Glad this was useful for you. I bought mine of eBay, it's 415 grade soy wax with a melting point of 125F, from Mets Candles and more. Make sure it's pure, fully hydrogenated soy bean oil, it's also available with paraffins added for making candles, which would not be very nice in soap, I don't think.
I would hot process, since you have more control over the superfat that way. I don't think soy wax would be very useful as superfat, it's a solid at anything near the end use temperature!
Stearic acid is also fairly easy to use, but you must hot process that, it saponifies instantly when you add the lye.
Make a tiny batch (100 gr of oils) and see how it works before making a large amount -- it takes very little soap to get a good shave, and a 100 gr batch looks like it will last me at least six months.
Razor blades are a highly individual thing, what works for one person won't for another (or they will work nicely in one razor and not another), so your husband should not be upset if he doesn't like the Wilkinsons. I find Polsilver SI blades to be a pain, for example -- very very sharp, but I get bad shaves with them every time no matter what razor I use. Even with three passes I can feel stubble by lunch, while with the Wilkinsons I barely have stubble at 9 pm. Can't be that much difference in the actual edge, the blades are only 0.005" thick.
Enjoy!
I would hot process, since you have more control over the superfat that way. I don't think soy wax would be very useful as superfat, it's a solid at anything near the end use temperature!
Stearic acid is also fairly easy to use, but you must hot process that, it saponifies instantly when you add the lye.
Make a tiny batch (100 gr of oils) and see how it works before making a large amount -- it takes very little soap to get a good shave, and a 100 gr batch looks like it will last me at least six months.
Razor blades are a highly individual thing, what works for one person won't for another (or they will work nicely in one razor and not another), so your husband should not be upset if he doesn't like the Wilkinsons. I find Polsilver SI blades to be a pain, for example -- very very sharp, but I get bad shaves with them every time no matter what razor I use. Even with three passes I can feel stubble by lunch, while with the Wilkinsons I barely have stubble at 9 pm. Can't be that much difference in the actual edge, the blades are only 0.005" thick.
Enjoy!
