Many years ago, out of pure curiosity, I bought a soap-shaped bar made of stainless steel, which, an ad claimed, would totally remove the smells of garlic, onions or fish from your skin in seconds.
All I had to do was rub my fingers on the bar under a stream of cold water. To my surprise, the steel bar performed perfectly and has continued to do so for nearly 40 years. Even more surprising was my discovery that there was absolutely nothing inside that hollow bar, no gimmick of any sort that I could find.
Fast forward to present time. We are in the workshop of master sculptor Martín Navarro Ibarra of San Juan Evangelista, on the shore of Lake Cajititlán. Navarro Ibarra is describing some of his techniques and allowing me to photograph them. I pick up one of his works of art: “What a beautiful glaze on this pot,” I remark.
“It’s actually not a glaze at all,” says the sculptor. “Before I fire the pot, I just burnish it with this. It completely transforms the surface of the pot.” He picks up part of a car’s piston, a valve made of shiny stainless steel.“OK,” I say. “You just use something smooth. It could be a toothbrush handle.”
His eyes open wide. “No, no! Nothing does the job like stainless steel. I don’t know why, but I’ll show you how it works.”
He takes the valve and rubs it on the surface of an unfinished pot. A miracle happens in front of my eyes. The rubbed area appears beautifully glazed and the sculptor smiles.
I go home perplexed and go straight to Google, of course. I find no end of theories and speculations on why stainless steel is said to remove various odors. References to the process of burnishing suggest that contact with stainless steel may actually force molecules to rearrange themselves and “lie down” in an orderly manner. I discover that stainless steel “soap” for garlic and onions is more popular than ever and is now touted as an efficient underarm and foot deodorant as well.
I begin to experiment with a large spoon. It looks pretty strange there in the shower stall, but after a couple years I’m convinced it works quite well as a deodorant for all but extreme situations – and the spoon’s long handle is great for sliding between your toes!
When I tell a friend this long, crazy story, he goes home and one week later hands me a hollow piece of stainless steel, elegantly shaped like a haute-couture bar of soap. “You can find anything in the Mercado de San Juan,” he quips. “Here, I bought one for you too and I agree, it does work.”
Disadvantages? It only works under a stream of running water, which might not be readily available inside a tent, bedroom or airplane washroom. Advantages: As long as you don’t lose the thing, I reckon it will keep right on working for several hundred years. And as for the cute soap-shaped bar – it floats!
If this story has aroused your curiosity, stand by for the next installment, on the number-two weirdest deodorant ever: “el misterioso alumbre.”