Stainless steel bar of soap —> why does it work?

[koti]

Okay so I got this „bar of soap” made of stainless steel (I think) I’ve had it for years and I have no idea where I have it from, probably someone gave it to me as a present 15 or 20 years ago. The purpose of this thing (I remember that) is to get rid of garlic/onion scent from your hands by washing in cold water and this bar of steel soap. The thing is that this actually works and I want to know exactly why? I’ve tried every combination of washing with/without it and always the steel soap wins, it clearly does what its supposed to do. Why is it that steel (and cold water) helps in getting rid of scents from your hands?

The Bolognese will be ready in about 1 hour by the way.

[StringJunky]

The smelly culprit is sulphur-based and that, apparently, forms an acid with water, which reacts with some component in the metal bar. My guess is iron into its sulphate.

Edited September 15, 2020 by StringJunky

[MigL]

I don't believe it for one minute !

Not the part about the steel bar of soap, but a Polish guy making Bolognese sauce.

[Kartazion]

The cleaning begins with a natural chemical reaction called oxidation-reduction discovered by a Dutch gardener. He used his steel planting tool to remove the stubborn leek odors from his hands. When in contact with water, the metal ions in stainless steel capture and penetrate the sulfur and nitrogen molecules responsible for the foul fumes. So, on first contact with steel, the smell of foods rich in sulfur disappears immediately.

An oxidation-reduction (redox) reaction is a type of chemical reaction that involves a transfer of electrons between two species. An oxidation-reduction reaction is any chemical reaction in which the oxidation number of a molecule, atom, or ion changes by gaining or losing an electron.

[koti]

On 9/15/2020 at 4:37 PM, StringJunky said:

The smelly culprit is sulphur-based and that, apparently, forms an acid with water, which reacts with some component in the metal bar. My guess is iron into its sulphate.

The reaction has to be extremely miniscule, I've had this steel bar for around 2 decades and it doesn't change its shape or color in any way like stainless steel normaly does in a household environment.

2 hours ago, MigL said:

I don't believe it for one minute !

Not the part about the steel bar of soap, but a Polish guy making Bolognese sauce.

Oh no you didn't. No one makes fun of my Bolognese. No one.

6 minutes ago, Kartazion said:

The cleaning begins with a natural chemical reaction called oxidation-reduction discovered by a Dutch gardener. He used his steel planting tool to remove the stubborn leek odors from his hands. When in contact with water, the metal ions in stainless steel capture and penetrate the sulfur and nitrogen molecules responsible for the foul fumes. So, on first contact with steel, the smell of foods rich in sulfur disappears immediately.

An oxidation-reduction (redox) reaction is a type of chemical reaction that involves a transfer of electrons between two species. An oxidation-reduction reaction is any chemical reaction in which the oxidation number of a molecule, atom, or ion changes by gaining or losing an electron.

Do you have a source? Sounds like a grat explanation.

[Kartazion]

44 minutes ago, koti said:

Do you have a source? Sounds like a grat explanation.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Redox

[koti]

34 minutes ago, Kartazion said:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Redox

Thanks Kartazion, I didn’t realize that rust, burning fuel and getting rid of garlic scent from my fingers after making BEST BOLOGNESE around are the same group of reactions. 

[Kartazion]

18 minutes ago, koti said:

I didn’t realize that rust, burning fuel and getting rid of garlic scent from my fingers after making BEST BOLOGNESE around are the same group of reactions. 

High nitrogen martensitic stainless steels show improved resistance to localized pitting.

Corrosion & Resistance of Stainless steel : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stainless_steel#Corrosion_resistance

[MigL]

I like 'tagliatelle' noodles ( wide fettuccine noodles ) with Bolognese sauce.
Oh, and some crusty Italian bread ( certainly not rye bread ) to sop up leftover sauce, and a good quality Chianti.

What time is dinner ?

[joigus]

Nice topic. Before kissing, go lick some steel.

[koti]

1 hour ago, MigL said:

I like 'tagliatelle' noodles ( wide fettuccine noodles ) with Bolognese sauce.
Oh, and some crusty Italian bread ( certainly not rye bread ) to sop up leftover sauce, and a good quality Chianti.

What time is dinner ?

I prefer tagiatelle too. I just had some leftover sauce with garlic bread now (23:50)

Dinner is gone, I ate it all. Gave some to our neighbours though. 

24 minutes ago, joigus said:

Nice topic. Before kissing, go lick some steel.

Why didn’t I think of that. Genius. 

[MigL]

14 hours ago, joigus said:

Nice topic. Before kissing, go lick some steel.

Tried that once in the middle of a Canadian winter.
( took two days to un-stick my tongue from the pole of the stop sign )

[Phi for All]

11 hours ago, MigL said:

Tried that once in the middle of a Canadian winter.
( took two days to un-stick my tongue from the pole of the stop sign )

Ah, French Canadian.

[John Cuthber]

One advantage to social distancing; I don't worry about eating garlic + fenugreek.

 

On 9/16/2020 at 4:00 PM, koti said:

The reaction has to be extremely miniscule,

The human nose is extremely sensitive.

Also, i suspect that the metal ions act as a catalyst and what destroys the odorous materials is actually oxygen from the air.

[Phi for All]

18 hours ago, John Cuthber said:

One advantage to social distancing; I don't worry about eating garlic + fenugreek.

Make sure to wait half an hour before going out in a mask or you could lose consciousness.

[J.C.MacSwell]

20 hours ago, John Cuthber said:

One advantage to social distancing; I don't worry about eating garlic + fenugreek.

One advantage of eating garlic + fenugreek; you don't need to worry about social distancing...