How to stick slivers of soap together to form a large bar of soap

Question

What is the best way to combine small slivers of soap into one bigger bar of soap without the slivers flaking off?

I was thinking a press (like a tortilla press) might do the job, but should I soak the soap first to make it more malleable?

Answer 1

For what it's worth, here's what I've been doing successfully for the past several years.

1. Take your slivers and put them thru a salad shooter or grater to make flakes.
2. Cut the bottom 2 inches out of a plastic bottle. I use this as a mold. I recommend a polypropylene or polyethylene bottle, not a clear bottle from other materials.
3. Fill your mold with the soap chips. Add water up to about 1/2 inch from the top. Put it on a microwave safe plate, and put in the microwave. Turn on the microwave for 15 seconds at a time. Keep an eye on your mold, when the soap begins to bubble and rise, stop the microwave and let it settle down. Keep repeating this until the soap has become real mushy.
4. Take out your mold and using a spoon tamp the soap down and smooth off the top. Put it in a dry place and let it sit for a week or so. Then, squeeze the sides of the mold and slowly remove the cake of soap. It will still be soft, so let it sit out in the air for another week or so until it hardens.
5. When it's hard, it's ready to use.

I make one cake at a time. When I begin using one, I start another so it's dry and hard by the time the first one is just a sliver. I have a supply of soap chips I made by grating all the hotel bar soap I collected when I was traveling at work, to which I've added all the slivers in the house which I'd been saving so I have a generous supply available.

Answer 2

Some types of soap are more malleable than others. One method is to soak them and press them together with your bare hands. For harder types of soap, let the soap sit on a damp washcloth or sponge for a few hours, then using a toothpick or some other pointed object, score the surface of the soap, then press them together. This is really similiar to attaching a piece of clay to another.

Another method to combine small pieces of soap is to cut them into small pieces, heat them up in a microwave, then let that sit for a week or so. For more details go to this instructable on how to recycle soap

Hope this helps!

Answer 3

Just put the soap slivers in a sock and use it like soap-on-a-rope.

For example In the US we have a problem holding on to soap in the shower and would rather not bend over to retrieve a dropped bar (mainly in a public shower!) so we put a leash on our soap to keep it handy. Check out this link for an example: Wednesday Wisdom – Soap on a Rope.