If you are only using lard and canola oil, I would try:
70% lard
30% canola oil
2%SF
38-40% lye concentration
Also, consider dissolving 1-2% sugar (per weight of oils) in some of your batch water, before adding the NaOH. Although it won't change the numbers in the soap calculator, sugar is a solvent that will help the bars lather more easily. High-lard bars do take some time to cure and lather well; 8 weeks is usually a minimum for me. Even then, it takes a few uses before the lather really matures.
Not sure if you saw my post above about obtaining "free" lard by cooking large pork shoulder/butt roasts in your crockpot. Lots and lots of lard will render out during cooking. It is fairly easy to clean - no harder than cleaning the mutton fat that you saved from cooking lamb roasts.
You can actually save any cooking fat, whether it is from beef roasts, steaks, chicken, etc. Chicken fat tends to make a soft soap, so if your goal is hardening the soap, stick with the pork and beef fats. Save them all in a container in the freezer till you are ready to clean it all with a wet rendering process. You won't really be rendering, just cleaning. I used this fat combination for our home-use soaps and call it my "barnyard soap." EDIT: bacon fat and duck fat work, too, but they are far too tasty to waste on soap. I save them for cooking!
But if you want to use hydrogenated lard from the store, that will work, too. I personally haven't noticed any difference in the final soap when using that, vs. what I obtained from saving the rendered fat from my pork roasts.
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