Anybody make soap in here?

OlJarhead · January 18, 2012, 11:28:38 PM

Well I'm bored (can you tell?) and haven't been spending enough time at the cabin! So, I made soap

First time ever and I messed it up but was able to remelt to fix it

Worked out great in the end. Here is the final remelted Canolive II soap (recipe from millersoap.com). Love the stuff too!

peternap · January 19, 2012, 03:07:37 AM

I haven't made any for a couple of years but you hit a primal nerve with this post and I see some in the next weeks agenda

Lye soap was a standard when I was a kid. I love the smell and as far as I'm concerned, it worked better than the store bought stuff.

I have plenty of fat and grease in he freezer. The Birds and the Bears can do without a little of it. I just need a can of Red Devil Lye now.
The formula I've always used is the one they put on the can.

January 19, 2012, 03:28:14 AM

Always wanted to. Ellen makes her own laundry detergent. Works fair to okay but is a lot easier on the septic tank and drain field than store bought from what I have read. And a lot cheaper.

tommytebco · January 19, 2012, 07:51:35 AM

I made a batch way back in my "mother earth wanna be stage"

I purchased beef fat and a can of lye. Rendered the fat added the lye and got a bunch of soap that looked like yours Oljarhead.

I also learned not to use an aluminum pan.

My wife was afraid to use it. It finally found a home in the diaper pail years later, where it performed well.

Gary O · January 19, 2012, 08:07:20 AM

Quote from: rick91351 on January 19, 2012, 03:28:14 AM
Always wanted to. Ellen makes her own laundry detergent. Works fair to okay but is a lot easier on the septic tank and drain field than store bought from what I have read. And a lot cheaper.

Yup, a lot cheaper. The wife has made all our soaps from time to time, including the washer. Really makes a dent in the budget, and yes, a primal nerve is struck for sure.

OJ, that soap looks to be the same color of that cheese.....careful now.

January 19, 2012, 08:42:29 AM

We do, and you'll appreciate it when you're sawing. It cuts pine sap better than store bought. Has anyone dripped out their own lye? I've made a weak solution that did work for dehairing a hide but never have attempted soap lye.

Squirl · January 19, 2012, 09:14:40 AM

Homemade lye has always interested me, but I never could find how to do it.

OlJarhead · January 19, 2012, 09:43:36 AM

Thanks guys

So far I've learned that this soap is completely different. I live in the desert and I fight the dryness all the time, and of course working with my hands on the cabin, as we all know, makes your hands rough as old leather. Then I washed up after remelting this soap on Tuesday night....it's Thursday and I can still feel the difference! Heck, my hands aren't dry even yet.

The recipe I made uses coconut oil, olive oil and canola oil...all my wife wants me to do now is to add vanilla fragrance oil and she was even looking at recipes herself

Also, I found that even this expensive home made soap is about 1/2 the price of Irish Spring and perhaps as much as 1/3 or 1/4 the price of a good quality store bought soap.

Can't beat that with a stick!

peternap · January 19, 2012, 05:32:45 PM

Quote from: Squirl on January 19, 2012, 09:14:40 AM
Homemade lye has always interested me, but I never could find how to do it.

It's about as simple as can be Squirl....just drip water through wood ashes.
Look in the Foxfire books, I think they had a chapter on making soap including making lye.

January 19, 2012, 07:58:09 PM

Jarhead, the fat/lye reaction, saponification, is still going on and sort of like concrete will be going on for about a month. Until that time the lye is partially unreacted and liable to give you caustic burns. Your description sounds like it might be a good idea to wash your hands in vinigar, a weak acid, to neutralize the basic lye. While the soap is "hot" it would just as soon render us as the oils in the soap.

My question about making and using your own lye is getting the ratio right, the lye is of unknown strength. Too early old too late smart, my grandmother used to use a chicken feather to see if she had added enough fat to balance the lye. If the feather was stripped it was still way too strong but I'm not sure where right was.

OlJarhead · January 19, 2012, 08:59:05 PM

Quote from: Don_P on January 19, 2012, 07:58:09 PM
Jarhead, the fat/lye reaction, saponification, is still going on and sort of like concrete will be going on for about a month. Until that time the lye is partially unreacted and liable to give you caustic burns. Your description sounds like it might be a good idea to wash your hands in vinigar, a weak acid, to neutralize the basic lye. While the soap is "hot" it would just as soon render us as the oils in the soap.

My question about making and using your own lye is getting the ratio right, the lye is of unknown strength. Too early old too late smart, my grandmother used to use a chicken feather to see if she had added enough fat to balance the lye. If the feather was stripped it was still way too strong but I'm not sure where right was.

Don, not so.

You see when you make your soap the cold press way (or whatever it's called) then you are correct and the soap needs to complete the process which takes, I beleive, 4 to 6 weeks.

However, when you remelt as is the case here, you complete the saponification process and can immediately use the soap.

Remelted soap isn't as nice as cold press I'm told but it's faster to use if you are desperate for soap.

Erik

Don_P · January 19, 2012, 11:35:17 PM

, looks like I have some studying to do. We got into some of my sister in law's pumice soap today, that oughta work good. There's generally a hen party in the kitchen a couple of times a year, they get together to cook up a big batch.

Flutterby · January 21, 2012, 01:14:11 AM

Hey, now this is my kind of topic! I love making soap and talking about soap. Whitlock even calls me a soap-head sometimes. I make soap and sell it at the local farmers market and I have a store on Etsy too.

So I'm curious, OlJarhead, why did you rebatch... what was wrong with the first batch? And I'm curious how long the first batch cured before you rebatched it. Even though I've made a lot of soap, I've only rebatched four times and I thought for some reason it was supposed to fully cure 4 weeks either before or after rebatching. But I don't know everything.

Did you know that rebatching soap is preferred because it makes a harder soap that will last longer. If you wait to add the essential oils or fragrance during the rebatch, you only need half as much (approx 1/2 oz per 1 lb of oils)... which is really good because essential oils can get expensive. I rebatch my lavender soap and my grapefruit soap. It's also a good time to add other fun stuff like honey, milk, aloe vera, lavender buds, etc.

Okay I'll stop now.

peternap · January 21, 2012, 04:39:50 AM

I may make some Ramp soap this spring.
That'll pretty much guarantee people will leave me alone

January 21, 2012, 10:51:14 AM

Quote from: Flutterby on January 21, 2012, 01:14:11 AM
Hey, now this is my kind of topic! I love making soap and talking about soap. Whitlock even calls me a soap-head sometimes. I make soap and sell it at the local farmers market and I have a store on Etsy too.

So I'm curious, OlJarhead, why did you rebatch... what was wrong with the first batch? And I'm curious how long the first batch cured before you rebatched it. Even though I've made a lot of soap, I've only rebatched four times and I thought for some reason it was supposed to fully cure 4 weeks either before or after rebatching. But I don't know everything.

Did you know that rebatching soap is preferred because it makes a harder soap that will last longer. If you wait to add the essential oils or fragrance during the rebatch, you only need half as much (approx 1/2 oz per 1 lb of oils)... which is really good because essential oils can get expensive. I rebatch my lavender soap and my grapefruit soap. It's also a good time to add other fun stuff like honey, milk, aloe vera, lavender buds, etc.

Okay I'll stop now.

Rebatching completes the saponification process so no need to let it 'cure' for 4 weeks after doing so, or so I've been told by a soap maker -- apparently the difference is that it is no longer a cold process soap which does need to cure.

In my case I let the soap cool too much while mixing and after an hour of mixing had not seen trace. I gave up and poured it into a mold, then after a while poured it back into the pot, fixed the mold which was leaking and poured back into the mold.....3 hours later I discovered I was supposed to cover the soap mold (insulate it) and did so. But it was too late and the soap didn't harden up enough to cut. Even after 48 hours.

So I consulted the soap maker and was advised that I could let the soap continue to cure as is and that it would become sort of a 'rustic soap' or I could choose to rebatch it to complete the process after which it would be hard and ready to use, if desired, immediately. So I rebatched -- which was two+ hours of melting and mixing in a crock pot and then poured back into the mold.

A few hours later the soap was hard. I cut it the next day and it was nice and hard as well as useable

I've been using it since.

I plan to try another batch this weekend

Don_P · January 21, 2012, 11:54:50 AM

I believe I carried on a wives tale. From what I'm reading 99% of the ph change happens within 48 hrs of the ingredients being mixed. Soap does get milder during curing but you're working in that last 1%. What it does in that time, the moisture evaporates, it becomes harder, lathers better and lasts longer.
http://candleandsoap.about.com/od/coldprocesssoapmaking/g/soapcure.htm

Rebatching sounds worthwhile for some ingredients like lavender.

Which of course brings up a whole nuther story. We were experimenting with flame weeding in the garden as a method of weed control. We rigged a 25 lb cylinder on a pack frame and had one of the flamethrower weedburner torches. It worked pretty well although the fuel isn't cheap and you had to be careful. We had a 50' row of lavender that was looking good and almost ready. All I can say is lavender oil must be somewhere between gasoline and diesel. One touch of flame and it ran down that row in about the time it takes to say "Oh ****"

MountainDon · January 21, 2012, 12:29:41 PM

Live 'n' learn.

OlJarhead · January 21, 2012, 12:49:04 PM

I'm finding that using this soap is opening my eyes a little....I need to calculate the cost of making a bar this way but I beleive it's considerably cheaper then buying high quality soap in the store.

What's more is that I'm finding it has a noticeable impact on my skin and hair -- and I'm not the sort of guy that normally pays attention to that so it must be pretty damn impact-ful! lol (is that even a word).

seriously, this old jarhead is thinking the soap manufacturers suck right about now

Flutterby · January 21, 2012, 08:14:13 PM

Your thinking right! Most of the soap from the store isn't even "soap." If you look at the labels they say "body wash" and "bath gel"... and they're full of chemicals that irritate and dry out the skin. Nothing better than homemade soap. I'm getting so spoiled with mine. I don't even like washing my hands in public restrooms because the so-called soaps are so drying to my skin. I have a friend with eczema and she says handmade soap is the only stuff that doesn't burn when she uses it. Hmmmmm. Makes you wonder.

Have fun making your second batch of soap this weekend and let me know how it turns out. My next batch of soap is going to be made with coffee! Its supposed to be good for deodorizing hands after cutting onions, etc.

MountainDon · January 29, 2012, 10:15:54 PM

Oljarhead... I haven't looked yet, but did you find lye easy to get? I've read that it's not as easy to locate real lye at times...

January 29, 2012, 10:45:36 PM

Quote from: MountainDon on January 29, 2012, 10:15:54 PM
Oljarhead... I haven't looked yet, but did you find lye easy to get? I've read that it's not as easy to locate real lye at times...

Most of the supermarkets here still carry it as drain opener Don but there's always Amazon

http://www.amazon.com/Sodium-Hydroxide-Caustic-Cleaner-Making/dp/B0032LVYXQ/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1327895030&sr=8-3

OlJarhead · January 30, 2012, 12:39:23 AM

Quote from: MountainDon on January 29, 2012, 10:15:54 PM
Oljarhead... I haven't looked yet, but did you find lye easy to get? I've read that it's not as easy to locate real lye at times...

I had no problem Don -- went to Ace Hardware and found it in 1lbs bottles in the clog drain section.

Went and bought two more after reading it was sometimes hard to get -- planning on buying more now.

OlJarhead · January 30, 2012, 12:43:11 AM

Quote from: Flutterby on January 21, 2012, 08:14:13 PM
Your thinking right! Most of the soap from the store isn't even "soap." If you look at the labels they say "body wash" and "bath gel"... and they're full of chemicals that irritate and dry out the skin. Nothing better than homemade soap. I'm getting so spoiled with mine. I don't even like washing my hands in public restrooms because the so-called soaps are so drying to my skin. I have a friend with eczema and she says handmade soap is the only stuff that doesn't burn when she uses it. Hmmmmm. Makes you wonder.

Have fun making your second batch of soap this weekend and let me know how it turns out. My next batch of soap is going to be made with coffee! Its supposed to be good for deodorizing hands after cutting onions, etc.

I'm finding I REALLY like the stuff! Doesn't surprise me though as I've found a lot of the older things are better (like a safety razor that shaves better then any 5 bladed new model and costs 1/10th or less to use)...

2nd batch actually worked out -- though I had some times I wasn't sure!

At first I laid them down like this but then learned to stand them up.

Next time I have to work MUCH harder at cutting them evenly! Sheesh.

MountainDon · January 30, 2012, 11:29:50 PM

4.29 for a pound at my local True Value Hardware. Lots on the shelf.

Oljarhead, any tips on the CanoliveII you made (other than what's on that website)?

OlJarhead · January 31, 2012, 10:16:22 AM

Quote from: MountainDon on January 30, 2012, 11:29:50 PM
4.29 for a pound at my local True Value Hardware. Lots on the shelf.

Oljarhead, any tips on the CanoliveII you made (other than what's on that website)?

Yes!

It doesn't really 'trace' the way I thought it would. So once it's nice and thick like this:

Then pour it into the mold -- takes about 30 minutes of manual stirring at a pace just below fast enough to splash! Actually I used a whisk for the first few minutes to really get it stirred up well. Then altered between the whisk and the spoon in the picture. The author of the site says it's 8-10 minutes using a stick blender but I haven't tried that yet.

Here are a couple more:

After it's in the mold I learned from her that it is a good idea to put the mold into a pre-warmed oven. TO do that I turned the oven on for a minute or so and then turned it off and left the light on.

After a few hours it looked like this:

That's called 'Gel phase' I guess and is what you want to see.

You take it out of the oven and let it cool a bit and then place it into a box (covered) and put a towel over it if it's cool in your house.

After 24hrs it should be hard enough to cut into bars (cuts very easily) -- probably best to use gloves at this point too.

Take the bars and stand them on edge and flip them every couple days or so to make sure they dry all around (like cheese really)....let age for 4-6 weeks before use.