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Mitchells Wool Fat

With the advent of so many quality artisans, MWF(my fav) can and will be easily replaced. Perhaps our very own CBL can clone or concoct a lanolin/tallow.
@CBLindsay
Based solely on the ingredients I would assume MWF is very much like the old tallow Williams with added lanolin and the traditional/typical mix of linalool, limonene, cinnamal and hydroxicitronela (a very common base used in old English/European skin care and parfumerie products). I have made stuff with linalool etc but never used lanolin. I was already considering making a batch or two just to see how what I can come up would compare. I truly believe the best skin feel would come from a blend of lanolin AND the fragrant skin friendly blend of linalool, limonene, cinnamal and hydroxicitronela.

I have a wonderful old puck of mwf on hand, I suppose I should find the new formula version just to compare…maybe it’s great stuff.
 
We could even have a naming contest to fill in the blank... "Chris's ________ Fat" 🐑 ... :oops: .... 🙈🙉🙊

We'd most likely all get banned though for TOU violations with our names seletions, but .... 🤷‍♂️
 
We could even have a naming contest to fill in the blank... "Chris's ________ Fat" 🐑 ... :oops: .... 🙈🙉🙊

We'd most likely all get banned though for TOU violations with our names seletions, but .... 🤷‍♂️
maybe "Chris's CAD Fat"
Everyone who's in the know knows.
I'm pretty sure the sales would be great. Calling a product cease and desist before anything happens might just be a pretty smart marketing move;)
 
New CBL soap name: Rest Well and Dream of Large Women
THIS LOL

Also this,
db4b27cace3d5a71330bf00ea534cc2b



@CBLindsay the next in the Princess Bride line!!!!

@heysi GREAT CALL!
 
This thread has focused mostly on "the fat" (lanolin) that makes MWF so popular. Little if anything has been said about the scent itself and/or how it is notoriously difficult to lather for many people. To me, the scent was so subtle I couldn't say what it smells like. Maybe a light floral or powder-like scent but nothing striking or memorable for me. I haven't had much difficulty lathering the soap but it does have a particular loading and water requirement so many other soaps don't have.

True fact: Technically Lanolin is a wax not a fat. A subtle biochemical difference but waxes and fats are different.

SOOO. if one wanted to call a soap XXX wool-wax, it would be quite accurate. Somehow "da-wax" doesn't sound as fun as "da-fat".
 
Always informative when @CBLindsay WAXes poetic about shave soaps.

I've never had a problem getting MWF to lather (or any soap for that matter). Either I'm doing something right or everyone else is doing something wrong. I may have to do a video showing how I create lather using the same method with every soap I own.
 
From what I read, MWF started distribution of the new formula using original tallow labels. Seems, I don’t know … sketchy. When Kent called them out, MWF lied about it. Once Kent mentioned they would send pucks to a lab for testing then MWF admitted what happened. They can keep the reformulation, I’m done..
MWF changed their own labels but left Kent's alone. As far as I know, Kent wasn't supposed to receive non-tallow soap. It was more of a blunder than an outright attempt to dupe Kent.

Irregardless of the facts, Kent is looking for a new manufacturer for their soap. Whether this is from a genuine wish to stick with tallow soaps or because they felt MWF burned their bridge by not telling them about the reformulation is up for debate.
Based solely on the ingredients I would assume MWF is very much like the old tallow Williams with added lanolin and the traditional/typical mix of linalool, limonene, cinnamal and hydroxicitronela (a very common base used in old English/European skin care and parfumerie products). I have made stuff with linalool etc but never used lanolin. I was already considering making a batch or two just to see how what I can come up would compare. I truly believe the best skin feel would come from a blend of lanolin AND the fragrant skin friendly blend of linalool, limonene, cinnamal and hydroxicitronela.

I have a wonderful old puck of mwf on hand, I suppose I should find the new formula version just to compare…maybe it’s great stuff.
The new formula version is an excellent soap. Good, even. Just don't do a side by side comparison with the tallow, as it will expose the new formula's shortcomings.

The scent of the new stuff is much clearer than the tallow version. Tallow does have a tendency to mute scents, so that shouldn't be surprising. It actually does contain more than just powdery lavender...

The powdery undertone scent is gone. It's more of a lotion type of scent now, rather than soapy.

The average user won't notice a difference between the old and new formulas. The experienced shaving hobbyist will notice the lack of slickness and the reduction in post shave moisturization. The lather also starts breaking down a bit quicker.

The real question is how on earth did they manage to get the soap that close to the original, with a less than great ingredient list? With a few tweaks, it could be as good as the original, but this version isn't there yet.
 
The experienced shaving hobbyist will notice the lack of slickness and the reduction in post shave moisturization. The lather also starts breaking down a bit quicker.

I'm very interested in trying this new formulation out, but if this is my experience, I will feel less like an "Old Man Yelling At Cloud." And a little less crazy for stocking up on so much of the tallow. I've used it far more than any other soap for these reasons.

When I started wetshaving, the Shavepocalypse was a much larger topic than it has been recently, but that instinct served me very well here, I must say.

Thank you for your accurate statements of fact about the Kent affair. Your understanding of them matches mine, but I wasn't up to rewriting the whole saga, as I watched it unfold in several places at once, and synthesis and reduction of a factually accurate account from real world sources, is the kind of writing that is partly why I'm not a lawyer anymore.

Thank you also for sharing your impressions and experiences with the new base. This is the first I've seen, and I've been waiting to hear what is being said with anticipation.

Sent from my Pixel 6 Pro using Tapatalk
 
Might as well delete the whole post then, yeah? So, can't link to other sites.

There's a thread out there called "[EXPERIMENT] Seeking Testers for the New Formulation of Mitchell’s Wool Fat Soap" it has multiple reviews from different people with all levels of experience, if you want a well rounded view of the new soap.
 
Might as well delete the whole post then, yeah? So, can't link to other sites.

There's a thread out there called "[EXPERIMENT] Seeking Testers for the New Formulation of Mitchell’s Wool Fat Soap" it has multiple reviews from different people with all levels of experience, if you want a well rounded view of the new soap.
Really more of a study than an experiment. I'll say no more.

Sent from my Pixel 6 Pro using Tapatalk
 
This is all the bar soap I could afford. It'll have to be rationed.
d27501620984c22539aaa6062a3f4d0c.jpg


Sent from my Pixel 6 Pro using Tapatalk
Well, lucky for you, the bar soap has not been reformulated, so you have plenty more time to build on that stockpile. Interestingly enough, MWF does seem to be the only one who makes a tallow+lanolin hard soap bar.
 
Based solely on the ingredients I would assume MWF is very much like the old tallow Williams with added lanolin and the traditional/typical mix of linalool, limonene, cinnamal and hydroxicitronela (a very common base used in old English/European skin care and parfumerie products). I have made stuff with linalool etc but never used lanolin. I was already considering making a batch or two just to see how what I can come up would compare. I truly believe the best skin feel would come from a blend of lanolin AND the fragrant skin friendly blend of linalool, limonene, cinnamal and hydroxicitronela.

I have a wonderful old puck of mwf on hand, I suppose I should find the new formula version just to compare…maybe it’s great stuff.
The best shaving product I've ever used was a vintage tube of Williams shaving cream. It contained lanotrate25, which is hydrolyzed lanolin, as best I can tell. They either removed or added a molecule to the lanolin to get it to combine with the rest of the ingredients. (At a certain point, you can't add more lanolin as it just separates out from the rest of the ingredients).

Lovely stuff.
 
The best shaving product I've ever used was a vintage tube of Williams shaving cream. It contained lanotrate25, which is hydrolyzed lanolin, as best I can tell. They either removed or added a molecule to the lanolin to get it to combine with the rest of the ingredients. (At a certain point, you can't add more lanolin as it just separates out from the rest of the ingredients).

Lovely stuff.
My understanding of "Lanolin25" is that Williams claimed it was a proprietary "highly concentrated" form of lanolin that was 25 times concentrated. This 25x strength version of lanolin was supposed to allow them to use a "regular" amount of lanolin but get the effect of using 25 times that amount.

I suspect William's 25x lanolin was just a more refined version, maybe even 25 times refined. Or maybe they used an alcohol extracted version of lanolin then evaporated the alcohol to create what they called lanolin25. In any case, I wonder if "lanolin25" was more marketing hype than reality ...I don't know how strict the marketing and labeling laws were at that time.

edit: my thoughts on this subject are driven by the ads and cutouts i have seen, not based on some personal scientific knowledge.
 
My understanding of "Lanolin25" is that Williams claimed it was a proprietary "highly concentrated" form of lanolin that was 25 times concentrated. This 25x strength version of lanolin was supposed to allow them to use a "regular" amount of lanolin but get the effect of using 25 times that amount.

I suspect William's 25x lanolin was just a more refined version, maybe even 25 times refined. Or maybe they used an alcohol extracted version of lanolin then evaporated the alcohol to create what they called lanolin25. In any case, I wonder if "lanolin25" was more marketing hype than reality ...I don't know how strict the marketing and labeling laws were at that time.

edit: my thoughts on this subject are driven by the ads and cutouts i have seen, not based on some personal scientific knowledge.
Water, Potassium Stearate, Glycerine, Potassium Cocoate, Sodium Silicate, Boric Acid, Fragrance, Lanolin Alcohol, Acetylated Lanolin, Pentasodium Pentetate, Tetrasodium Editronate, & colourings.

Ingredient list.
 
According to ChatGPT:

Lanolin Processing Guide


User
If I was to process lanolin to get these two ingredients, Lanolin Alcohol and Acetylated Lanolin, how would I do it?

ChatGPT
To obtain Lanolin Alcohol and Acetylated Lanolin from lanolin, you would need to go through a series of chemical processes. Here's a general overview of the steps involved:

Lanolin Extraction: Lanolin is a wax-like substance found in sheep's wool. The first step is to extract lanolin from the wool. This is typically done using an organic solvent extraction method, where the wool is washed with a suitable solvent, such as hexane or petroleum ether, to remove the lanolin.

Purification: The extracted lanolin may contain impurities such as dirt, wool grease, or other contaminants. Purification is carried out to remove these impurities. The lanolin is usually filtered and subjected to various purification techniques like centrifugation or vacuum distillation.

Hydrolysis: Lanolin primarily consists of esters, which need to be hydrolyzed to obtain the desired ingredients. Hydrolysis involves the reaction of lanolin with an alkaline solution, such as sodium hydroxide (NaOH). This process breaks down the ester bonds, resulting in the formation of lanolin alcohol and fatty acids.

Separation: After hydrolysis, the resulting mixture will contain lanolin alcohol, fatty acids, and other components. Separation techniques such as solvent extraction or fractional distillation can be used to isolate lanolin alcohol from the mixture. This step helps separate it from the fatty acids and other byproducts.

Acetylation: To obtain acetylated lanolin, the lanolin alcohol is chemically modified by acetylation. Acetylation involves reacting the lanolin alcohol with acetic anhydride or acetyl chloride in the presence of a catalyst, such as pyridine. This process introduces acetyl groups onto the lanolin alcohol molecules, resulting in the formation of acetylated lanolin.

Purification and Drying: The resulting lanolin alcohol and acetylated lanolin may still contain some impurities. Further purification techniques like filtration or recrystallization can be used to obtain pure forms of the ingredients. Finally, the purified substances are typically dried to remove any residual moisture.

It's important to note that the specific conditions, reagents, and equipment used in these processes may vary depending on the desired quality and scale of production. If you are planning to carry out these procedures, it's advisable to consult detailed scientific literature, protocols, or seek guidance from professionals experienced in lanolin processing.
 
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