How to Mill any soap into a container ~ Photo Tutorial

[Ishamael70]

I am looking forward to it, I ordered the Sandalwood.

Right now I use the Colonel Conk Bay Rum, which is very nice, and to get that into my bowl I just microwaved it for 10 seconds until it started to flow, and then popped it in the fridge for a half hour to re-set it in the bowl. It seems to work just fine still, and still gives off that nice smell.

 

[TENroaches]

Great pictorial.

You mean grate pictorial.

 

[TimmyBoston]

This technique also works on a small scale. I took a sample of D.R. Harris Marlborough (which arrives in chunks not conducive to lather with) and milled it down and placed it in a small ramekin. Now it's ready to use.

Thanks Jim!

 

[Hendu3270]

You can also ask Sue for a container with her soap already poured for you.

Have fun!

Thanks Jim! Sue is a pleasure to deal with. Got my soap headed this way and in a jar.

I didn't realize her soaps were glycerin based.

I did find a couple of glass sugar dishes at Wally World yesterday that are perfect for this. I couldn't resist buying two of them and then picking up two pucks of Williams. I tried this method last night and it worked great, ended up shaving my head last night with the Williams. The last time I tried Williams was before I had found this forum and didn't have a clue as to how to create lather. I was surprised with the Williams soap. It wasn't as lubricating as the higher quality soaps but did work just fine. I think next time I'll load my brush and then use a small amount of D.R. Harris lavender shave cream in the lather as well.

 

[JBHoren]

Great pictorial. Another thought that comes to mind is that you could do custom blends of different soaps. Lets say you had the above mentioned Speick shave stick and a cake of whatever. Just grate away and blend the two in the bowl. It would make for some interesting combinations.

I remembered your posting and the pictorial, and just this afternoon I had the opportunity to use them. I'd purchased several 1oz cakes of Rose- and Jasmine-scented shaving soap from The Gentlemen's Quarter (Colleen Hurley, Soapmistress) -- neither one, by itself, "did the trick" for me; but one day I put one of each into a bowl and the combined lather "lit my fire".

OK, but how to combine them in a more proper way, without destroying the fragrance? (I'm a two-time felon on this score, so melting them was not an option) Ah-Ha! The old "grater" trick... but I'm a bachelor, so I went to Publix (southeastern US supermarket chain) and found an inexpensive ($2.49) and functional one (aisle 10).

The rest is history, along with lightly-scraped knuckles. I gratefully put the shredded shaving soap into a lovely brown soap bowl (w/cover) from Old Dominion Soap, and tomorrow morning can't come soon enough!

B&B postings are the greatest! Smooth shaving!!

 

[kbuzbee]

So, if you do that a few times, is it triple-milled? Or is there more to that?

I'm curious about that too. I've tried to find out exactly what "triple milled" really means but not much luck so far. From my experience, the soaps marketed as "triple milled" are quite hard and I would guess, if they were indeed milled this way, they were then compressed under a LOT of pressure. But that's only a guess. I'm sure someone here really knows....

Thanks!

Ken

 

[guenron]

I'm curious about that too. I've tried to find out exactly what "triple milled" really means but not much luck so far. From my experience, the soaps marketed as "triple milled" are quite hard and I would guess, if they were indeed milled this way, they were then compressed under a LOT of pressure. But that's only a guess. I'm sure someone here really knows....

Thanks!

Ken

You may wish to read the following article on Rebatching.

 

[kbuzbee]

Thanks Ron, I read that article recently (the parent article on the history of soap is really good, btw) but it didn't seem to address the type of product we all tend to think of as triple milled soap. (or at least I didn't read it that way). What makes triple milled soap so much harder than other types of soap?? I guess that's what I'm getting at.... I've always assumed it was somehow "pressed"... am I wrong about that??

Ken

 

[guenron]

I have not read the parent, but if it has anything about (iterative) ball milling that is where the hardening/dessication usually takes place. Acutally the common term I think is French Milling.

 

[kbuzbee]

I have not read the parent, but if it has anything about (iterative) ball milling that is where the hardening/dessication usually takes place. Acutally the common term I think is French Milling.

It's here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soap

Very good reading, actually, but it doesn't discuss triple or French milling except to reference the article you cited.

Ken

(edit - my bad, read below)

 

[kbuzbee]

Immediately before extrusion it passes through a vacuum chamber to remove any entrapped air.

I missed that line reading through the page I quoted above. Maybe the vacuum process is how they get it so hard? It's also extruded... Could be both processes??

Ken

 

[scoopster]

Jim,
This technique worked great for a well worn puck of Trumpers Violet that I was not about to give up on (it was original tallow formulation!) After the procedure my bowl is renewed and my hands smelled like a happy hooker's handbag for most of the morning; not that there's anything wrong with that!


Before - Having troubles charging up my Chubby 1:

After - Ready to rock!:

 

[DEmac]

Geo F. Trumper's is tallow based? For some reason I thought it was veg. oil based. I'm glad to hear that. Also glad to see that milling works well with tallow based soaps!

 

[scoopster]

Geo F. Trumper's is tallow based? For some reason I thought it was veg. oil based. I'm glad to hear that. Also glad to see that milling works well with tallow based soaps!

The older Trumper soaps have tallow. Newer batches have been switched over to vegetable oil.

And yes the milling works for everything.

 

[DEmac]

I don't know if this is common, but last night I grated a puck of Williams because I was tired of chasing the puck around the bottom of the mug. Well, as I was grating the puck it stirred up a dust that burned my lungs. The burning went away in about an hour, but that sucked. So I would suggest doing the grating in a well ventilated area.

 

[Hendu3270]

I don't know if this is common, but last night I grated a puck of Williams because I was tired of chasing the puck around the bottom of the mug. Well, as I was grating the puck it stirred up a dust that burned my lungs. The burning went away in about an hour, but that sucked. So I would suggest doing the grating in a well ventilated area.

Whaaaa??? I didn't experience any of this when I grated mine. I used a normal cheese grater to do the deed. Where you using some sort of machine to grate it? I don't think I could grate it fast enough to cause a dust.

 

[DEmac]

Fine cheese grater into a bowl, nothing mechanical. At first I thought "wow that smells good," then after a few minutes my throat started to burn. It wasn't a big deal, just really annoying.

 

[masonjarjar]

I don't know if this is common, but last night I grated a puck of Williams because I was tired of chasing the puck around the bottom of the mug. Well, as I was grating the puck it stirred up a dust that burned my lungs. The burning went away in about an hour, but that sucked. So I would suggest doing the grating in a well ventilated area.

Wow, I did the same thing (using a cheese grater) with the Williams. No ventillation problems, but the thing I noticed was that the soap shrank quite a bit in the bottom of the mug.

I think the best thing to do with Williams is use it for a month, then cram a new puck on top of it, squishing the bottom one around it. Then it fits nice in the mug.

-Mason

 

[Mike in Cincy]

has anyone tried milling the T&H Luxury Soap or GFT soaps into another container?

 

[gusman]

The biggest problem I see, is to remember to clean the grater before using on cheese or other food products next time. My wife would not be happy if I used our grater to do this.

I guess I'll have to buy myself an official Shaving Soap Shredding device. I hope this doesn't lead to a new disorder.....SSSDAD.

So do you think people have collecting disorders before they get into wet shaving, or do you thuink wet shaving creates collecting disorders?

Obviously, having a electric would be useful and easy, but then there are the older metal ones that you turn by hand. Hmmm, I'm sure that there are others out there, maybe different ones from other countrys