Thread: Grandpa's Pine Tar

Yesterday I visited a specialty market called Jungle Jim’s to stock up on vices. In a nutshell, Jungle Jim’s is a store of local fame for carrying just about any food item you can’t find anywhere else, particularly foreign and ethnic foods. As such, they have a vast selection of beers you won’t find in the neighborhood supermarket, a good liquor department, and a very large walk in humidor with good cigars for significantly less money than anywhere else I have stumbled into (I found several cigars there for $8 that usually retail for $15, $4 for cigars normally costing $8). While browsing around through the natural products area I stumbled upon the famous Grandpa’s Pine Tar Soap.

I took a whiff and just about died laughing, it is pretty much everything you could expect from a soap with the words “Pine Tar” in the name. It was cheap, so for a laugh I picked up a bar. I can’t say I have ever seen a soap advertised for bathing, shaving, and shampooing. It seems the soap is also famous for treating a plethora of skin ailments, notably psoriasis, a fact the cashier shared with me on checkout by way of inquiring if I had the disease (WTF?? Huh? Well, that was awkward).

So anyway, I tried it out this morning. I used it as a bath soap in the shower, and was pleased. It lathers well, doesn’t dry the skin, and the fragrance doesn’t seem to multiply with the addition of warm water (Whew.). After the shower, I attempted to shave. I was impressed by two things. 1) How well it lathered. Very fast, the brush picked up a lot of soap with just a few passes, and promptly filled the entire bowl I work the lather up in. When I tried to shave with it, I discovered 2) that it actually works very well. It tends to go flat on the face after a while; I found I needed to re-lather occasionally; however with the amount of lather I produced to begin with this was hardly a problem. Now, I will admit that I am still learning the ropes and getting my technique straightened out. But this proved the closest shave with the least amount of pain I have ever experienced. Three passes, BBS (for the most part, I still have a little stubble on some of my tough spots on the neck), my skin is not dry and absolutely no razor burn. That last part is significant; I had yet to accomplish that on a shave involving an ATG pass.

I can’t say I tried to use the soap as a shampoo, though, I wasn’t that brave today.

This seems to be the perfect soap not only for Christmas party gift exchanges, but camping as well: three in one soap, shave and shampoo, easily lathered, and a rugged outdoors old redneck smell. Which is precisely the reason I can’t see myself using the soap often in civilization. I’m curious to see how many funny looks I get at work today (I can’t smell it that much any more, but I have a feeling that’s just me), but I am seriously considering playing hooky to go hunt down a buffalo with my pen knife.


-Michael

Heh heh heh. I remeber seeing a bar of the stuff in Whole Foods, and curious as to what Pine Tar smelled like (which the pitch black color of the bar should have been a warning signal for me) I gently took a bar and held it up to my nose. It's certainly strong, and the smell is quite, erm, unique for lack of a better word. I never did buy any, btw.

Love the scent. I don't know many rednecks, but if they smell like this - more power to them.

Saving-wise: have to agree that it dries too fast on the face. If you are taking your time enjoying the shave (as I do) - it's a bit of a pain. I enjoyed the scent but have used much better shaving soaps.

I prefer it for a shower soap. Can see myself using it for shaving again - for variety's sake.

On B&B a guy asked me to send him some such soap to Switzerland, because it helped him with some skin condition - so I guess that's true, too.

Cheers
Ivo

It can't beat Dr Bronner's ALL-ONE! Peppermint soap for versatility.

WOW. I thought I was the only guy that had tried that stuff!
I bought a bar years ago, and I am still getting heat for it from my wife. BUT, I liked it! It does have an interesting smell....sort of like leather and beef jerkey

However, I only used it as soap. I did not know it had so many uses!

C utz

It does have an interesting and vaguely pleasing smell, very earthy. I could see myself coming to like it a lot, honestly, although I have suspicion as to what effect any lingering trace of the scent on my person would have upon my luck with the ladies…I don’t know whether this fear is founded or not. The closest I have to a barometer of that is my brothers, mainly because if they smell something, they will be more than happy to share their observations with me. I received no commentary on the pine tar, even after I mentioned it to them, however they complained quite voraciously of the scent of the Clubman Pinaud. Yet as barometers their quality is highly suspect; one of them likes Axe body spray, a scent I detest and a product I find would be better suited to the task of fumigating a house for insects or convincing unwanted tenants to obey eviction orders (It would seem I am not the only person with such an opinion of aerosol body sprays: when I spent a year living in college dormitories, a common occurrence was that of the “Axe Bomb,” which consisted of applying a strip of duct tape to a trial size can in such a way as to hold the trigger depressed, allowing the can to be tossed into a room of unsuspecting residents while the perpetrators quickly pulled the door shut to prevent the grenade from returning. Duct tape can be surprisingly hard to remove under duress).

On another note, I was chatting with a friend at school tonight, it seems he is not only familiar with Grandpa’s Pine Tar, but had made it himself during his youth as a craft project while being home schooled. I really ought to ask my Mom if she has heard about the stuff; she worked at a dermatology research clinic a few years ago where they were researching treatments for psoriasis (She is a nurse, BTW).

-Michael

I tell you I was going to make this very thread. Just got a bar a couple days back.
I LOVE this soap.
Makes a good shaving soap, too.

Great timing on this thread. I'm away for a few days on ab usiness/vacation in Lancaster Pa. and just bought a bar of this today in an Amish owned health food grocery store. Can't wait to try it when I get back.

Tony

Pine tar -- not just for baseball anymore --keeps that razor from sliding out of your hands.

Justin

Found the soap and Grandpa's Pine Tar shampoo at our local food co-op. Bought both and like both, though the soap does well for hair washing, I didn't like it as well as a shaving soap. Thought it was too thin and dried up too fast. I'll give it more tries though; maybe I just need to adjust the water amount and technique.