how to know bar ounces

[fylith]

i know that sounds silly but when i weigh my bar of soap i weigh it on my scale and it says let say 5 oz. but i went into a store the other day and a bar a third the size of my bar said it was 5 oz. it didnt feel heavy for its size. do you not wieght the bar by the scale is there a different way to measure the oz of your bar of soap after it is made?

thanks a bunch

 

[IanT]

i know that sounds silly but when i weigh my bar of soap i weigh it on my scale and it says let say 5 oz. but i went into a store the other day and a bar a third the size of my bar said it was 5 oz. it didnt feel heavy for its size. do you not wieght the bar by the scale is there a different way to measure the oz of your bar of soap after it is made?

thanks a bunch

Thats actually a really good question, and kind of confused me at the same time (lol)....

To the best of my knowledge, the bars 'weight' is calculated based on your recipe, minus a little bit for water-evaporation. I haven got into weighing my bars yet since I dont sell yet, but my guess is that the person whos bar you saw in the store most likely weighed the bars before they cured and water was evaporated? thus it would have included that extra bit of weight for water (which is pretty darn heavy)

thats just my opinion thus far, because like I said.... I havent weighed bars yet... but thats an excellent question

 

[cleanwater]

I was just getting ready to ask the same question when I saw this... So what is the appropriate way to determine bar weight? Total post-cure weight? Calculated weight of oils in a bar? Calculated weight of oils and additives (oatmeal, honey, salt, etc) in a bar? Or do the sellers among us even put bar weight on the label? Is it a legal requirement? If I start selling, my preference would be to give a weight, but I don't want to label a bar "5 oz" and have someone come back to me saying it was less... :?

 

[madpiano]

yup, weighing of every bar, I am afraid. I wish I had one of those soap cutters but I cut by hand, so none of my bars are the same.

After that I have several options. If all bars are withing 5% of each other in weight, I can put down an average weight on the label for the whole batch.

written like this: weight: av 130g

If the heaviest is within 10% of the lightest, I can go by the lightest bar and write down the weight like this for the whole batch:

weight: min 130g

Or I can write each individual weight on the bar and then either make up a price I will be happy with or sell by weight.

I ended up doing the min weight option and I take another 3% off the actual weight, in case I get more evaporation before the bar sells.

All very complicated and the best people to speak to are the Trading Standards (or your town's equivalent weight and measures office) locally. They are generally helpful as they want you to get it right.

 

[Deb]

I try and cut evenly, but due to the way soap is (ie, some bits have more peaks than others) they end up being slightly different. I put Min 5 oz on mine, and that is weight at packing, aka 2 months cured.

Anything else strikes me as dishonest- if you put down 5 oz and the customer puts it on the scale and finds 4, what would you think if you were that customer? Oh it must be water weight?