Somewhere last year I read a suggestion to use short (10 second) bursts in a microwave to melt shave soap into a cup. I liked the idea, and have done so a number of times since with VDH soaps from Wal-Mart. I recently purchased a cake of Williams Mug Shaving Soap (For a lasting lather) from CVS and decided to do the same thing with it, using the same cup I've always used. Imagine my surprise when I turned on the microwave for 10 seconds, and hear a loud pop and saw a flash coming from inside the cup! I thought that this was odd... let's see if it'll do it again and gave it another 10 second burst. Sure enough, another flash and pop. Or was it pop and flash? Probably the former since light travels faster then sound. But I digress... I stopped what I was doing at that point. I've done a search and found that apparently only glycerin-based soaps do that quick-melt thing in microwaves. Bummer. Didn't find anything about sparks, though. Cheers, Tom
I'm glad it was only Williams, which can be replaced for about $1 at the local store. It would be much more upsetting to ruin a puck of MWF, IK, Tabac, etc. Good reminder for all the new guys who haven't heard about this before.
I've tried microwaving Williams as well and never got sparks. Maybe it was something in your cup? Or maybe your microwave is more powerful than mine? However it works, you're right that microwaving works well with VDH but not Williams. Did you damage the microwave?
I don't think it was the cup as it's the same one I've used many times before in the microwave. Fortunately I was going with short (10 second) bursts so no harm to the microwave. ChemErik, no apparent damage to the soap, either. I went ahead and used it anyway. Ah, well... filed under "You learn something new every day!" Cheers, Tom
