Vintage Rawleigh's shaving soap

I just got this today, it's made by the W.T. Rawleigh Company from Freeport, Illinois. A friend of mine that grew up in rural Illinois was telling me that he remembers as a kid back in the 50's and 60's the Rawleigh man coming around and selling salves, vitamins, linaments etc. Said his Mom always bought some stuff.

Both pucks are wrapped in a heavy brown wax paper with a piece seperating them, and they still feel slick to the touch. There's a definite medicinal smell to them but it's not real strong. I'll grate one into a Ziploc container and give it a try next week. I love where it says "No puckering or smarting after shaving." in the instructions, and it's reassuring to know that competent scientists supervised the production.

Anybody else have any experience with Rawleigh's soap, or remember them travelling around and selling stuff out of a truck?

 

I cannot remember ever this soap.

 

I have not had experience with this soap, but the company is still in business, sans soap, however.

http://www.rawleigh-products.com/

http://www.prlog.org/10175585-wt-ra...urveyor-of-home-remedies-and-fine-spices.html

 

Wow HT, good score. I hope it is awesome stuff, and then that you find an old abandoned warehouse full of it.

 

Why they don't make it any more?

 

Yeah, I googled them and found that they're still around. My friend said his Mom used the salve on every injury, ailment or condition that anyone in the family had. The history of the business is pretty cool, started by an 18 year old kid.

 

Don't know.

 

They should discontinue the canned foams and gels and leave the good stuff, like the creams and soaps.

 

I couldn't agree more.

 

Very nice grab!

 

Tom, what is the purpose of grating a shaving soap into a container? I simply plop the puck in a mug and swirl a brush on it.

 

Just a guess, but I am thinking so it would fit in the container.

 

I like to use Ziploc storage containers because they stack well under the sink. By grating the soap I can squish and smoosh and mold it into the container so that I get a nice snug fit. And with some of the small pucks like Williams it prevents playing hockey with the puck and makes a larger surface area for the brush to work with.

 

OK, now I see. I thought maybe it had something to do with improved lather production.

 

Not me, but an interesting bit of shaving history you've uncovered there. I'd be tempted to see how one of those pucks fits an Old Spice mug without grating, but I'll be curious to read how it works, regardless.

Why don't Old Spice and Yardley make shaving soaps any more? I don't know, but I'd guess that some companies found the market for traditional shaving soaps shrinking, and decided to fall back on their other product lines.
I see that Freeport is in the Northern part of the state, a bit West of center. I spent much of my childhood in Bloomington, central Illinois.

 

In a way it might by making a larger, flatter surface to swirl the brush on, especially with the small pucks. One other thing I forgot to mention, with some of the old vintage pucks the outer surface might be a little dried out so what I like to do is kind of mix up the grated product before I put it on the Ziploc container.

 

Here's one of the pucks in a Hull Pottery mug that was designed for the large 5.5 ounce Old Spice pucks. It dropped in with plenty of room all the way around. And a shot from of the bottom of the puck.

 

For some reason I'm intrigued on this one.

 

Finally got around to grating one of the pucks and used it this morning. It performed just as good as I suspected it would, typical of the vintage tallow based soaps that are some of the best ever made. Very easy to lather and the lather was fantastic so now the quest is on to find some more.

Here's a couple pictures showing why I like to grate soap. In the first picture you can see how much room there is around the puck in the Ziploc container I like to use and in the second one see how much bigger the surface area is to work with, plus it eliminates the puck sliding around.

 

I gotta admit to a bit of envy HT. I'm glad it works as good as we were all hoping.