Crumbly CP Soap

[Miss Elaine]

Just wanted to ask a question before I start another batch of soap.

I took a small batch of soap out of the freezer this morning. It gracefully popped out of the mold and was quite beautiful until I started cutting it. The cuts on the soap log (made with a long knife) went along quite well until the end of the cut, where the soap cracked and the cut veered a little off track. So now my beautiful soap is cracked, crumbling and crooked!! I have a larger batch that is already curing. This batch also had a crumbling problem.

What should I do to avoid this??? I've read that this could be a problem with the water amount, but could the problem be something as simple as my cutting technique or the fact that I cut immediately after removing the soap from the freezer?

Help! Very nervous about starting another batch of soap...

Elaine

 

[Vinca Leaf]

but could the problem be something as simple as my cutting technique or the fact that I cut immediately after removing the soap from the freezer?
Elaine

Yes, this is a distinct possibility. I usually let mine warm up a bit before I cut...or I might even leave it to the next day in the case of tray molds...

 

[Egzandra]

This type of crumbling at the edges happened to me when I did my first batch. I didn't have it in the freezer though. The crumbliness did not affect the soap itself, which was still lovely.

I put the crumbling down to one of two things: maybe I left it a bit too long before cutting it, or else it didn't have quite enough water in it. I used half and half water and goat's milk instead of just water, and maybe I should have upped the amount because I had used milk.

 

[Guest]

My first batch of CP turned out to be kinda crumbly and it was because my h2o was a bit less than it should have been. The next batches I fixed and have not had crumbly soap since. Hope this helps.

 

[Miss Elaine]

Thanks for the responses. I do feel a little more confident in making my next batch. The points of correction are: let the soap warm up a little after being in the freezer; don't leave the soap in the freezer as long as I did--cut the soap sooner; and add more water.

A follow up question: How do you calculate the amount of H2O? I've been using an online SAP calculator at 3% superfat. I can double check the NaOH by hand, but not the H2O.

 

[Egzandra]

From watching this forum for a while I have noticed that people do use less water in their soap to help it set up quicker. . There should be people with more expertise on this, along soon. You might catch more people's eye with a new thread about how much water to use.

 

[artisan soaps]

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[Miss Elaine]

All wonderful suggestions!! Spent last evening reading and doing research as opposed to making soap. I've been calculating my NaOH at 3%. I think I need to up that to 5%.

Well, the soap pot is clean and ready to go. So am I.

Thanks!!

 

[artisan soaps]

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[IrishLass]

If you are doing a 3% superfat and your soaps are not lye heavy, you are perfectly okay. I've done experiments with a 3% superfat to test out my food grade lye in comparison to my technical grade lye just to make sure the purer food grade wasn't going mess with my usual superfat. I was half expecting the food grade at a 3% s/f to give me a lye heavy soap, but it did not. The soap batches came out great with flying colors. Although my normal superfat for the majority of my soaps is 5%, I regularly do a 3% superfat now whenever making 100% goat milk soaps.


IrishLass

 

[Vinca Leaf]

^^^That's good to know, Irish. I did a goat milk at 4% and I was wondering hmmm....what if I did 3%? What then?

 

[Bunny]

Yep, cut sooner. I had that problem too when I first started doing CP. Turned out, I was just letting the soap sit too long before I decided to cut it. If it is a very hard recipe, you can even cut the soap before it has even completely cooled, so long as it is firm enough.

 

[Miss Elaine]

Yes, Artisan, I meant I used 3% superfat level and wanted to increase the
superfat to 5%. I'm making body soap, not laundry (though I would like to try some laundry soap in the future).

Here's why I used 3% in my recipe: I made a batch in July not realizing that I didn't have enough OO for the recipe. I grabbed some other oils to make up for the volume. After the soap traced and my heart stopped racing, I calculated what I'd done. It came out to 3% superfat. That batch will be ready to test later on this week. I'll test the pH before I hop in the tub, but I think it's ok. I wanted to try that superfat level again on purpose.

I made a couple small batches yesterday using 5% superfat. I'm going to pop them out of the molds and cut them TODAY. If I need to put them in the freezer, I will take them out of the freezer and cut them TODAY.