how do you cut soap?

[janek]

in a vain attempt at money-saving we bought a large block of olive soap which we thought we could chop into soap-sized portions for easy use. turns out we can't. can you? how is it done? is it even possible to avoid a soapdish full of soap shavings?

I often buy big blocks of soap from Lush & cut them up, but so far I haven't come across one that I can't cut with a big kitchen knife - is your olive soap particularly hard?

Would a cheese wire do it?

A good kitchen knife should do it. But if the soap is old and dry it might be a battle to cut it. I work in lush BTW .

With difficulty I'd have thought - whenever I have tried to do it, it always spinters off into lots of tiny pieces.

i have to admit it was only dp who cut it, so i don't know how hard it was, or how hard he tried to do it right... i think it's probably harder than something you'd buy in lush though. im(limited)e lush soaps are pretty soft arent' they? it could be old though, who knows how long these things sit around in shops.

thanks for the responses. x.

x post - yes sparky, exactly that is what happened. pretty messy.

Cutting it up isn't going to work if it's too hard (and it sounds like it is)You can hack it up or grate it then turn it into liquid soap to put into pump bottles though. You'll need to experiment with the soap to water ratio but it will definitely work.

I do this - as otherwirse a huge bar of soap looks quite horrid and gets ignored or thrown away

I chopped up a bar of soap wrapped up each cube into cling film and get out one cube every few weeks - much less waste

With the bits - I wet my hands and moulded them into a lump!

I have only done it once but I will continue as so much less waste

would a hot knife work better