All good questions about the molding. My experience is just limited to MWF soap, which I was able to grate into a whole pile of little shavings and then press into the lid. The problem seems to be that the more you press on one side of the soap, the more it seems to force the soap chips to fracture on the other side of the soap. Finally, I actually ended up just heating the whole mess in the microwave for about 45 seconds, and that little bit of melting seems to have solidified what was in the lid.

I've also used the soap lid a few times, and it now seems like the more you use it, the more the soap chips get cemented into the lid, like somehow the water and brushing action also end up pressing the soap into the ceramic better.

Anyway, question for Shave Zombie -- I looked at the price of buying direct from Ansgar, but it seemed like the price of shipping (20 euros) AND the minimum order for shipping (50 euros) made ordering just a soap lid from him unfeasible. How did you get him to ship just the soap lid for less than Mama Bear?