Best hand cleaner

coconut oil soap. 20% superfat. 

Better than anything I've ever used out of a store bought tub or dispenser. If it doesn't remove what's on your hands, it'll probably take solvents rather than surfactants.

I use Fast Orange with pumice (two pumps), rubbed in well, then, with the FO still on my hands, get them a little wet, apply regular liquid hand soap, lather them up, then rinse.  Highly effective.

Jason

@David Weaver,

In the video I referenced, he mentioned that butter is an old fashioned go-to for tree resin. Is it something about the fat in butter and coconut oil? I wonder if it reacts with tree sap or just sort of encapsulates it where it no longer sticks to things, like your fingers.

Not a chemist. Where's Bill Tindall when you need him?

I don't know why, but coconut oil is great for removing oil/dirt. it's kind of harsh soap, though, thus the "superfat" (120% of the amount of oil lye would convert leaving 20% of the original oil in the soap unconverted). It's not too bad like that. I haven't made it closer to zero - it has a reputation for stripping the oils out of your skin, which probably is related to oils in general. We had lava and gojo when I was a kid (or fast orange - probably the same thing) and the coconut oil soap is stink free and no grit. 

At any rate, it's the saponified part that does the cleaning, so not similar to unconverted butter or lard (lard supposedly makes a great firm soap - I'll find that out soon).  Tree resin is definitely soluble in turpentine, though - not sure what else. Less familiar with the resin itself vs. rosin and varnish with rosin in it. If the varnish is really water resistant like rosin and tung or a fossilized resin, you can't wash it off with soap, but it comes off quickly with any decent solvent.  it's a gift that keeps giving on door knobs, though - if you don't get all of it off but think you did, it ends up on a door knob, it's hard to wipe off (without more solvent) and when you discover that it's on there the next day, it's cured and has obscene adhesion.

Added later 1 h 21 s:

I should clarify - not just "coconut oil" is great on dirt and oily stuff, but rather soap made of "just coconut oil". I did mention soap to Bill and he also was able to immediately state that coconut oil is a soap that doesn't have much of a chance of forming scum (the layer that forms on soap, which apparently is also something that will build up in plumbing, etc) - when used alone, it's good at being a very pure soap. 

I also learned that saponification is a little bit to elementary to be interesting for a chemist to discuss. Too easy, too long settled. 

Natural varnishes, on the other hand, are (my words), easy to understand at the first reaction and then after that immensely complicated and not that easy to predict.  that probably makes them more ideal for a skilled cooker who is going to cook by observation rather than recipe or spec. It's interesting to a non chemist (I had enough trouble paying attention in 11th grade basic chem) that soap is made of fatty acids, and varnish is made of reacting fatty acids. Saponification - I think - is one of the undesired outcomes of bad varnish cooking. The chemistry terminology is confusing to me as a non-chemist - soaps are a "salt", and so on. 

As a relatively capable dummy, I prefer "varnish i sticky and soap is slick"...things I can understand. I didn't try to use soap as seasoning after reading that it's a salt.

>I didn't try to use soap as seasoning after reading that it's a salt.

LOL

I recall my mother threatening to "season" my mouth as a truculent child.

Twenty some years as an industrial mechanic, this may be the best I've tried so far,  https://www.beaverresearch.com/category/hand-cleaner/?page=2

40 years ago, before all the fancy hand cleaners appeared, I used 30 wt. motor oil followed by Boraxo brand powder. DIY engine repairs were really dirty affairs. They're still dirty affairs but now I wear Harbor Freight heavy-duty vinyl gloves and avoid the whole mess.

The huge array of gloves to work with is a big improvement. 

I do a lot of grinding - grinding that would be difficult to do with bulky gloves and can be filthy or injurious with bare hands. The enormous number of "mechanics" gloves that have really nice leather is a big win over the old "gray vs. yellow" leather vs. felt work gloves. 

Not to mention the heavier nitrile gloves if you get into really heavy stuff and 40 cents or whatever for a pair of gloves is money well spent (like cleaning an oil furnace).  Would've prevented three days of hand pain processing habanero peppers years ago when small hones in the fingers of gloves allowed my hands to get torched  by the pepper juice and then oddly hurt for several days .

It's not every day these days I find something to buy at HF now that they've attempted to go upmarket with a bunch of stuff and increase margin instead of market share, but the array of mechanic's type leather work gloves is super. $10 for goatskin gloves that are a couple of layers deep but not at all bulky.  When they get a little chewed up, they still have a second life applying varnish, etc, where getting such stuff on your hands is a big deal. 

(borax and oil is an interesting combination - borax does some interesting stuff when water is introduced. I use it in a laundry detergent mix with white zote soap and washing soda - almost as gentle as "free and clear" detergents, but cleans a lot better).