lipstick. You unscrew it, slightly moisten the stick then apply to the bleeding spot.

skybluefred

Vulcan42--perhaps there's a hidden warning on your coal--that it might burn.
lol.

theprof

If the active ingredient is nothing other than one of the "alums" (complex aluminium salts), then you can ignore the expiry date and warning. Alums last forever if they are kept dry.

However, if the pencil contains other ingredients, there may well be a reason for the warning depending on the nature of the substances.

Can you post an ingredients list?

mike11111

I ain't no chemist but I do know that to get a styptic pencil to work you have to wet the end, so the 'ingredients' can't be dry forever.

ChuckFickens

generally they contain aluminium sulphite , titanium dioxide and some form of alcohol.

shooty

Never heard of one of these before (so i Googled it).
Do they do the job well, or is it a like/dislike product. I'm asking as my father is a little shaky handed these days and will NOT stay away from his beloved (dreadfull) Bic razor. So as you can gather, TLC to his mush is regularly required.
Should i get him one of these Stytic pencil's or is there something thats better ?