Because I have mentioned this in various threads, I thought I'd start a thread about this soap since I wanted to report back on how it's working.
Last year I made Borax soap for my son to use after gardening. This year I made some for my brother who requested some 'Lava type soap' because that's what he uses after blacksmithing.
But he told me it takes all week long to get his hands clean using pumice soap (Lava.) So I searched some blacksmithing sites and found that many guys use Borax instead of pumice because it gets their hands cleaner after blacksmithing.
So for my brother, I made 3 bars using lard as one of the oils (I had never used lard in soap before this, but brother is not vegetarian):
1. Pumice bar
2. Borax bar (pictured here)
3. combination of Pumice and Borax
I kept a couple of bars from each batch to keep an eye on them and also to have Hubby test when he works on our cars. He does most of the work on our cars, except body work, so he can get pretty dirty after a day of changing oil, rotating tires, and whatnot.
Before I left for SoapCon, I removed all the hand soap from the master bathroom & replaced it with one bar of Borax soap that I made on June 25th. Today Hubby came to me after washing his hands after a major oil spill clean up (he managed to get motor oil all over and had quite a clean up so he got dirtier than usual this time). He asked me what was in the soap at the bathroom sink because it got his hands and under his fingernails clean with only one washing. I told him it was the Borax soap that I had made for my brother and I was hoping he would use it and report back to me how it worked. He raved about it; said Lava soap does not clean under the nails at all and that with one single washing he has never been able to get motor oil out from under his fingernails with Lava or that Orange hand cleaner he keeps under the bathroom sink.
So I have my report on the Borax Soap.
My brother first tested the Combination soap right after I gave it to him. His hands were pretty dirty before he started and he had a blood blister that, although I recognized it as such, he did not think it was a blood blister. He thought it was just dirty. Well it was so dirty that he couldn't see the blood blister underneath the dirt. He came back from the bathroom after washing his hands and said, 'the Combination is a Winner'. And he said, 'You were right it is a blood blister. I couldn't even see it before.' I am not sure how many days it had been since he had worked with his blacksmithing when he washed his hands with my soap, but he had already done a few handwashings and still had those black stains on his hands. But when he told me his hands got cleaner with only one washing with the combo soap than with a whole week of handwashing with Lava.
So I am in agreement with the blacksmiths who said the secret is Borax. I told him about finding this out at a black smithing forum, so that was certainly of interest to him. It was not the forum he participated in, though, I guess, or at least he had not read that thread.
He has not reported on the pumice only soap, but we have all been on various roadtrips and he may not have yet used that soap.
So now I need to learn to determine how much lye the Borax neutralizes so I can formulate the soap to be a predictable SF. DeeAnna & I discussed this topic in another thread, but I think we both felt like we were hijacking the thread, so it would be more appropriate here. DeeAnna suggested that with an unpredictable SF with the Borax, I might get DOS. So I went and looked at the bars and what do you know? There was a little bit of DOS, hence I moved the soap to the bathroom sink to get Hubby to use it and report on it's usefulness before I'd have to toss it out. It still smells fine, just a little bit of discoloration at this point.
Also I did not yet have EDTA when I made this soap and it did not occur to me to add ROE to the lard, therefore I made no efforts to prevent DOS in that soap.
The other bar with Borax and Pumice, was all rebatched soap scraps left over from trimming other soaps. So they had ROE in them already and the soap was already saponified, so there was no lye to neutralize. Those bars of soap should not get DOS, at least not from the Borax interacting with fresh lye, since there was no fresh lye. I still have a couple of bars of this soap to watch as I am not sure my brother would know or see DOS like I would. (After all he couldn't see his blood blister under the dirt, but I could.)
Last year I made Borax soap for my son to use after gardening. This year I made some for my brother who requested some 'Lava type soap' because that's what he uses after blacksmithing.
But he told me it takes all week long to get his hands clean using pumice soap (Lava.) So I searched some blacksmithing sites and found that many guys use Borax instead of pumice because it gets their hands cleaner after blacksmithing.
So for my brother, I made 3 bars using lard as one of the oils (I had never used lard in soap before this, but brother is not vegetarian):
1. Pumice bar
2. Borax bar (pictured here)
3. combination of Pumice and Borax
I kept a couple of bars from each batch to keep an eye on them and also to have Hubby test when he works on our cars. He does most of the work on our cars, except body work, so he can get pretty dirty after a day of changing oil, rotating tires, and whatnot.
Before I left for SoapCon, I removed all the hand soap from the master bathroom & replaced it with one bar of Borax soap that I made on June 25th. Today Hubby came to me after washing his hands after a major oil spill clean up (he managed to get motor oil all over and had quite a clean up so he got dirtier than usual this time). He asked me what was in the soap at the bathroom sink because it got his hands and under his fingernails clean with only one washing. I told him it was the Borax soap that I had made for my brother and I was hoping he would use it and report back to me how it worked. He raved about it; said Lava soap does not clean under the nails at all and that with one single washing he has never been able to get motor oil out from under his fingernails with Lava or that Orange hand cleaner he keeps under the bathroom sink.
So I have my report on the Borax Soap.
My brother first tested the Combination soap right after I gave it to him. His hands were pretty dirty before he started and he had a blood blister that, although I recognized it as such, he did not think it was a blood blister. He thought it was just dirty. Well it was so dirty that he couldn't see the blood blister underneath the dirt. He came back from the bathroom after washing his hands and said, 'the Combination is a Winner'. And he said, 'You were right it is a blood blister. I couldn't even see it before.' I am not sure how many days it had been since he had worked with his blacksmithing when he washed his hands with my soap, but he had already done a few handwashings and still had those black stains on his hands. But when he told me his hands got cleaner with only one washing with the combo soap than with a whole week of handwashing with Lava.
So I am in agreement with the blacksmiths who said the secret is Borax. I told him about finding this out at a black smithing forum, so that was certainly of interest to him. It was not the forum he participated in, though, I guess, or at least he had not read that thread.
He has not reported on the pumice only soap, but we have all been on various roadtrips and he may not have yet used that soap.
So now I need to learn to determine how much lye the Borax neutralizes so I can formulate the soap to be a predictable SF. DeeAnna & I discussed this topic in another thread, but I think we both felt like we were hijacking the thread, so it would be more appropriate here. DeeAnna suggested that with an unpredictable SF with the Borax, I might get DOS. So I went and looked at the bars and what do you know? There was a little bit of DOS, hence I moved the soap to the bathroom sink to get Hubby to use it and report on it's usefulness before I'd have to toss it out. It still smells fine, just a little bit of discoloration at this point.
Also I did not yet have EDTA when I made this soap and it did not occur to me to add ROE to the lard, therefore I made no efforts to prevent DOS in that soap.
The other bar with Borax and Pumice, was all rebatched soap scraps left over from trimming other soaps. So they had ROE in them already and the soap was already saponified, so there was no lye to neutralize. Those bars of soap should not get DOS, at least not from the Borax interacting with fresh lye, since there was no fresh lye. I still have a couple of bars of this soap to watch as I am not sure my brother would know or see DOS like I would. (After all he couldn't see his blood blister under the dirt, but I could.)
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