Ivory Soap flakes???

I just take an ivory bar & grate it on the box grater you should be able to find it in the laundry section

As some one who knows, Ivory flakes are seldom made and when they are, they are usually made over seas or for export - althought they can still be found usually in rual areas. if interested i could go on and on about soap but i will not bore you with that here. i use borax but if you must use ivory save yourself a lot of trouble and buy a bar a shave it up yourself.

Get some 20 Mule Team Borax. It's in the laundry section and I know KMart carries it, haven't looked anywhere else. Don't need to worry about cutting up the ivory soap then.


It is used with hot water to wash the rocks, pellets and barrel when a load finishes before moving the rocks on to the next stage. Also, after the final polish to bring out the shine and remove any residue from tumbling.

I guess I should put my two cents in here, since I am one of the minority using Ivory. The Ivory soap flakes stopped being made over a decade ago. I was fortunate to have a large box of them, but that ran out about a year ago. It was a powdered laundry soap, about the consistency of something like Tide, but it had no harsh chemicals and was recommended for babies laundry. That's the problem with replacing it with regular laundry detergent, the chemicals (bleach, etc) can be hard on your barrels.

As a replacement, I now use Ivory bar soap, pared with a knife to give as fine flakes as I can get. I tried grating it once, but it just mucks up into a mat. Paring it with a knife, you can get either fine curls, or sometimes if the bar is especially dry it will break into powder. Anyway, use about half as much as was recommended for the powdered soap, since the shaved stuff is chunkier and denser.

Someone did a survey of whether people on the board use Ivory or Borax, and borax was by far the most popular. But I'm sticking with Ivory, as it has always done a great job for me, even cleaned up one batch to a mirror shine after it came out of polish all covered in scum and looking like it was going to be a flop.

i DID BUY THE BORAX, BUT I COULD HAVE SWORN THAT SOMEWHERE ON HERE I READ THAT SOMEONE USES BORAX AND Ivory! I've copied tons of info so will have to look it up. thanks for the info, you saved me alot of searching. if i do use it, i'll get a bar.

Tweet, I use room-temperature water. My thinking is that if I used cold water then there would be some expansion pressure as it warmed to room temperature in the barrel, and that might break the seal on the barrel. With hot water, contraction of the hot water/vapour might have a similar but opposite effect as the hot water in the barrel came to room temperature. I have no idea if either the expansion or contraction would be enough to break the seal, but I just go with approximately room-temperature water to avoid the problem altogether.

There's always a lot of discussion about "Ivory Flakes". By now, I hope that all know that "Ivory Flakes" is now longer marketed in the U.S.A. It should also be understood that "Ivory Flakes" was a soap, not a detergent. All of the modern products are detergents and not soaps. The difference is as follows:

Soaps are made of materials found in nature. Detergents are synthetic (although some of the ingredients are natural); they were developed during World War II when oils to make soap were scarce.

There is little doubt that soap is better for your health and the environment than detergents. Detergents are very toxic to fish and wildlife. Nonetheless, a big drawback of washing with soap is that the minerals in water react with those in soap, leaving an insoluble film. This can turn clothes grayish, and the film can leave a residue (such as is found on shower stalls, for example).

Detergents react less to minerals in water and for all practical purposes are the product of choice for laundry, unless you have very soft water. Those of you with hard water—which has a high mineral content—already know about this, I am sure. If you choose to wash your clothes with a detergent—or the dishes, or some of my recipes asking for a biodegradable soap or detergent—you can ensure the least possible damage to the environment by selecting the most biodegradable products.

Health food stores have a number of brands of detergent that are made with renewable materials instead of petroleum-based ingredients, and with natural essential oil fragrance and no dyes. They also sell liquid vegetable-oil soaps called castile soap.


Borax does offer a lot of the benefits of soap without the harsh attributes of detergent. We all do still have the choice of making our own soap (Beverley Hillbillies)!

Ron

Excellent information about soap/detergent. I did find some Ivory Snow but it is detergent.

www.ivory.com/YourIvoryProducts_IvorySnow.htm

This needs to be "bumped" up.................Great idea.......