Any other uses for shortening besides cooking with it?

Since we have closed down our little bakery business I have an almost full 25# box of shortening which I don't want to include in my diet. Don't want to throw it away or give it away either! So I was wondering if I stick a big wick on top of it can it be used for a giant candle? What other uses can it be used for? Well go ahead and include anything for canning and such if you know any ways to use it.

[debitaber]

make soap. that will use it up. and you can freeze it, and take out just what you need for that batch.

[Cyngbaeld]

I'd use it for soap too. You can also use it for dry/chapped skin. Good lip balm too. Great for babies and old folks to prevent diaper rash. You can also mix a little at a time with feed for your animals. Rub some on the chickens legs to kill leg mites. Rub it in kid's hair to kill lice. If it gets rancid you can pour some on your firewood to help get it started. Rub it on your hands to remove oil paint instead of using toxic paint remover or mineral spirits. Fry some taters in it......

[hollym]

I mixed some leftover shortening with birdseed and put it out in old Cool Whip containers for the birds, they liked it a lot!

hollym

[big rockpile]

Season your Cast Iron with it.

big rockpile

[cuphalffull]

Smear a broad band around fruit tree trunks, to prevent caterpillars and such from crawling up the trunks to eat leaves.

[dla]

I guess anything that needs to be lubricated or coated - like your shovel to keep it from rusting when you put it away in the fall --- oops! it's almost spring

[DW]

I'd definitely use it up in soap. I've made soap with it. The recipe is very much like the lard recipe.

My mistake, it's a 50 pound box and I still have about 40 pounds of it left. Thanks for the many ideals and I like the ideal of learning to make soap out of it as I use soap not only to wash my bod but also for a softening solution when making buckskin leather out of deer hides.

[Jan Doling]

slather it on hands and feet at bedtime and cover with cotton gloves and socks. It acts like a fountain of youth on rough skin. Don't try it with satin sheets....you could slither into the next county!

[obscurant]

A decent degummer.

[Jenn]

It's my lube for the screw in my cider press.