OldTools Archive

Recent Bios FAQ

274858 John Leyden <leydenjl@g...> 2021‑12‑04 Wooden Soap Dish?
GG’s,

Darling Daughter has requested that a wooden soap dish be found in her stocking
this holiday season.

My gut reaction is…yuck! 

Regardless of wood species used, I can’t imagine something more easily inclined
to slime and rot.

Please correct me if I am wrong. I’ll do anything for this young lady as
doubtless you would for one of your own. But wood in the tub? Really?

Where do these millennials get such ideas?
274859 John M. Johnston <jmjhnstn@m...> 2021‑12‑04 Re: Wooden Soap Dish?
Cypress.


John M. Johnston

“P.S. If you do not receive this, of course it must have been miscarried;
therefore I beg you to write and let me know.” - Sir Boyle Roche, M.P.
274860 William Fariss 2021‑12‑04 Re: Wooden Soap Dish?
Go to eBay and type in "wooden soap dish". That will get you all the ideas you
possibly need to make one.

⁣Sent from BlueMail ​
274861 John Ruth <johnrruth@h...> 2021‑12‑04 Re: Wooden Soap Dish?
John,

Teak. True teak, tectona grandis, not the faux teak currently used in imported
"teak" items, is very rot-resistant.  There's a saying to the effect that "No
one has ever seen a piece of rotten teak." This is not far from the truth.

The wood is full of silica, and hence rapidly dulls tools.

John Ruth
Metuchen, NJ
274863 Kirk Eppler 2021‑12‑04 Re: Wooden Soap Dish?
Actually, go to Etsy too, that may be where she found it.

I would second the teak vote, talk to you local boat store.

If you ridge the bottom, it will reduce the grossness factor a bit

Kirk in Half Moon Bay, near lots of things that spend most of their life in
the water.

On Fri, Dec 3, 2021 at 6:06 PM William Fariss via groups.io  wrote:

> Go to eBay and type in "wooden soap dish". That will get you all the ideas
> you possibly need to make one.
>
> On Dec 3, 2021, 8:38 PM, at 8:38 PM, John Leyden 
> wrote:
> >GG’s,
> >
> >Darling Daughter has requested that a wooden soap dish be found in her
> >stocking this holiday season.
> >
> >My gut reaction is…yuck!
>
>
> --
Sent from my iPad, apologies for the Auto Correct errors. Kirk
274864 scritch <capeflattery@c...> 2021‑12‑04 Re: Wooden Soap Dish?
Wife and I used  to volunteer on an old tugboat in Seattle (Arthur Foss, 1889).
We had a wooden soap dish in the head.

We agree, Yuck.
274865 Bill Ghio 2021‑12‑04 Re: Wooden Soap Dish?
> On Dec 3, 2021, at 10:45 PM, Kirk Eppler via groups.io
 wrote:
> 
> I would second the teak vote, talk to you local boat store.
> 

I can recommend Ipe. Our kitchen sink has four holes and when we changed out the
faucet last it left one hole exposed. I turned a decorative plug out of Ipe that
has survived 5 or 6 years of daily wet/dry cycles with no evidence of
deterioration.

Bill
274866 scottg <scottg@s...> 2021‑12‑04 Re: Wooden Soap Dish?
Bill sez
I can recommend Ipe.  I turned a decorative plug out of Ipe that has 
survived 5 or 6 years of daily wet/dry cycles with no evidence of 
deterioration.
Bill

   I was going to recommend ipe too. Its easier to get than cypress or 
teak.
I would go for the design of small bars (shaped or plain) joined to 2 
little end feet for maximum drainage.  I can't imagine relying on glue 
alone for this. I think I'd probably go with little brass nails or 
screws in addition
  It'll still get mungy but not quite as quickly.

yours scott who will be needing to turn a little ipe plug for his sink 
just like Bill did, soon



-- 
*******************************
    Scott Grandstaff
    Box 409 Happy Camp, Ca  96039
    scottg@s...
    http://www.snowcrest.net/kitty/sgrandstaff/
    http://www.snowcrest.net/kitty/hpages/index.html
274867 Phil Schempf <philschempf@g...> 2021‑12‑04 Re: Wooden Soap Dish?
We have one at home. It’s cut from a single piece of wood. A wide dado with the
grain across the bottom to leave ~1/4” on each side for “legs”. Top is cut with
V shaped grooves leaving ~1/4” flats on each side. Grooved portion wide and long
enough to accommodate a bar of soap. I don’t know what sort of wood it is, no
remarkable grain and light in color, maple like. No discernible finish, but
maybe a wax. I can send a photo later when I get home. It does get mungy like
any soap dish, but a quick scrub with a brush cleans it up pretty quick. Haven’t
had any problems with mold.
274868 Bill Ghio 2021‑12‑04 Re: Wooden Soap Dish?
> On Dec 3, 2021, at 8:38 PM, John Leyden  wrote:
> 
> GG’s,
> 
> Darling Daughter has requested that a wooden soap dish be found in her
stocking this holiday season.
> 
> My gut reaction is…yuck! 
> 
> Regardless of wood species used, I can’t imagine something more easily
inclined to slime and rot.
> 

I looked this morning and didn’t see anything in my Ipe stock to offer. But… I
just remembered another spot to check. If you can do w/ a piece that is 5 7/16 W
x 1T x 8 or 9 L I can send it to you (as long as you don’t live across a border
that would object to wood products in the mail.

Bill

On Maryland’s Eastern Shore.
274869 gary allan may 2021‑12‑04 Re: Wooden Soap Dish?
ebay'll get you plenty of images, all right. Google images will get you a lot
more images, but curiously, 'vintage' wooden soap dish search shows no
venerables, only 'new' ones.

    gluck widdat: gam in OlyWA/USA


How horrible it is to have so many people killed!---And what a blessing one
cares for none of them!
Jane Austen 

    On Friday, December 3, 2021, 06:06:52 PM PST, William Fariss via groups.io
 wrote:
 
 Go to eBay and type in "wooden soap dish". That will get you all the ideas you
possibly need to make one.

⁣Sent from BlueMail ​

On Dec 3, 2021, 8:38 PM, at 8:38 PM, John Leyden  wrote:
>GG’s,
>
>Darling Daughter has requested that a wooden soap dish be found in her
>stocking this holiday season.
>
>My gut reaction is…yuck!
>
>Regardless of wood species used, I can’t imagine something more easily
>inclined to slime and rot.
>
>Please correct me if I am wrong. I’ll do anything for this young lady
>as doubtless you would for one of your own. But wood in the tub?
>Really?
>
>Where do these millennials get such ideas?
>
>
>
274870 Don Schwartz <dks@t...> 2021‑12‑04 Re: Wooden Soap Dish?
I would go with lignum vitae for this application.  Good colours, very 
fine-grained, full of naturally-occurring oil. Not easy to work, but 
sharp tools produce very fine surfaces. My second choice would be olive.

FWIW
Don

On 2021-12-03 6:38 p.m., John Leyden wrote:
> GG’s,
>
> Darling Daughter has requested that a wooden soap dish be found in her
stocking this holiday season.
>
> My gut reaction is…yuck!
>
> Regardless of wood species used, I can’t imagine something more easily
inclined to slime and rot.
>
> Please correct me if I am wrong. I’ll do anything for this young lady as
doubtless you would for one of your own. But wood in the tub? Really?
>
> Where do these millennials get such ideas?
>
>
> 
>
>

-- 
Buy less. Buy Canadian.

“Everyone knows the river will swell, but they always find money for floods” ––
Joan Baez
274871 scritch <capeflattery@c...> 2021‑12‑04 Re: Wooden Soap Dish?
I was told that ipe in the Puget Sound climate will last 50 years with no
treatment!  I made a deck table for my wife out of some 1x6 ipe and the only
change I see in it after 10 years outside is a bit of graying.
274872 Don Schwartz <dks@t...> 2021‑12‑04 Re: Wooden Soap Dish?
I believe Ipe is used extensively for garden furmiture in the UK.

Don
On 2021-12-04 2:09 p.m., scritch wrote:
> I was told that ipe in the Puget Sound climate will last 50 years with no
treatment!  I made a deck table for my wife out of some 1x6 ipe and the only
change I see in it after 10 years outside is a bit of graying.
>
>
> 
>
>

-- 
Buy less. Buy Canadian.

“Everyone knows the river will swell, but they always find money for floods” ––
Joan Baez
274873 Don Schwartz <dks@t...> 2021‑12‑04 Re: Wooden Soap Dish?
I believe Ipe is used extensively for garden furniture in the UK.

Don
On 2021-12-04 2:09 p.m., scritch wrote:
> I was told that ipe in the Puget Sound climate will last 50 years with no
treatment!  I made a deck table for my wife out of some 1x6 ipe and the only
change I see in it after 10 years outside is a bit of graying.
>
>
> 
>
>

-- 
Buy less. Buy Canadian.

“Everyone knows the river will swell, but they always find money for floods” ––
Joan Baez
274874 scottg <scottg@s...> 2021‑12‑05 Re: Wooden Soap Dish?
I was told that ipe in the Puget Sound climate will last 50 years > with 
no treatment! > > Ipe has been used for maintenance and repair of the 
famous Atlantic > City boardwalk for quite some time. But it was 
originally constructed > of southern yellow pine. > > So it sounds like 
SYP might be another contender if its easy and cheap to > get yours scott
>  > *******************************
Scott Grandstaff Box 409 Happy Camp, > Ca 96039 scottg@s... > 
http://www.snowcrest.net/kitty/sgrandstaff/ > 
http://www.snowcrest.net/kitty/hpages/index.html >
274875 Thomas Conroy 2021‑12‑05 Re: Wooden Soap Dish?
John Leyden wrote:
|  | 
| 
| 

Darling Daughter has requested that a wooden soap dish be found in her stocking
this holiday season.

My gut reaction is…yuck!

Regardless of wood species used, I can’t imagine something more easily inclined
to slime and rot.

Please correct me if I am wrong. I’ll do anything for this young lady as
doubtless you would for one of your own. But wood in the tub?...

 |

 |

 |

Hi, John,
For what its worth:
About forty years ago I inherited, from the widow of a greatuncle who died in
1959, an unopened cake of shaving soap packaged in a small turned wooden
(maple?) bowl with a lid. This wasn't a fancy gift presentation; it was clearly
meant to be a working shaving tool (won't shatter into feet-slicing bits of
ceramic, the way a conventional mug will if you drop it on a tile floor on a
groggy morning). I never had a use for shaving soap, but eventually I finished
the bowl with spar varnish and used it occasionally for flour paste. I never had
an issue with slime or rot, beyond what I would have had anyway in a ceramic or
plastic paste pot.
My binding teacher has used wooden bowls for paste for as long as I can
remember, say forty years. The paste is changed and the bowls washed out every
week; there is no sign of rot or bacteria, beyond what you have anyway from the
paste itself. Traditional English paste pots were shallow coopered wood bowls.
Coopered wooden vessels were traditionally used in many houshold functions into
the twentieth century.
Any soap bowl is going to have a slime problem, but from melted soap, not from
bacteria. Between the anti-bacterial properties of wood, the anti-bacterial
properties of soap, and occasional cleaning, I don't see that "slime and rot"
should be anything to worry about unduly. I would suggest making the soap dish
by turning, to reduce potential gaps and cracks where nasty stuff might settle
in; but that is more a matter of your own skills, tooling, and tastes.
Tom ConroyBerkeley
274876 Phil E. <pedgerton66@g...> 2021‑12‑05 Re: Wooden Soap Dish?
How about a wooden dish surrounding a glass or ceramic liner?

Phil E.
274877 galoot@l... 2021‑12‑05 Re: Wooden Soap Dish?
Quoting "Phil E." :

> How about a wooden dish surrounding a glass or ceramic liner?
>
Check her preferences but for me a major requirement is something that  
drains, since a bar of soap lasts a lot longer if it dries between uses.

Esther
274878 Paul Aud 2021‑12‑05 Re: Wooden Soap Dish?
I made wooden soap holders about 13 years ago.  I agree that they were hard
to maintain, but most of that was my small slots.  It needed bigger slots
for easier cleaning.  I made them from what I think we're oak scraps from
mis-manufactured trophy backs.  I had some serious grain-driven curving,
but they didn't rot.  They did stain the counters with tannin where they
sat.  So that's something to consider.  We no longer use them, but I
haven't given up on the idea.  Mine were completely unfinished.

On Sat, Dec 4, 2021, 8:42 PM Thomas Conroy via groups.io  wrote:

Recent Bios FAQ