Well, I have a few soaps around the house that don’t see regular enough use and honestly I would rather have in the convenient form of a stick. Additionally I would like to reduce my selection of soaps, so making sticks is also helpful in halving them for gifting.
I bought a few plastic twist up containers from amazon for a decent price, and went to work. First soap was Arko, as I want to have it I a form that was convenient and stored better than its original wax paper wrapper. I went against conventional advice of grating the soap and sliced it with an old blade and found it soft enough to press right into the tube. Worked great. Next I have two triple milled Italian barber soaps that were in for the transformation. One had been previously pressed into an apothecary mug and was surprising still semi pliable from the moisture it had absorbed. This one packed in quite nicely. The second of these soaps doesn’t see much use and was hard hard hard! I grated this one and made my attempt to pack the tube. The tubes I’m using are meant to be filled by pouring the contents in from the base when upside down. In order to make this work with these tubes, I borrowed from an old ceramics technique and rolled them into coils, packing that into the base for a firmer foundation. Once the foundation was there, it was very easy to press and pack in the shaving until the tube was full. The final soap was Ogallala bay rum which I know to be a melt and pour. This was easy and looks professional. I was able to use the twist tubes as intended.
The nice parts about having done this is I have parted out or halved soaps to share with friends and family. I have a better way to store soaps at home or on the road. Lastly, my wife who uses a DE to shave her legs in the shower is now more interested in using a shave stick and brush as opposed to a bard or soap or trying to lather up a cream.
Eventually i look forward to taking the remnants of these soaps and others and making a Frankie soap to rival all others.
These tubes worked out well for me, and I plan to reuse the same style of tube that are currently filled with my deodorant. What other containers or methods have been tried with succes to make shaving sticks?
I bought a few plastic twist up containers from amazon for a decent price, and went to work. First soap was Arko, as I want to have it I a form that was convenient and stored better than its original wax paper wrapper. I went against conventional advice of grating the soap and sliced it with an old blade and found it soft enough to press right into the tube. Worked great. Next I have two triple milled Italian barber soaps that were in for the transformation. One had been previously pressed into an apothecary mug and was surprising still semi pliable from the moisture it had absorbed. This one packed in quite nicely. The second of these soaps doesn’t see much use and was hard hard hard! I grated this one and made my attempt to pack the tube. The tubes I’m using are meant to be filled by pouring the contents in from the base when upside down. In order to make this work with these tubes, I borrowed from an old ceramics technique and rolled them into coils, packing that into the base for a firmer foundation. Once the foundation was there, it was very easy to press and pack in the shaving until the tube was full. The final soap was Ogallala bay rum which I know to be a melt and pour. This was easy and looks professional. I was able to use the twist tubes as intended.
The nice parts about having done this is I have parted out or halved soaps to share with friends and family. I have a better way to store soaps at home or on the road. Lastly, my wife who uses a DE to shave her legs in the shower is now more interested in using a shave stick and brush as opposed to a bard or soap or trying to lather up a cream.
Eventually i look forward to taking the remnants of these soaps and others and making a Frankie soap to rival all others.
These tubes worked out well for me, and I plan to reuse the same style of tube that are currently filled with my deodorant. What other containers or methods have been tried with succes to make shaving sticks?
I thought of removing the contents and using the container as a Wee Scot travel tube. The problem is that it would have no ventilation holes. Now I am thinking of grating some MWF, seeding it with vintage Old Spice, packing it into the tube, and using it as a shave stick. What do you think? Has anyone ever tried this? Any tips for getting the grated soap to solidify properly in the tube? Thanks.
