Cold Process Soap

[Jackson]

I am new to soap making and have produced a couple of usable batches
but still have a few problems. I am using a very basic cold recipe with grease from hamburger. I use 3.5 lbs grease, 22 oz water, and 8 oz lye.
I bring both fat and lye water to 110 degrees before mixing. It makes soap but the problem I have is that it thickens quickly and leaves some free lye solution in the bottom of the dish that will come out in the last mold. I stir in an attempt to mix this last bit of lye water until I it is so thick that I have to put into the molds. Can anyone suggest what I need to change to slow down the thickening and get all lye mixed into the product?
It is a very simple recipe do I maybe need to use less lye in the water?

 

[ohsoap]

what is the sap value of your oil? Have you ran your oils threw a lye calculator to make sure you have the correct amount? Are you disolving your lye into your water before adding it to your oil?

 

[dagmar88]

What do you mean with fat from hamburger? Is oils leftover from baking stuff?
When I don't know what you use there's no way to tell if your lye & water amounts are accurate.
Maybe you could try to get lard, tallow or maybe some crisco. Those are all suitable for soapmaking and are pretty cheap.
Each recipe given to you by people or found on the internet should be checked with a proper lye calculator, like www.soapcalc.net.

 

[carebear]

Can you fill us in on how you prepare your oil, and then what your soaping steps are?

Also, that formula leaves no margin of safety - if you have any intention to use it on skin or without gloves you should calculate in a lye discount.

 

[Jackson]

Excess Lye

Cooking burgers in a griddle has a lot of fat runoff. I am not sure where it falls in the order of grease but I used the values for tallow in the lye calculator. It will make very good soap because my father used it a lot when I was a youngster but I didn't pay much attention to how he did it. I have learned that his was a hot process.
I put an inch or water in a pot with 2 gallons of grease and boil to remove impurities from the grease. After it cools the clean grease is on top and any trash is either on the bottom of the pan or between the water and the grease.
The Lye is dissolved in the water according to a lye calculator but is based on 3.5 lbs tallow which may not be the correct grease. I could buy a known grease but I want to use waste grease from a local hamburger dive. It is free and there is plenty of it.
I have some fresh soap now that obviously has too much lye. Will it ever cure out to be usable? The problem I am having is that there is a little free lye water in the bottom of the pan when I go to the molds. The first and second molds look good but the 3rd appears to be affected by an excess of lye and the last definitely has an excess of lye.

 

[LizRNBSN]

do you dissolve your lye in water before mixing it with the grease? if you add more water to your lye solution it may delay trace longer since the solution wont be as strong

 

[carebear]

first off, even if you assume tallow (which seems reasonable), you have too much lye. you should calculate in at least a 5% lye discount (aka superfat) to ensure that you have not over-done the lye.

so no, I don't think the soap you made will be usable on skin - maybe for washing dishes (by hand, with gloves - NOT in the dishwasher) or laundry.

second, it's entirely possible your soaps overheat. which is not a fatal flaw, but isn't ideal either.

 

[Jackson]

Excess Lye

OK thanks folks.
I thought I was using 5% excess grease. May have entered data wrong into the calculator. I will check that and also check on a different calculator. I will either cut lye or increase water and try again.

 

[dagmar88]

Re: Excess Lye

OK thanks folks.
I thought I was using 5% excess grease. May have entered data wrong into the calculator. I will check that and also check on a different calculator. I will either cut lye or increase water and try again.

You should use either less lye or more fat; more water won't help.

 

[Jackson]

scent

I increased grease to 5 pounds and water to 2 pints with 8 oz lye and came out fairly well. I would like to add a scent. My wife thinks Almond. Any suggestion of how much for 5 pounds and when is it added to the mix?

 

[Guest]

Link

Each recipe given to you by people or found on the internet should be checked with a proper lye calculator, like www.soapcalc.net.

Couldn't find this calculator just by clicking on the link. Gotta remove the period after net.

www.soapcalc.net

 

[Guest]

Re: scent

I increased grease to 5 pounds and water to 2 pints with 8 oz lye and came out fairly well. I would like to add a scent. My wife thinks Almond. Any suggestion of how much for 5 pounds and when is it added to the mix?

I haven't figured out how to use the soapcalc calculator yet. The one I use, http://www.thesage.com/calcs/lyecalc2.php shows for 80 oz (5 lb) of tallow, you need to be using less liquid 20 to 30 oz and you need to increase your lye a couple ounces by the % of superfatting you are wanting:
5% 10.67
6% 10.56
7% 10.45
8% 10.34
9% 10.22
10% 10.11
9% to 10% excess fat range: Creates a softer soap because of the amount of excess fat.
You're beyond the 10% range so your soap may be real soft and gooey if it sits in any water and use up faster than a harder bar would.

What are you going to do with this soap? Family body use or laundry?
IDLaura