How soon to unmold and cut 100% coconut oil soap?

Hawksquill · Dec 28, 2019

I made a batch with a very high percentage of coconut oil (95%, with 5% castor oil) for the first time. It's hardened a LOT in just a couple hours and I'm trying to figure out how soon I can unmold it and cut it. From research online it seems like sooner than normal, and it looks like I can cut right after I unmold, to prevent the soap from going brittle and damaging my cutter.

Is that right, and how long is enough time? 8 hours from pour to unmolding and cutting? 12 hours? I usually unmold after 12-24 hours depending on the recipe, and give it 8-12 hours before cutting it, again depending on how it looks.

For folks who have made high CO soap before, am I totally off base? What do you recommend?

TIA!

DeeAnna · Dec 28, 2019

You can't go by time when deciding if a soap is ready to cut. You always have to go by feel.

Cut it as soon as the soap feels like mild cheddar cheese or colby cheese. In other words, it should give a little and maybe dent slightly with firm finger pressure, but it won't dent easily. It won't be soft like bread, and it won't be hard like wood.

A high coconut soap has a narrower window where it's the right firmness to cut. It might still be warm and lye heavy when it's ready to cut, but get 'er cut when it's at the right firmness. Wear gloves when you handle it.

thetoe · Dec 31, 2019

I've done it as soon as 5-6 hours after I pour it but most time wait 24 hours. As previously mentioned I just "feel" it. Something that helped me a lot was to start using sodium lactate. It seems to firm right up now.

IrishLass · Dec 31, 2019

With my 100% CO soaps, I cut just as soon as it has just solidified back up from the gel stage to feel like Colby or cheddar cheese as DeeAnna described above, which for me turns out to be 6 hours after pouring. My soap is still hot at this time, but that's okay. If I waited until it cooled, it would not take to being cut into bars gracefully (been there, done that.... I no longer wait for it to cool.

)

IrishLass

Hawksquill · Dec 31, 2019

thetoe said:
I've done it as soon as 5-6 hours after I pour it but most time wait 24 hours. As previously mentioned I just "feel" it. Something that helped me a lot was to start using sodium lactate. It seems to firm right up now.

I usually use sodium lactate but didn't with this batch because I was worried about it getting too hard! Maybe I should have done, though. I waited about 12 hours and it felt pretty hard, but the bottom corners were pretty soft and a bit stuck to the bottom of the mold. I'm not super happy with the texture so far but it's probably my fault rather than the fault of the recipe, which was pretty simple. We'll see how it goes!