Quote Originally Posted by niftyshaving View Post
Making soap is chemistry. A reaction between a fatty acid and a strong base.
It is possible that the chemical reaction was uneven or unfinished.

Grating a soap or milling it does remix the ingredients and may allow the chemistry to
finish.

You can do litmus paper tests to see if there is too much base.
Grating can redistribute salt that some add -- salt burns but at exactly the right amount calms.
Fragrance and stuff... some give me a rash... an old soap will be kinder to my skin.

Just grating allows air into the mix and the first application of water fills a lot of the
internal voids and makes picking up an abundance of soap allowing a richer lather
with more cushion and glide.

A tossable hard soap can thrive with a tiny half pea size bit of a shave cream like Proraso.
It works for Williams....

SUMMARY: who knows what you did that turned the corner, I do not.
ENJOY the shave.
Of all the things I may want to know about soap making ain't one of them. I'd just like the soap I buy to work well out of the gate. Just thought I'd put out there what happened in this instance to me in case someone else was in a similar spot and was looking to try and improve the situation.

Oddly I will grating a soap and yet see no point in wasting, from my pov, good shave cream by mixing it with a non performing soap.
I'd as soon pitch the soap if it won't perform on it's own. Everyone has their own little foibles I suppose.

Bob