Thread: Old Fashioned Soap?

I suspect most modern soaps are far better than soaps from around 100 years ago.

Originally Posted by thebigspendur

I suspect most modern soaps are far better than soaps from around 100 years ago.

Likely truer words were never spoke. Another point infavour of MWF.

Bob

Maybe older soaps were simpler and could be made today. Here’s an excerpt from the American Druggist and Pharmaceutical Record vol 22 from 1892-1893 (pretty sure, you can find it on Google Books). My image of the 2 pages is disjointed and contains other non-related material, but here’s a transcription.

‘Almond Oil Shaving Soap by the Cold Process

Saponify 85 parts tallow and 15 parts sweet almond oil at a temperature of 45-46 degrees C with 25 parts soda lye and 25 parts potash lye (without cocoanut oil).

Saponification takes place early. The soap gives a brilliant creamy lather, possesses a beautiful white color, and bars do not shrink but preserve their straight edges. The soap cuts beautifully.’

This is the only reference to really old shaving soap that I’ve seen, but I suspect other formulas may exist. Finding them seems to be a problem.

Technically, all true soaps are lye soaps produced by the saponification of some form of fatty acids with either sodium and/or potassium hydroxide, either of which can be called lye. A variety of fatty acids can be used from either animal or vegetable sources.

In the early days of soapmaking, there were no good ways of measuring the exact quantities of fatty acids and lye being used, so in many cases, excess lye was added and the soap produced was highly alkaline. When used, the excess lye will saponify any fats with which it comes in contact. If you are trying to remove grease from clothing, the excess lye is ideal. If you are using the soap for shaving, the lye will gladly saponify the fats in your skin...ouch.


The first soaps were likely produced by someone roasting their meat over an open fire. Any fats dripping from the meat onto the ashes of the fire would produce soap. Somewhere along the way, someone realized that the soap had utility as a cleansing agent.

One of the earliest recorded instances of soap being produced commercially was jabón de Castilla. Although named after the Castile region of Spain, the origin of the soap appears to have been Aleppo, Syria where soap was made from laurel oil and soda ash, a crude form of sodium carbonate formed from the ashes of burned plants. Sodium carbonate is a weak form of lye. It is also called washing soda (in contrast to baking soda sodium bicarbonate) because it is good at removing grease from clothing.

In Spain, olive oil was more available than laurel oil, so today Castile soap is produced primarily from olive oil and lye. However, in some formulations, other vegetable oils are also used: laurel oil, coconut oil, etc. Since it does not contain tallow or other animal fats, Castile soap is classified as a vegan soap.

Unfortunately, as you probably know, olive oil does not produce the most stable shaving lather. However, in the interest of science, I have shaved with Castile soap. Compared to most shaving soaps, both traditional and modern, the lather is fairly slick, but cushion is lacking, so I would not want to shave regularly with Castile soap. However, I have also tried shaving with some tallow based bath soaps such as Yardley of London Cocoa Butter soap and find it to be as good or better than some inexpensive, traditional shaving soaps like Williams and Arko. Again. The cushion is not great, but the cocoa butter leaves a nice post shave feel. If I could not afford to purchase better quality shaving soaps, I would use Yardley.