Just played mad scientist with MWF and William's

[Dubbya]

I just got done milling my favorite all around shaving soap with my favorite smell in on the planet.

That's right ladies and gentlemen. I just put a half puck of Mitchell's Wool Fat and Half a puck of William's Mug Soap to the cheese grater at the same time and mashed it all down into a Glad-ware bowl. What I'm hoping for is a superb cushion with an almost heavenly smell without all of the drying out to which William's lather is prone.
I'll be whipping it up tomorrow night before a Mother's Day cookout at my parents' house.
I'll let you all know how it goes.


To Be Continued...

 

[Fnord5]

Citronella is your favorite smell?



Some people have strange tastes.

 

[Dubbya]

It's weird, I know. I love that smell. I think it has something to do with my fondest childhood memories being cooking outdoors with the family. Being raised in the South, there had to be mosquito candles everywhere or the dog might get carried away by the Cessna sized blood suckers.

 

[htownmmm]

The Mad Scientist of B&B strikes again!



marty

 

[Dubbya]

The Mad Scientist of B&B strikes again!



marty

I don't think this holds a candle to what some of the guys have been doing with menthol.

 

[Fnord5]

I don't think this holds a candle to what some of the guys have been doing with menthol.

Or the shenanigans in the Straight forum, with the dremels.

 

[Dubbya]

Or the shenanigans in the Straight forum, with the dremels.

Oh the shenanigans indeed. The one with the earring was priceless.

 

[beyboo]

hope the experiments dont morph you in to something else

 

[BarryR]

Is Williams glycerine? If it is I wonder if you could gently melt it and mix it with the MWF to make a solid soap than the two milled together?

 

[Dubbya]

Is Williams glycerine? If it is I wonder if you could gently melt it and mix it with the MWF to make a solid soap than the two milled together?

I've never looked into William's but I know MWF is tallow and will burn if melted.

 

[BarryR]

I've never looked into William's but I know MWF is tallow and will burn if melted.

I know. You can't melt the MWF but I wonder if you could melt the Williams and pour it over the MWF right before it solidifies (not that I'd try it with my MWF!).

 

[ScotchDave]

But then you'ds just have a half and half puck, with a layer of shrinking lather on top.

 

[mparker762]

I just got done milling my favorite all around shaving soap with my favorite smell in on the planet.

That's right ladies and gentlemen. I just put a half puck of Mitchell's Wool Fat and Half a puck of William's Mug Soap to the cheese grater at the same time and mashed it all down into a Glad-ware bowl. What I'm hoping for is a superb cushion with an almost heavenly smell without all of the drying out to which William's lather is prone.
I'll be whipping it up tomorrow night before a Mother's Day cookout at my parents' house.
I'll let you all know how it goes.


To Be Continued...

Can't stand the bug spray smell of Williams myself, but this combo might work well. Williams has no cushion but great slip, and MWF has great cushion and no slip, so it's the classic superlather recipe only using two triple-milled soaps instead of a soap and cream.

FWIW IIRC the original superlather recipe was Williams Mug Soap (for the slip) and Palmolive Lather Cream (for the cushion, but sadly no longer available), so you're on the right track with this combo.

 

[Fnord5]

Williams is a Tallow based soap. You can't melt it either.


Oh, and MWF is not tallow, it is Lanolin(wool fat)

 

[thirdeye]

All you need to do is blend the shreddings and press then nice a firmly with a bit of water into your mug and you should be good to go. No need to melt anything.

 

[BarryR]

Williams is a Tallow based soap. You can't melt it either.

Oh. Nevermind.

 

[Cuttingboard]

Waisting a perfectly good puck of MWF.

 

[mparker762]

Williams is a Tallow based soap. You can't melt it either.


Oh, and MWF is not tallow, it is Lanolin(wool fat)

MWF *is* tallow based. Sodium Tallowate is the first ingredient. It contains added lanolin, but that isn't the main ingredient.

You can melt hard soaps like Williams, MWF, Harris, AOS etc just fine. They are melted and reformed at each milling step at the factory, and I have done so several times myself quite successfully. But it requires a slightly different technique than glycerine soaps.

When the factory mills a soap, they shred it, tumble it, then melt the shreds under pressure to reform it into a solid. Since we don't have the high-pressure rams here at home we have to melt it using added heat. But this is risky because the melting point of the soap is just below the boiling point of the water. As long as there is substantial levels of water in the soap, the soap temperature will plateau at the boiling point of the water while the soap melts. But if there isn't enough water in the soap then the temperature will shoot up past the melting point of the soap and the fats will start to burn.

To protect us from this problem, we must make for d*mned sure that there is enough water to buffer the temperature, and that this water is evenly spread throughout the soap. The way to do this is to shred the soap with a grater, and add some additional water to these shreds and thoroughly mix them. Then put the damp soapy mass in the microwave or a double boiler on the stove, and slowly heat it up while stirring thoroughly to avoid any hot spots. When the soap melts then pour it into the final container and let it cool. It will be somewhat larger volume than the original soap, because of the additional water it has absorbed and because it hasnt been compressed under pressure. But at this point it will also be a bit softer than it was originally, and will lather wonderfully without needing any soaking or a boar brush or any of the other "tricks" commonly recommended for hard soaps. If you let it dry out for a few weeks it will shrink nearly back to its original dimensions. FWIW when soap is originally manufactured it also contains a lot of excess water, and is dried for many months at the factory before we get it, so it's not like this is some unusual situation for the soap to be in.

 

[Fnord5]

I stand corrected.

 

[BarryR]

Oh. Nevermind.

Maybe it wasn't such a dumb idea after all. The reason I thought melting the Williams might be preferable to milling is I figured it would make for a more homogenious and solid mass than milling both.

On the other hand - as a big MWF fan, I'll just keep my MWFs whole.