Any reason I shouldn't be getting trace?

[xmaker1]

%22 Coconut
%35 Soybean
%43 Olive
Using 2:1 Water/lye ratio

Did a round last night and poured it soupy and it never hardened after 12 hours.
So I poured it out and am working on a second batch this time measuring it by grams rather than oz's to keep the numbers perfect.

Using a stick blender I have been blending on and off for about 3 hours and I'm still not getting any trace in the slightest. My lye water looked like milk and I've seen videos that had a much more clear lye water though I'm not sure if it was due to my concentration that it looked like milk or that bulk ebay "pickling lime" is likely cut with something.

So other than blending over and over is their anything I can do speed up the reaction? (upping the temp of the soup?)

Edit*
I've used the lye before for chemical reactions without any issue though soap might be more picky. Also after leaving it sit for a bit It looks like I've got a small layer of oil on top of the creamy looking lye/oil part. Also leads me to think not enough lye due to it being adulterated.

 

[dagmar88]

Pickling lime is calcium hydroxide, not sodium hydroxide.

 

[new12soap]

If I understand you correctly, you are using "pickling lime" as your catalyst? If you are, then that is your problem, pickling lime is not lye. You need sodium hydroxide to make bar soap. I am not even sure how you calculated how much lime to use, since the amounts of sodium hydroxide for bar soap and potassium hydroxide for liquid soap are so different.

Go to a hardware store and look for 100% sodium hydroxide drain cleaner (it is VERY important that you use ONLY 100% lye), or order it online and try again.

I personally do not recommend using soybean oil in soap, but some others do at a much smaller percentage. Even with the proper amount of lye that recipe will be very very soft and will probably take a few days to set up hard enough to come out of the mold.

 

[xmaker1]

Yep " calcium hydroxide" my bad I suppose that makes sense thanks for getting me to go read the label oh well it's not like any money was wasted had 5lb's of what I swore was "sodium hydroxide" I'll go try again lol thank you both once again.

 

[Moody Glenn]

Hi! I have never encountered this so I had to go and look up a few things from the books I have on hand. Your lye solution should be clear, never milky. Milky means the NaOH (lye) has not completely broken down into its ions (which drives the saponification reaction.) Is your lye from a good source and not have additives such as metals? Your soybean percentage is way to high. One book source says not to go above 20%. Why? It is an unsaturated oil. Unsaturated oils are harder to come to trace. The olive oil is also an unsaturated oil. Coconut is a saturated oil along with other hard fats and oils (non liquid). I think you have too much unsaturated oils which can cause a long trace time.

Again, I am not totally sure. Hopefully others can enlighten us further.

 

[xmaker1]

Thank's glenn though it looks like I've got bigger problems (not using lye :c) I'll have to wait until I can order the rest of the oils I'm looking to get just was hoping to do a few test bars before I finished the rest of my supplies.

 

[dagmar88]

This is useful to learn how oils behave in soap in their own.

http://www.zensoaps.com/singleoil.htm

Soy is one of those oils prone to form DOS.