Seeking Editor

Please excuse the ever so slightly off-topic post but the people that read this portion of the forum are those who I am looking to target as it pertains directly to making these soaps.

I am putting together a series of articles intended to help the first-time shaving soap maker (could be someone new to soap, or just to HP) make their own shaving soap. The section for which I am seeking an editor or editors is the "Tools and Ingredients" part. This will cover what raw materials to get, where to get the raw materials, and the tools and utensils the new soaper should collect for this project.

This is a 9 page, 4,241 word document so it's more than a forum post for sure. I'd guess it might take a person an hour or so to read and make comments.

I'm looking for someone (or maybe two someones) who is a grammar fiend, and for someone who is an experienced HP soaper. These need not be the same person of course. Being able to use Microsoft Word's markup features is preferable but not critical - I can take a Polaroid picture of hand-written Post-it notes if that's how you roll. :razz: I expect to be critically reviewed, not to be patted on the back. You have to want to tell me what I did wrong. Normally this would be perfect for my wife but she's not interested in soap.

I am not receiving any material compensation or consideration for this article, it is in no way commercial.

I am not at all certain how I will release this. As I mentioned it is too much for a forum post but I will absolutely make the finished article or articles available to everyone present and future here at the SMF. I also expect to do the same over at Badger & Blade, the place from which many of us crazy disruptive wet-saving dudes originally hail.

So, if ya want to help and have a little spare time, reply or drop me a PM. If you want to talk about how insane I am to put this much effort into an article for no compensation, that's cool too! :crazy:

Lee, thanks in advance for creating something that I will be reading with great interest. Your article could not be more timely. DH is after me to make my first batch for him and put "to good use" all the supplies he has been seeing taking over the house. I've been studying our forum posts regarding shaving soaps, but it's a lot of information to process.

Since I'm a such a new soaper and have focused on cold process, I'd have nothing useful to contribute on that front. If you don't get a proof reading volunteer, feel free to send anything my way. I'd love to help out in any way possible.

Lee, why not make it an article for this site?

snappyllama said:

Lee, thanks in advance for creating something that I will be reading with great interest. Your article could not be more timely. DH is after me to make my first batch for him and put "to good use" all the supplies he has been seeing taking over the house. I've been studying our forum posts regarding shaving soaps, but it's a lot of information to process.

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That's really my inspiration. First, there's so much bad or incorrect information out there (not here specifically, just in general on the Internet) that it's no wonder there are so many sub-par examples of shaving soap. There re great ones, and great information to be had as well, but it's all the same on the Internet and there are very few places to go for 100% of "how to."

Second, as you say, there's a LOT of great information here but a good portion is also discussion between folks trying different things. It's hard to differentiate between musings and a report of success. My goal was to have one article (it's turning into a small book) that can take a person new to shaving soap (or even new to soap) from start to finish with success and safety.

Since I'm a such a new soaper and have focused on cold process, I'd have nothing useful to contribute on that front. If you don't get a proof reading volunteer, feel free to send anything my way. I'd love to help out in any way possible.

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I'm relatively new as well, certainly a neophyte compared to the experienced folks here. That was another driving factor: document it before it all became so second nature that I forgot how scary it was to start something completely new.

The Efficacious Gentleman said:

Lee, why not make it an article for this site?

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One of your cohorts has suggested that s well. I'm certainly open to the idea. I have a vision for the sharing of the information and provided that's acceptable to the site owner I think it would be awesome. Even if we can't figure that out, the information will be absolutely freely available to everyone. It may sound like I'm being cagey here, I'm not. Because this also contains a recipe I worked hard on, and desire it to be free forever, I just want to make sure the license under which I want to release it makes sense for an article here.

This should give you an idea of what I mean:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_Beer

This should not turn into a discussion (here anyway) about whether the site owner should or should not agree to this. I've not discussed it with him and he's got a site to run with a bunch of headaches I don't even want to consider. We should let him decide if it fits. If not I'll just post a link here.

Hello again folks!

The second of three parts was received back from the Editor and prepared for publication. I have the third of three parts now in search of an Editor. That person would be someone preferably having experience with HP as this part is all about the process.

Any takers? I'm also going to post on the Shaving forum (Badger and Blade) to see if there's anyone willing to give it a critical eye there. Not sure why I did not check there too.