Thread: How NOT to Melt Shaving Soap

I bought a three-pack of Van Der Hagen fragrance-free shaving soap, along with a classy "piano black" soap bowl (w/lid) -- both from Amazon -- which arrived today. Oh boy! But my smile quickly turned into a frown when I discovered that the cake of soap was much smaller in diameter than the bowl, and much taller than its sides. What to do? Oh! I'll melt it to fit (and solve the height problem at the same time).

So, with no microwave, that method was out. I could've grated the soap -- did that recently with a cake of Williams, and it did a job on my arthritic hands-and-fingers, so I kept looking. Found it! I'll melt the soap in a water bath! Watched a Youtube video, and it seemed easy-peasy: soap in the bowl, bowl in the saucepan, water halfway up the bowl sides, burner (electric) on medium, and let Nature do its thing.

They say "a watched pot never boils," so I left it to bubble, returning every 10 minutes to check the progress. After almost an hour, it was finished. And so was the soap bowl!

Turns out that the "hand carved" bowl is really a two-piece deal: a 1/4" bottom onto which a hollow cylinder is glued, then the whole thing is nicely varnished (lid, too). Now, I'll grant you that the specs clearly stated "No" to the question "Is it dishwasher safe?" But I don't have a dishwasher... I'm the dishwasher! So of course I didn't pay attention to the notice.

Anyway, the almost-hour-long immersion in near-boiling water had dissolved the glue, and the bottom of the bowl had separated from the body. Bye-bye $16.99 (+ tax) and a lesson learned the hard way.

How should I have done it? I should've placed the soap cake into a metal or ceramic bowl, put that into the water bath, and afterward poured the melted soap into the wooden bowl. Alternatively (and probably the better method), I should have "bit the bullet" and grated the soap cake into a large bowl, then packed it into the classy, new soap bowl.

Smooth shaving!