How Do I Handle the End of A Shaving Stick

[Ouchmychin]

I am using up an ARKO shave stick and I am having trouble getting the label wrap off and holding on to a short slippery stick to rub it on my face. How do other users do this, or do you just toss the last 3/4 inch or so?

[jww]

I toss it when I can't handle it easily.

[Rufus]

I toss it when I can't handle it easily.

Same for me.

[ShadowsDad]

I have a problem with the stick, so immediately after removing the wrapper I shred it into a tub and add a bit of water to make the shreds bind together. Problem solved because I never have a tiny piece. ARKO isn't the only stick I treat that way. I treat them all that way. There was a short window where I didn't and used them as sticks... a very short window.

Probably not what you wanted but honest.

[Ouchmychin]

Ill toss it!

[brothers]

I don't use them as sticks because they're just too messy for me. When I get a stick I always shove the softer soaps down into a bowl and load the brush on the soap. This permits me to use up every single bit of the soap instead of trying to smear it on my face so I can face-lather it.

[CMur12]

Like Brian, I grate my shave sticks up and mash them into a bowl. I never felt the need to add water to it, but that's just my preference.

When I grate the stick up, I take the last part that is hardest to grate and I put it in the bottom-center of the bowl. After that, I mash the grated soap on top of it. Since the swirling action of loading the brush wears the center down first, having that little bit of harder soap there is an advantage.

You could always save the ends of your shave sticks, when they are too short to soap your beard directly, and make a cake of soap out of them.

(I'm like Gary. I don't like to waste it, either.)

- Murray

[kronos9]

I've mushed/melted the stub into some cold pour soap.

[Ouchmychin]

I've got 2 more and I don't really like them as well as a cream. I'm going to try Coates Rose that Gary gave me in his pif.

[BiffBuff]

I saw an old advertisement from the 1930's for Colgate shave stick I think, suggesting that you wet the end of a new stick, and the stump of the old one, and just push the two surfaces against one another to "weld" the two together -- dunno if this would work with Arko, but it's worth a try.

[Ouchmychin]

Now I am wondering how I slide the stick out from its wrapper. Mine was too tight to slide from the get go. I just cut away more and more from the top. Has anyone ever been able to push the soap up from the bottom? To weld it to a new one I need to get rid of the wrapper around the bottom of the old one and the top of the new one. By the way I have been enjoying the Rose Coates for the last couple of days. I smear about 3/4 inch on one side and repeat for the other; then brush up a lather.

[Gareth]

For what most of them cost, I do the same as others have done and throw them when they start to get that messy.

Gareth

[Squire]

Sqush it down on top of any hard soap and keep on lathering.

[brothers]

Squire, that's the best suggestion.

[Ouchmychin]

Today I dug out a new bar of soap wet it and the stub and pressed them together. I rinsed out the cup where I stored the stick and drizzled the stuff around the stick. By tomorrow or next day they should fuse. I'll just finish up my Coates before I try using it.

[Rufust445]

Since last year I've been working on at home a puck of Vermont Country Store Apothecary soap. Now that a hole has developed in the center, I've put the stub of an LEA Nueva Formula stick in there. After loading the brush (Semogue 1250) I start whipping things up in a bowl, adding a shot of KMF fragrance free. Today I used less KMF, and the lather was starting to disappear on my face. Got a usable shave, but note to self: Mix in more KMF fragrance free in the future.

[jww]

Squire, that's the best suggestion.

+2