Thread: MWF puck looks like a dry crakced desert floor.

Is that normal? I've only had it a couple weeks and it looks like ground that hasn't seen any rain in a year or better. I've been soaking it hot water in the sink while I take my shower.

Yes, this is normal and nothing to worry about, it doesn't affect the soap at all.

But you should not soak it in hot water, lanolin melts at aproximate 100F/38C and if you use water hotter than this it will affect the performance significantly.

Thanks for the advice on temp. I pulled the puck out of my glass bowl and there was a puddle of what I assume to be lanolin at the bottom of it. So I put that aside, grated the rest of the soap and then mixed it all back together. It did seem like the soap wasn't doing as well as when I first got it.

Some find MWF to be a little tricky to lather, but as long as you keep the temperatur right and load the brush enough (45-60 sec) it is a great soap.
Some have said they find it easier to lather after grating it, I guess this might have to do with that you get a more airy consistency to the soap that makes it load easier.

Thanks for the information, I was wondering if you could grate MWF and then place into a mug.

How do you grate this? I actually tried, maybe I used too fine a grate, I got all kinds of particles stuck in my brush and on my face.

My 15 year old daughter made me a shaving bowl for Christmas in her ceramics class. I'd shown her the puck, sketched out some dimensions.
It's too small for the puck, but I like the bowl and would like to use it.

Can the soap be remelted?

Originally Posted by normbal

How do you grate this? I actually tried, maybe I used too fine a grate, I got all kinds of particles stuck in my brush and on my face.

My 15 year old daughter made me a shaving bowl for Christmas in her ceramics class. I'd shown her the puck, sketched out some dimensions.
It's too small for the puck, but I like the bowl and would like to use it.

Can the soap be remelted?

I have not tried to grate it myself, but a regular cheese grater should work.

When I grate soaps I just take a little bit at the time and press it quite hard into the bowl, I use the top of a empty deodorant stick to press.

MWF can not be remelted because of the lanolin.

I grated my Truefitt & Hill puck using the fine side of my grater, then pressed it all down into a small dollar store ceramic sugar bowl with my thumbs. It took a while, but now the soap is reformed and pretty close to as hard as the original puck. I have a ton of samples with which I've done the same. I bought five of those sugar bowls, plus I had an old crystal one that I use, so I can say that the grating technique definitely works.

If you store the soap in an airtight container (grated or ungrated) it will prevent the death valley thing that happens to it from drying out. Ziplock and others make such a thing with a screw-on lid and can be found in Walmart or Target.

I've grated a puck of MWF soap using a normal cheese grater (something like this: Restaurant Supplies, Restaurant Equipment, Kitchenware & Cutlery :: Schweppe, Inc.). It came out, as cheese would, in short curly strands. I gathered them all up and had no problem pressing them into a big mug. Didn't get any particles or anything adverse when I lathered - it worked just like lathering a non-grated soap.

That being said, I still wasn't too happy with the lather, but that's another story.