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Styptic pencil

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Slo-mo | 19:21 Thu 12th Apr 2012 | Science
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Why is there an expiry date and a warnng not to exceed it on my styptic pencil?
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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.
23:14 Thu 12th Apr 2012
<shrug>
Perhaps they want to sell you another one ?
perhaps for the same reason there's one on my bags of coal, the world is slowly going mad.
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!
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)
What's a styptic pencil?
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.
Vulcan42--perhaps there's a hidden warning on your coal--that it might burn.
lol.
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?
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.
generally they contain aluminium sulphite , titanium dioxide and some form of alcohol.
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 ?
I heard someone mention alcohol...

So - can you lick a styptic pencil when you run out of booze?
"...and some form of alcohol."
If I'd known that I would have chewed it, not stuck it on my bleeding face!"
LOL LIK. can I have some of what you're having.
Bit of styptic pencil or little bits of bog roll on yer chin. Ye pays yer money an' ye tak' yer choice.
Certainly, micmak - btw, your missus seems very nice & troublingly normal...

Cheers! :-)
LOL. He swears by sticking bits of the evening post to his chin. You can read the TV guide if you can piece them altogether : )
for the sake of the 1-2quid they cost it's gotta be worth a go, Shooty...
A word of warning, don't ever try to use one on piles!
£2.00 !!!
The Sun is only 30p. That'll keep him going for some time : )

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