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An addendum - I would use between 11%-15% of the oil weight in additional glycerin on this. I might be forgetting something else so I would have made this just like my Tallow soap but with this recipe.

I don't have any which I think are a straight replacement, sadly. I don't know any man who make their own tallow soap who have ever come up with a non-tallow soap they like. That's a telling state of being. Of course I know maybe five men who make their own tallow soaps. I believe the most...

Once you try a shaving soap with tallow, you wonder why you ever tried all those other things. I've formulated some all-veg soaps which technically were materially similar in their fat profiles but it's just not the same. I understand and support people's choice to be veg, I'm just glad I'm not.

I found myself in the same place as you ... lather exploded before you even knew it, but it lacked some protective properties. Here is an example of a way to go that's worked for me: 45% Stearic Acid 25% Coconut Oil 20% Beef Tallow 5% Lanolin 5% Shea Butter 5% Superfat Additional Glycerin at...

“Imitation is not just the sincerest form of flattery - it's the sincerest form of learning.” ― George Bernard Shaw I think people too frequently go off the reservation when trying new things. If you take someone's recipe and change it, it's no longer someone's recipe so you can't expect...

It's been hypothesised that those are stearic spots. I do know they go away after some aging too so I also thought they just might be drier areas from cooking. If I had to I could probably still form my soaps even after aging several months. There's no reason to pursue having them as hard as...

I've had several of the 1-1/2 qt cookers and all would melt the SA just fine. SA melts at 158f and it seems like the smaller pots do a really good job of getting hot - certainly a better job than my 2-1/2 qt pot. I have three different 1-1/2 qt pots and never had an issue with any of them.

One of the other members I think uses a salad shooter to grate the soap, zaps it in the microwave with a few drops of water, and adds the fragrance at that time. I've never done it myself but it's definitely done. Cured is cured, I would assume it to be done after that if it was already cured.

I don't think I've ever gotten the smooth paste although we are talking about something really close to a LS recipe so obviously we're in that ballpark. I stir till I get potatoes, put the lid on, come back stir, put the lid on, etc. In between it will boil and raise up. I only stir when it...

I have never been able to "pour" my soap if that tells you anything about the water content and consistency. I've always had to butter it into my tins. Yes when made correctly you can still dent it with a good amount of finger pressure. Something like a day-old CP soap, or room-temp tallow...

Ah the boil-over. Been there, done that. The consistency of the soap is rather unique I think when in the cook and is important to be able to get the proper finished consistency. No matter what we're talking about water + soap so I don't think it's going to significantly change the end...

The good news is, my memory is so short I can't carry a grudge effectively. :)

Short of making it for you, I am not sure how much simpler we can make it. At least one of the links provided give you a recipe, steps to follow, pictures, and even a video or two of a successful recipe. If you don't have time for that I'm not sure what we can do to speed it up for you. A...

What all them ladies said ^^^^^ !

I had the same journey ... didn't stop till I had taken up straight razors as well. Now I have a few very nice Fillarmonica.

Copper wire will add it's own color to the flame at some temps - a stainless steel wire would be best. A SS skewer will do in a pinch.

Potassium carbonate is a byproduct of manufacturing potassium lye. It could be that they had a traditional recipe that was formulated with this taken into account and when they switched to a higher purity source they simply added some back in to account for it. It's an ingredient often seen in...

If you are sure you can be accurate, you can grate, reheat with a touch of water and add fragrance oil.

True enough - there is a lot of personal opinion in the clay debate. Empirical evidence is tough to come by, but we have a body of anecdotal evidence that is becoming strong enough to be a guide. If nothing else, it is difficult to discern what clay brings to an otherwise good soap. There is...

Gell is a visible indication of the saponification of the fats. There is no chemical difference between a soap which has gelled and one which has not - they both contain the same amount of glycerin. It's mostly an aesthetic change brought on by heat - and you had plenty of heat. HP batches...