Thread: Box grater food.

Slightly curious what types of basic soaps folks put
into their box grater for the purpose of making or
improving their shaving soap.

I ask because I think I found a prize component bar soap.

Kirk's Castile Original Coco bar soap.
It is a coconut soap with coconut oil and vegetable glycerin.
and little more.

I ran a shave brush over a bar of it this morning and
goodness did it lather thickly and quickly. I had finished
shaving already so I do not how it shaves so I cannot
say more than it lathers like crazy. I suspect it might
not be a great shave soap all by itself but it could be a
good start or a good amendment.

Their web site is interesting
Kirk's Natural Products : Coco Castile Soaps and more
they even report a pH value for a 1% solution of 9.6
for which I have no comparable data. It might be
just alkaline enough to soften the beard for shaving
and still not be irritating.

As a start I thought I might add a dusting of bentonite clay to a
pile of grated soap to convert it to a shaving soap. What
other adjustments make sense. It is apparently
a great lather in hard water according to the package.

Thoughts?

I keep a bar of Kirk's Castille soap in my camping gear because it will lather when no other soap will. I've used it as a shampoo, bath bar and shaving soap while camping.

As a shampoo and bath bar it works extremely well and does a good job of cleaning in a short order. As a shaving soap - meh. Yes, it does the job, but after being spoiled by HBS, MB, and recently Tabac and MWF, it just doesn't compete. It will provide a good, real lather instead of just bubbles if it's worked with a brush, but it doesn't have a great slip like a dedicated shave soap. Also, it left my face feeling a bit dried out afterwards. I don't get that feeling from using it as a bath bar, so it has something to do with the shaving.

Overall it's not bad. My experience puts it about the same as Williams, but for some reason it lathers better than Williams for me.

Just my $.02.

- Mark (S-4-C)

Originally Posted by niftyshaving

Kirk's Castile Original Coco bar soap.
It is a coconut soap with coconut oil and vegetable glycerin.
and little more.

As they say it's soap made from coconut oil, and sodium hydroxide. Once the saponification is complete, it is technically sodium coconate. Since glycerine is a byproduct of the saponification reaction, and only vegetable oil (coconut oil) is used, then the glycerine in the soap is by definition, vegetable glycerine. Glycerine is all the same, however, regardless of its origin.

Originally Posted by niftyshaving

Their web site is interesting
Kirk's Natural Products : Coco Castile Soaps and more
they even report a pH value for a 1% solution of 9.6
for which I have no comparable data. It might be
just alkaline enough to soften the beard for shaving
and still not be irritating.

A pH of 7.0 is neutral (water) 9.6 is moderately alkaline. Baking soda is typically about 8.0, milk of magnesia (an antacide) is typically 10.5.

Originally Posted by niftyshaving

As a start I thought I might add a dusting of bentonite clay to a
pile of grated soap to convert it to a shaving soap. What
other adjustments make sense. It is apparently
a great lather in hard water according to the package.

Thoughts?

Fragrance if you are interested, you could also add additional glycerine since the only glycerine present in the soap as you get it is the what comes naturally as a byproduct of the saponification reaction. As I mentioned above, if it is USP grade glycerine, it is the same regardless if it is derived from animal or vegetable sources.

They also mention that sodium hydroxide (lye) is produced from sea salt. This is not exactly correct. In practice it is produced from salt water in what are referred to as chlor-alkyli cells, the other product is chlorine gas. Sea water is frequently used as feed to this process.