Chandu
I Waxed The Badger.
Thank you. I had not see that previously.I was relaying that hydration procedure as told from an employee from Mitchell's shop. See post #78 for one reference - Mitchell's Wool Fat - What Happened? - https://www.badgerandblade.com/forum/threads/mitchells-wool-fat-what-happened.562578/page-4#post-10970021
Ok, riddle me this. Why is the dish so much larger than the puck? To flop around for fun, hold spare change or extra razor blades.
After reading threads on here and seeing what was working I concluded that the soap basically ships dry, but needs to be hydrated to work its best. This isn't a bloom in the typical fashion. People need to get that out of their head and think of it as Mitchell's shipped me dehydrated soap and to use it, I put it in a container a bit bigger than the puck add some water and let it expand for a day or two to rehydrate it to how it should be used. Yes, it won't stay a pristinely shaped puck and it might gets some cracks at times.
If you are a daily driver you probably (a bit more on that point further down) don't need a container that seals tightly, but if you expect to put it away and use it only once in a week or two weeks or less, then a tupperware type bowl would be ideal to it stays hydrated and you aren't forced to repeat the "rehydrate" signal.
Non standard treatment for a soap for folks with 2022 soap expectations, sure. But in the 1800's when the formula appeared, how many shave soaps do you imagine were in one's shave den. I'll give you a hint <2. So it was a daily driver and hydration was no problem, especially where this soap was likely to be used, England, where the temps are never that hot and it tends to be humid anyway.
If you are from New Mexico and leave your Mitchells in an uncovered mug for a day, it is going to dry out a lot more than for a shaver in the UK. In other words with this soap, for the easiest use you probably need to consider how frequently you use it, your ambient temp and humidity levels and store accordingly between shaves. For some that may mean an open mug or bowl is fine, others need something loosely or tightly covered.
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