info needed for keeping soap stuck to bowl.

[papi]

I am using a hard soap in a cylindrical shape. I guess you can say the cheep stuff. I tried chopping one up to see if would stick to the bowl instead of sliding all over the place. It kind of made a mess of things. I sometimes use allot of water to see if the soap stick, will stick and stay put. Sometimes it does, but most of the time it slides all over and it is an obstacle to get an easy lather going with a brush. I use a small bowl instead of a shaving mug. Maybe that is my problem, but I like moving the brush around whipping a lather up with outhitting the sides of the soap mug.
Any suggestions from more experienced shaving soap users? Maybe I should spend more money on a better shave soap. I even thought of holding the soap in my hand and making a lather, but haven't tried that yet, but it is sounding like a good idea more and more.
While Im on the subject, I purchased one of the old shaving scuttles or whatever they are called and I could never see the practical use of it, yet. Maybe a small brush would be a good thing to use with one. thanks for any constructive criticism.

 

[Cal]

Get your cheese grater out and press your grated soap into the bowl with your thumbs. Add a little water to make the soap pliable (and sticky), but ONLY A LITTLE.

 

[Dog Whiskerer]

There are a couple options.

Grating the soap, as Cal suggested. If its is a glycerin soap, you can heat it in microwave till it fills the bowl. Or get a different bowl with a rougher bottom. That might help the soap get traction. Or, you keep the soap in a smaller container, load the brush from there, and build your lather in the bowl.

 

[J-MN]

Two great suggestions above.

I recently grated my Speick soap stick into a container since I wanted it in puck form. I like using a microplane instead of a cheese grater, but either one works well.

 

[JeffJ]

Get your cheese grater out and press your grated soap into the bowl with your thumbs. Add a little water to make the soap pliable (and sticky), but ONLY A LITTLE.

This is a great suggestion. I’m lazy and use a cutting board and chefs knife and cut the pucks up into slices either to put into a bowl or a shave stick container. Have done it dozens of times.

 

[papi]

it sounds like it a go!

 

[J-MN]

Just thought I'd add a picture of a grated soap for reference. This used to be the Speick stick that I previously mentioned.

Like Cal said, use just enough water to make it pliable/moldable. Add little bits of water at a time since it's hard to go back once you've added too much.

 

[JeffJ]

Here’s a wiki link for grating and slicing. Creating A Shave Stick - https://www.badgerandblade.com/forum/wiki/Creating_A_Shave_Stick

 

[sdimartino]

My go-to soap is glycerin, so I melt that sucker.

 

[samhain666]

You oculd grate it as other suggested it, but there is no need to use water to put it back together. I just press it with my fingers and it's good enough. Well I did that before I got to liek sticks. Now I use sticks. Or you could just rub your soap on the face and face lather

 

[BigJ]

Great suggestions above!

I would add, that the microwave method works fine with ‘melt-and-pour’ soaps. Don’t try it with a ‘tallow’ soap.

With my tallow pucks, I simply add a small amount of water to the bottom of my container, place the puck on top of the water, then press it down. Seems to work just fine around here!

 

[phelix]

+1 Grate and no water needed. Have to be careful not to heat tallow tri milled soaps. As stated by others, only glycerin soaps are good to nuke.

 

[JeffJ]

+1 Grate and no water needed. Have to be careful not to heat tallow tri milled soaps. As stated by others, only glycerin soaps are good to nuke.

Agree most soaps don’t need water to bind. The one exception I have run across is Palmolive, which is a bit crumbly and does need a few drops of water to get it to hold together.

 

[Atlantic59]

You don't have to grate your soap. Just slice your soap puck into thin slices. Layer the slices in your dish. Pour warm water over to soak for a couple minutes. Then, carefully pour off any excess water. Press the softened soap slices together into the bottom of your dish with an old spoon. Leave it out to dry overnight.

After you have make two or three lathers with your reformed puck, it will look like it came from the factory that way.