The soap is made by boiling fats and caustic soda in large pans, from which it is run through channels over the " frames ": the latter are large rectangular moulds built up of iron plates bolted together. When the soap is cold the plates are unbolted and removed, revealing the blocks of soap. A frame with horizontal wires is run through the blocks, cutting them into slabs. The slabs are pushed against other wires, cutting them into bars. Tablet soaps are pressed from the bars or from ribbons. Toilet soaps are m ide by forcing bar soap against a cutter, which cuts it into thin slices; the slices are placed in a roller machine, from which it emerges in the form of extremely line shavings. The shavings are partly dried on wire netting in a heated room and then placed in a press, from which the soap emerges as a bar with a square, round, oval, or other section. The bar is cut into pieces of equal thickness forming plain tablets, which are then pressed in a machine having dies with appropriate designs.

In scented soaps the ribbons are gently heated with the scent, or the scent is added immediately after the soap is made for common qualities.