Copra sap value

[Saswede]

Hi all!
I've been reading a lot about Savon de Marseille, and see that it's usually made with an olive oil and copra. So I got really excited when I found some copra - and then when I wanted to develop a recipe, realized that copra is not included in the oils in Soapcalc ...... Searching the Internet for a sap value wasn't very productive either, and I found (in another thread on SMF) a sap value of 215 for French copra. But I don't know whether this is a NaOH or a KOH sap value, so am nervous to use the copra.
From my reading, copra is a "precursor" of coconut oil but I don't know if it has a different sap value or not. Has anyone ever used copra? Or could you point me to a place where I could find the right value? Any advice would be helpful, because I'd really like to give it a try.
Debbie


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[dagmar88]

What does it look and smell like?

 

[Saswede]

Actually it looks and smells very much like coconut oil ......

 

[nframe]

The Oxford Dictionary of English defines "copra" as "dried coconut kernels, from which oil is obtained". So, it must be coconut oil.

Let us know how you get on with the savon de Marseille.

 

[DeeAnna]

In the old soapmaking texts I have, "coprah" was used in two ways. As Nframe explained, coprah is the name for the dried coconut before it was pressed to get the oil. Coprah was also used as the name of a type of coconut oil. Confusing, huh?

First meaning: "...Most of the oil is imported from Ceylon and Cochin China, though recently the dried kernels, called "coprah," are exported to Europe, where the oil is extracted either by expression or extraction. Coprah contains 60 to 70 per cent of fat. Two varieties are known in commerce, sun-dried and kiln-dried coprah...."

Second meaning: "...Three principal kinds of cocoanut oil are at present known in commerce—Cochin China oil, Ceylon oil and coprah oil..."

Source: Brannt, William T. The soap maker's handbook ... 1912.

 

[Saswede]

nframe and DeeAnna - thanks for the info. As I mentioned in my post, I had read that CO is extracted from copra ..... which makes me nervous about using the CO sap value for the soap, because I may end up with lye heavy soap if CO does only make up 60 to 70% of the copra I've bought. Perhaps I'm being too cautious, but I wouldn't want to go agead at risk when I could just use the regular CO I have.

 

[JennH]

I found this sap listing which includes coprah. I don't know how reliable the source is though.

http://www.cd3wd.com/cd3wd_40/cd3wd/APPRTECH/G20HOE/EN/B541_4.HTM

 

[Saswede]

Many thanks, JennH!