Quest for less technology

[blethenstrom]

Evening Shave - 12/28/24
Shave Number: 422
Passes: 3
Razor: RazoRock Lupo 72SB
Blade: Super-Max Super Stainless (Green) (5)
Soap: Proraso Red
Brush: Omega 10049 Boar (Pro 49)
Aftershave: Clubman Special Reserve
Shave Comfort: 10/10 (Smooth)
Shave Quality: 9.5/10 (DFS++)
Shave Rating: 9.75/10
A bit rougher shave than last night, but not enough to cause anymore problems. Plenty close shave, almost too close. Alum block was a bit more assertive. Overall a good shave.

Last shave before binning this blade. It has been a good blade in the Lupo. Tomorrow evening I think I will use my birth year Gillette SuperSpeed and use it for the coming week.

Have a great evening everyone!

 

[Eric_75]

Hope your back situation resolves, my friend.

 

[BigAlVista]

Hope your back situation resolves, my friend.

Ditto, Boris.

 

[huck1680]

Hoping you get "Straightened" out...

 

[blethenstrom]

Hoping you get "Straightened" out...

View attachment 1967343

My dear wife tells me that we are like Doug and Carrie. I'm not sure if that is a compliment though......

 

[blethenstrom]

Guess what I'm doing...

 

[blethenstrom]

Trying out to make a lard shaving soap. We will see how it turns out. Only a 500g batch. We will see if I can also make some tallow based shave soap before I go back to work after new years.

Then I'm making bath bar soap for my step daughter. She had been requesting it. I'll make about 1.5kg bath soap.

 

[blethenstrom]

Super easy soap batter to work with. I had some bay run fragrance oil so that is what it is. Also trying Sea clay instead of bentonite. Makes the soap green as well.

 

[blethenstrom]

Well I think this will work just fine.

 

[blethenstrom]

Bath soap is done... for now. I'll unmold it tomorrow and cut it into bars. Since this is cold process soap it is not fully saponified until at least tomorrow. This means also that it is not safe to use until then.

 

[blethenstrom]

Now the fun part..... cleanup. Otherwise I'll be in the dog house.

 

[BigAlVista]

Well I think this will work just fine.
View attachment 1968094

Looks awesome, Boris!

What other fats did you use?

Also, I am noticing that my tallow based soap seems to be holding onto the added water more tightly than the tallow-free soap. Any thought on that?

 

[BigAlVista]

Super easy soap batter to work with. I had some bay run fragrance oil so that is what it is. Also trying Sea clay instead of bentonite. Makes the soap green as well.
View attachment 1968086

I wonder how hard it would be to have custom molds made up. Might be fun to have each puck embossed with a personalized logo

 

[blethenstrom]

Looks awesome, Boris!

What other fats did you use?

Also, I am noticing that my tallow based soap seems to be holding onto the added water more tightly than the tallow-free soap. Any thought on that?

Just lard, stearic acid, coconut oil and castor oil. Very simple soap.

Maybe tallow do require more water to make lather. I really do not know, but that seems to be my experience as well.

 

[blethenstrom]

I wonder how hard it would be to have custom molds made up. Might be fun to have each puck embossed with a personalized logo

If you have access to a 3d printer you can do that. You can print a puck of your design and then get silicon mold resin. Once that sets you will have a mold that your can use for soap.

 

[blethenstrom]

Had my chiropractic visit this morning. It was not bad at all. He was able to tell what was going and make adjustments. I can feel I'm a bit sore in my lower lumbar area but that is to be expected. We will see if it gets better in the coming days.

 

[Goblin]

The soap looks good. I have a question - does it need to sit and cure for any amount of time before you can use it on the face?

I guess that I have a second question too - do you use a dual-lye solution? I seem to remember reading somewhere that this might be a "cheat-code" for shaving soaps, but having no first-hand experience of soap making I don't know whether there is any truth in that.

 

[blethenstrom]

The soap looks good. I have a question - does it need to sit and cure for any amount of time before you can use it on the face?

I guess that I have a second question too - do you use a dual-lye solution? I seem to remember reading somewhere that this might be a "cheat-code" for shaving soaps, but having no first-hand experience of soap making I don't know whether there is any truth in that.

Thank you. Technically it is safe to use right away since shave soap is done by hot process. This simply means cooked. When you cook the soap all the lye gets used up through saponification. Fancy word for the reaction between oil and lye. All lye is consumed and is therefore safe to use. However, the soap gets even better and a bit milder if it sits for 3-4 weeks. I usually do some test lather with the soaps and then let them sit. I've also used a fresh soap to shave with without problem. Fully saponified soap has a pH of 8-10 and I've it is in this range it is safe to use.

Yes I make dual lye shave soap. This means that a combination of sodium hydroxide and potassium hydroxide is used. This is to make the soap a bit softer and easier to lather. By adjusting the ratio you can control the softness of the soap. It is the hardest if your only use sodium hydroxide. I have done so but it is very hard to load the brush sufficiently and it takes a long time to load. Croaps use only potassium hydroxide which makes the soap the softest.

 

[Goblin]

Thank you. Useful knowledge!

I would love to have a crack at making my own soap someday...although I fear the domestic authorities would take a dim view if I started appropriating various bits of kitchenware to that purpose! Perhaps one day though, if I stumble on a cheap, used blender somewhere I could give it a try.

 

[blethenstrom]

Thank you. Useful knowledge!

I would love to have a crack at making my own soap someday...although I fear the domestic authorities would take a dim view if I started appropriating various bits of kitchenware to that purpose! Perhaps one day though, if I stumble on a cheap, used blender somewhere I could give it a try.

Fear not! You can make soap with very little stuff. Most of the equipment you have in the kitchen already. Here is a good starting list.

• I use a slow cooker(crock pot) to cook soap in, but you can as easily use a stainless steel double boiler pot on the stove.
• Stainless, silicon spoons, spatulas etc
• A good kitchen scale is a must though so you can weigh ingredients accurately.
• Glass, plastic bowls for mixing and weighing in.
• Stick blender (Emersion blender) is nice but you can stir this soap mix by hand. I have done that several times without issue
• Molds to put the soap in. Could be old empty shave soap containers, Plastic jars, Glass jars or maybe a silicon muffin pan.
• Safety glasses, gloves for when you are handling and mixing in the lye.

Common shave soap ingredients:

• Stearic Acid
• Coconut Oil
• Tallow (optional)
• Castor Oil (optional)
• I like clay in my shave soap, many don't no need if you choose to. You can use Bentonite clay for example.
• You can have many other ingredients as well.
• Scent if you like you can do unscented.
• You can literally make shave soap with just stearic acid and coconut oil (hmm I need to try that some time)
• Lye - This might be the more difficult one to obtain depending on local regulations
  • NaOH - Sodium Hydroxide (You can get 100% NaOH sold as drain cleaner, just make sure it is 100% NaOH. I am currently trying to use up a bottle of "Drain Cleaner" making soap. Otherwise I bet you can find it online somewhere.)
  • KOH - Potassium Hydroxide (Buy online. See if you can find it. Maybe there are soap making online stores in the UK where you can get it.)

@BigAlVista just made his first batch of shave soap and it sounds like it went really well. If you have any questions, please let me know. I can guide you through it.