Hello guys! A tragedy! Bad luck. I haven't been using my puck of MWF for about month or so and stored it in a cabinet in the bath in redneck mug covered with hand-made foil cover. And now it does not lather. The lather is very thin and when I apply more boar brush work it shows some signs of cream generation on top of the bristles, but when I transfer it to my face the lather evaporates. Trying applying more results with nubbins of lather that does not actually look like decent lather I managed to get from the MWF at the very beginning. What happened? Did it lost its moisture? Should I cover it with water and leave for a couple of hours? Add something?
What's the cause then? Some ingredients on surface failed to last and they'd be probably still in good condition somewhere closer to the middle of the puck?
Sorry to hear, Alexey. Wish I had an answer for you. That's one of the reasons I don't care for MWF - it either lathers very good or very poorly. There doesn't seem to be a middle ground. I've seen the good and the bad. For me, there are plenty of other soaps out there that are more consistently good. I refuse to fight with a puck of soap in the hopes that it MIGHT give up a good lather. But that's me. I sincerely hope the soap isn't ruined for you, Alexey, and you are able to salvage it.
Breaking any soap down in general via milling makes it work better "Usually" but it kills the longevity.
Heh, thanks Steve. Can't say it's a bad soap. No, the MWF was fine at the beginning. Then I forgot him and now he pays back I wouldn't care for either if not just my curiosity lust for challenge. If something does not work for me, I have to find out why. For now I stay with my every evening's 10 minutes of lathering exercises. Soon I will have my right hand as strong as as Schwarzenegger's.
The MWF is a hard soap and not meant to be grated. There must be a reason. Hope ChemErik will come to help
Eh, have you ever milled a soap before? If I can mill Williams and make it work, I'm damn sure your MWF will too!
Not my habit. I had several good months with great lather from MWF before. I'd say I knew how to lather it well. Now I'm confused...
Yup. After doing this daily for a few months, my Tabac looks like a souffle one morning and was completely unusable.
Not a chemist either, but the most common thing that happens to MWF is it gets soaked with hot water. As MWF contains lanolin and other low-melting oils, this can slowly remove those goodies and and the puck won't lather well anymore without them. The only other thing I've come across is I have a brush that just doesn't work with MWF - bad lather EVERY time. It's my Omega boar of all brushes, which is so good with every other soap. I think the brush has some sort of trace containment that simply isn't compatible with MWF. So, I suggest first trying another brush. The other suggestion is to stop soaking the puck - while a great idea with Williams it's a bad idea with MWF. On grating, AFAIK it simply exposes more soap surface which allows water to enter faster and makes a brush load faster.
Thanks, Erik! Will stop soaking it I've tried three different brushes: pure badger, Omega boar and a synthetic. Comparatively same results. Maybe I'll try to shave off slice of the puck to reach those goodies.
I wonder if it could have something to do with covering the soap with aluminum foil? I do know that aluminum and lye do not react well together. While the soap is not very alkali after it cures I do know that if you wrap up a bar of soap in foil it will deteriorate the foil rather quickly. Just a thought. Will N.
It's possible if you have hard or slightly hard water that you might get a "protective" layer of insoluble magnesium or calcium salts of the soap - if you were to remove the top "layer" (like a hair's thickness) you might get totally different results.
