Greetings from the Netherlands

henkverhaar

henkverhaar

Messages
1,241
Location
Almere, Netherlands
Hi,

My name is Henk Verhaar, and I hail from the Netherlands. I live in a small town called Ankeveen, close to Amsterdam and Hilversum. I've been wet shaving for most of my adult life, but until about a year ago mainly with cans and Gilette multi-blade razors, although I always had a cheap boar brush and a puck (cake) of old Vergulde Hand zeep. I DID always use only an alum block for aftershave...

Anyhow, I turn wood as one of my hobbies, including pens, and knew that some pen turning parts suppliers also supply shaving brush knots, so last March I ordered a couple knots and made myself some nice brushes. Also made a few to give away. I then went out and bought a Merkur Futur DE razor, at Paul Kox's shop in Breukelen. When I told him that I make my own brushes, he asked to see them, so a couple of weeks later I showed him a few brushed I made. He ordered twelve, and also asked if I could make shaving soap. Being a chemist by training, I thought "how hard can that be" and said yes. Well, turns out that it isn't as easy as just making soap (which is trivial BTW). After some trial and error, and some digging through mainly old literature, and some help from other soap-information inclined wet shavers (alas, not from home soap makers -- most of those don't know what makes a good shaving soap, and the few that do are, understandably, not particularly forthcoming with recipe info), I think I have what qualifies as bona fide shaving soap...

So now you know something about me...

Cheers

Henk
 
Welcome Henk, I have already read with interest some of your soap making posts.Look forward to hearing more.
 
Boab said:
Welcome Henk, I have already read with interest some of your soap making posts.Look forward to hearing more.
Click to expand...

Well, how about this:

I have a batch of what I consider adequate shaving soap. I could cut it up into small samples and send those out to members willing to try it and comment on it. Like, honestly comment on it; if someone thinks it's crap, they should definitely say so ;-)

I see too many home soapers offering 'shaving soaps' with impossible ingredients lists, stating that their husbands told them it was great soap :-(

Henk
 
henkverhaar said:
Boab said:
Welcome Henk, I have already read with interest some of your soap making posts.Look forward to hearing more.
Click to expand...

Well, how about this:

I have a batch of what I consider adequate shaving soap. I could cut it up into small samples and send those out to members willing to try it and comment on it. Like, honestly comment on it; if someone thinks it's crap, they should definitely say so ;-)

I see too many home soapers offering 'shaving soaps' with impossible ingredients lists, stating that their husbands told them it was great soap :-(

Henk
Click to expand...

Great idea. You will definitely get honest feedback from us here.
 
henkverhaar said:
I have a batch of what I consider adequate shaving soap. I could cut it up into small samples and send those out to members willing to try it and comment on it. Like, honestly comment on it; if someone thinks it's crap, they should definitely say so ;-)
Click to expand...

Count me in. I'm as undiplomatic as it's possible to be (as the twunts at Scottish Borders Council are well aware - it's fun when you know more about what their obligations are and they're clueless penpushers). I will give you the unvarnished truth (as I see it).
 
OK. Let's do it this way. I probably have enough soap left from this first batch to send out 10 decent samples. The first ten persons sending me an e-mail with their names and addresses get a sample. E-mail address: henk aleph stichtsend dot xs4all dot nl

And please substitute the correct symbols for aleph and dot ;-)

Henk
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom