Search results

Thanks Obsidian, I'd like to try salt-based soap but I don't know from which type to start. I'll wait for further replies if they'll come and then try what inspires me more

Hello, looking in the forum I found loads of threads about salt in soap, whether it is used for Salt Bars, Soleseife (Brine Bars?) or simply as an additive, both in solid and brine form. So, what I'd like to know is what are the pros and cons of each product? How and why do you choose to make...

Excuse my question (I'm Italian so maybe what I ask is banal), are you speaking of male domestic pig or wild boar? If it's pig, I would consider it just normal lard but if it's wild boar the fatty acid profile of the fat could be slightly different and so your soap could behave a little...

I had never heard about it. I knew that sodium citrate or sodium gluconate are used as chelators. Have you (o has someone else) found that vinegar reduces DOS in their soaps?

Indeed, I do have a precision scale for lye which wheighs the hundreth of grams, so I never thought of the loss of precision related to very small batches. I know that lemon juice can be quite variable in its citric acid content, but the average amount is quite low so I thought that even if I...

Too much wisdom! I use the Searc box too, the problem is choosing which of the several tips seems more interesting for me to follow! And regarding not wasting material I agree, that's why I kept this recipe very small and "simple". O was just interested in seeing how lemon juice works and affect...

Ok, maybe you're right. I like to experiment a lot and even try "unusual" ways for doing things just to see what works and what don't. When something goes wrong I like to understand why it happened and so I make several hypothesis which sometimes lead to further experiments and sometimes are...

ehm, difficult to say... I used the double boiler method, which I think should keep the temperature around 90°c, but I didn't measured it indeed. I thought that temperature was not so important in HP, wrong? I mean, I usually check and stir my batter every 10 minutes until it's fully gelled, and...

Yes, I used the lemon juice in replacement of the water but I calculated the extra lye needed to react with the citric acid. I could have made a mistake in this calculation but I'm more convinced that the problem was in the blending phase. So you're saying that HP batches should be stick...

Hi everyone, I've come here again after my first real fail in making a hot process batch of soap. I wanted to test lemon juice in soap so I prepared a small amount of olive oil, lard and juice, weighed my lye and mixed them together as usual. I thought everything was fine but after few minutes I...

I always usa HP for my batches. The first times I used to cook it at least for an hour and a half, which is definitely too much! Though, my soap was never so crumbly to break in pieces when used. Now I know that you can understand when the soap is ready by checking the translucent stage. When...

Hi @szaza , well done!!! Indeed, I'm far more expert in theory than in practice of wood ash lye soap. I've studied the topic a lot and I made some experiments. Then it came the lockdown and I remained in my house in the city, where I have no way of providing ashes. And when lockdown finished...

Thank you very much RacerSpuffy! I didn't think about Google Scholar. I'll read them.

@szaza, I'm not the most reliable person in chemistry but I think you miss a point. The problem is that it's very difficult to obtain those high temperature in a common stove. That's the reason why, in my opinion, wood ash lye contains Potassium and sodium carbonates and not hydroxide (Calcium...

@mishmish, I totaly agree with you when you say that soap making with wood ash lye is an art, and not a science. The problem is that people in the past knew pretty well how to do it, nowadays we do not know it anymore. @mtinetti61's mother-in-law probably never heard about "Sap values" and...

It should work and produce harder bars than potassium carbonate (I think comparable to those made with NaOH). But I fear that you must use it more like wood ash lye than like NaOh or KOH. I mean, I don't think it's suitable for a CP, and maybe neither for normal HP. But you should wait for...

This is the post about the different methods of making soap with ash I told you: https://www.soapmakingforum.com/threads/making-soap-the-really-old-fashioned-way.76996/post-796768

About the SAP value of K2CO3, I made further researches after this thread and I privately ask information to DeeAnna. At the end, I underatood that the theoretical Sap of K2CO3 is 1.73 times greater that the Sap of NaOH. I know, you measure the Sap of a fat, not of an alkali, what I mean is...

Hello, I'm not an expert soap maker at all, but I'm very interested in the topic. I studied it and as soon as possible I would do some experiments. In my opinion, you idea about salting out soap to remove the excess alkalinity can't work very well because salt is made of sodium (NaCl) while wood...

Ok, so you are suggesting that corn meal is only used to form a solid paste that helps retaining lye and scrubbing linen. It sound a good interpretation. Thank you. Mishmish, I live in Lombardy, Northern Italy, and I can confirm what you said. Until about 1950 was very common to use wood ash...