I agree with what Brewer George, Obsidian, Traumabrew and Reinbeau said. Threads like these, even though they may have been started with the best of intentions, nearly always go southward because they tempt the worst in us to come out.....i.e., that part of our human natures that tends to enjoy nitpicking at whatever perceived flaws of others while turning a blind eye to our own (let's be real- none of us are immune to it). There are much better ways to educate newcomers about issues regarding safety without resorting to tearing someone else down in the process. That's not the type of education this forum is about or likes to promote.
Traumabrew said:
If it is intended to make newbies aware of the safety concerns in these videos, it would be more appropriate to post comments on the youtube page where the “newbies” would see the comments and be educated. A new soaper might stumble on this thread by accident and curiosity only. If it is to educate the maker of the video aware of the safety issues, it would be more appropriate to contact her privately and discuss your concerns with her directly instead of in a public forum.
This, 100%^^^^. You took the words right out of my mouth.
Re: not wearing gloves- I personally never soap without them, but I know of a handful of experienced soapmakers on this forum who do not wear gloves on purpose due to slippery glove-clumsiness issues or because they are allergic to the material the gloves are made of. They know the risks, though, and proceed at their own caution by staying close to a source of running water.
Re: pouring towards you in the mold: I've done this on several occasions because I was better able to see what the heck I was doing or where exactly my batter was going. I wear an apron and am well-protected, and I soap right by a source of running water.
Re: guestimating how much clay to add in: if she were guestimating how much lye/water/oil to use, I'd definitely have a thing or two to say about that, but I sometimes do the same thing with my pumice or my colorants or with oatmeal as the gal in the video did with her clay. To me, it's no biggie because I keep mental notes of how much I used, which I always write down after soaping so I can compare it to how the soap comes out in the end. Who's to say she's not doing the same thing? Too many assumptions are being made here for her to be called out on it.
Re: the plastic containers she is using. Have any of you seen the bottoms of them to determine their recycle codes? If not, y'all are making assumptions here, too. For all we know, they may very well be the proper type, and she may have used them only that one time.
Re: her bucket being rather full. I may be the odd one out, but my soaping pot is pretty much about that full when I'm making the occasional 5lb batch (my usual batch is 2.8lbs), and it's actually very workable for me......just as workable as it was for her in her video.
Re; the sound of the child in the background. I can't speak to any other of her videos that some have mentioned because I can't recall if I have ever seen them, but to her credit in the video at hand, never once did I see the child. You only hear him or her in the distance, which to me (as Obsidian pointed out), could very well mean that she had a child-gate up blocking him/her from coming into the soaping area.
Re: moving the mold to bang it/level out the soap. I do it all the time because that's what works out best for me.
This hasn't been mentioned yet- but I suspect that her short-sleeves on your list? If so- I thought I should mention that I (and several others here on the forum ) purposely soap with short sleeves, and with very good reason. I won't mention the reason why right now, because I want to see if you can guess what it might be.
IrishLass
