French soap (MdC) References at the end.

[Draugr Rekkr]

This time round I roughly used 90% KOH and 10% NaOH and this time was much odder. The soap (after being cooked for well over 3 hours) still has not lost its zap. Nor has it solidified to any state. Went hard as soon as I added the lye but once it went back to a soft liquid it never hardened up again. I've put it in the muffen tray now to see if letting it cure for a while will fix this problem but other that that I have no idea what's going on here. Has anyone ever had this happen?

 

[Obsidian]

Can you post your full recipe in weight please?

 

[KristaY]

P.S. do most people use cupcake liners?

Another thing you can use is an empty Pringles can. Clean it out, line it and cut the bottom off where the metal ring is. Then tape the lid on to use as the bottom. Simple and inexpensive! You can also use a PVC pipe of any diameter you want.

 

[Draugr Rekkr]

Just substitute 10% of my KOH for NaOH @Obsidian

 

[Obsidian]

Just substitute 10% of my KOH for NaOH

Thats your problem, you can't just swap them out. You need less NaOH then you would of KoH. Your soap is lye heavy.

Use the lye calculator at soapee.com, you can formulate a recipe with both kinds of lye. If you fiddle around with it, you should be able to figure out how much oil you need to add to fix it.

 

[Draugr Rekkr]

Thats your problem, you can't just swap them out. You need less NaOH then you would of KoH. Your soap is lye heavy.

Use the lye calculator at soapee.com, you can formulate a recipe with both kinds of lye. If you fiddle around with it, you should be able to figure out how much oil you need to add to fix it.

So should I biff it or can it be saved some how?

 

[Obsidian]

@Draugr Rekkr It can be saved, now that I'm awake and can think, I'll take a look. What SF did you use? What calculator?

 

[Obsidian]

@Draugr Rekkr ok, if I did my math right, adding 13 grams of coconut oil should neutralize the excess lye and give you a 5% SF. Not sure how it will change the end product but its either that or toss it.

For now on, use http://soapee.com/calculator for duel lye. You choose hybrid soap and you put in what percentage of each you want. Easy peasy.

 

[DeeAnna]

Here's my article about how to correctly make a dual-lye recipe -- https://classicbells.com/soap/dualLye.asp

A pertinent quote from the article --

"...The first thought many people have when designing a dual-lye recipe is to just calculate the alkali weight as if the recipe was a single-lye recipe and divide this total weight in proportion to the percentages of KOH and NaOH. If you do that, however, it will not work. Your soap will either be soft and greasy from not nearly enough alkali or brittle and dangerously alkaline from too much alkali.

The key to remember is each batch of soap requires a specific number of alkali molecules, whether they be KOH, NaOH, or some combination of both. Because KOH molecules weigh 1.403 times more than NaOH molecules, a soaper must allow for that weight difference so the batch gets the correct number of alkali molecules to make good soap...."

 

[Draugr Rekkr]

@Draugr Rekkr ok, if I did my math right, adding 13 grams of coconut oil should neutralize the excess lye and give you a 5% SF. Not sure how it will change the end product but its either that or toss it.

For now on, use http://soapee.com/calculator for duel lye. You choose hybrid soap and you put in what percentage of each you want. Easy peasy.

I think I saved it!

 

[Draugr Rekkr]

Here's my article about how to correctly make a dual-lye recipe -- https://classicbells.com/soap/dualLye.asp

A pertinent quote from the article --

"...The first thought many people have when designing a dual-lye recipe is to just calculate the alkali weight as if the recipe was a single-lye recipe and divide this total weight in proportion to the percentages of KOH and NaOH. If you do that, however, it will not work. Your soap will either be soft and greasy from not nearly enough alkali or brittle and dangerously alkaline from too much alkali.

The key to remember is each batch of soap requires a specific number of alkali molecules, whether they be KOH, NaOH, or some combination of both. Because KOH molecules weigh 1.403 times more than NaOH molecules, a soaper must allow for that weight difference so the batch gets the correct number of alkali molecules to make good soap...."

Thank you I'll read the article soon!

 

[msunnerstood]

You could try adding a little Kaolin Clay for slip

 

[Draugr Rekkr]

You could try adding a little Kaolin Clay for slip

Wet shavers don't like clay or anything like that in there shave soaps for some reason.

 

[msunnerstood]

Wet shavers don't like clay or anything like that in there shave soaps for some reason.

I have heard that about bentonite clay because it tends to dull the razors but kaolin clay doesn't seem to have the same effect

 

[Obsidian]

All clay can dull a blade, well formulated soap will have plenty of slip.
That being said, I tried a mdc dupe and didn't like it. It was too waxy and didn't have much slip. I use mostly tallow now instead of stearic.

 

[Draugr Rekkr]

Second attempt at the dual lye shaving soap and I think it came out really well!

 

[Obsidian]

Looks good, is this the one that was zappy?

 

[Draugr Rekkr]

Looks good, is this the one that was zappy?

Oh! I thought I posted an update regarding that on haha. I was frustrated with it and so I just dumped about 5 grams of one of the oils in. I think it was shea butter haha I'll get a photo of it now

 

[Draugr Rekkr]

These are them. I'm not sure why they gained a hole in them but they are good.

 

[Draugr Rekkr]

I just noticed that a lot of my shaving soaps are going really really soft... With no exposure to water.. Any idea?