how to speed trace?

[MGM]

I know this is the opposite of what most people complain about, but I have a slow-moving recipe that I'd like to speed up. I made it last week and I spent a lot of time stick-blending, standing around, and just generally wasting time.
80% lard
20% CO
water : lye: 2.67
5% SF

I could soap warmer, but since it's lard, I don't want to overheat it.
I could add TD, but the soap is already pure white.
Fragrance is non-accelerating.
Is there something I can do with water?
Or should I just plan to bring a good book into the soaping kitchen?

 

[shunt2011]

I would soap warmer.....Lard can take a higher heat. Or do the heat transfer method. Add your hot lye to the Lard/CO that may work too. Also less liquid would help as well. TD does work but as you said it's already pretty white. You could also use a faster moving FO or EO.

 

[SideDoorSoaps]

You could water discount. Most of my recipes trace fast.

 

[MGM]

Thanks @shunt2011 and @SideDoorSoaps .
FO already set (Christmas soaps!!!) but I will go hotter if I can. I thought ppl said that lard started to smell if you went too hot.

@SideDoorSoaps what water ratio would you recommend? I have to be honest that that's one thing I rarely vary...and sometimes don't even notice what ratio/percentage I'm using. I'm either following one or using the default in SoapCal.

 

[shunt2011]

Maybe 35-40% lye concentration. I've not done more than 33% to be honest. I mostly use 29-31%.

 

[SideDoorSoaps]

@SideDoorSoaps what water ratio would you recommend? I have to be honest that that's one thing I rarely vary...and sometimes don't even notice what ratio/percentage I'm using. I'm either following one or using the default in SoapCal.

 

[MGM]

I see a big 40%, ok gonna try it! Wish me luck!
(will be back here complaining about soap on a stick )
thanks!

Ok, thats not crackle and the water amount is fine.
Do you mix your zo or td with water and make sure all the lumps are out? I honestly never seen spots quite like that and the zo should have whitened the soap more.

Did this soap have any sugars or discoloring fo? It quite dark for a uncolored soap.

Try td again, mix 1 teaspoon with just enough water to disperse it. Do this a good 15 min before making the soap and make sure to smoosh up any lumps with a spoon.

This should be enough to whiten a 1 lb batch, if not then we need to take a look at your recipe and additives.

This is a picture of my unscented, uncolored soap. White enough I don't have to lighten it.

No sugars. I think I didn't mix it enough. I didn't realize how much time it would take to disperse properly. I guess you disperse it in the oil before adding the lye?

For the color, it was earl grey loose tea - the lye makes it a really dark color and you get a pretty good brown w/o using a mica/oxide - it's the look I was after. I think you nailed it though, probably a dispersion problem.

Ok did it! Liquids cooled off more than I intended because I was waiting for the furnace guy to finish up. Soaped at about 1o5F. SB like crazy. Got it to thin trace when I realised that batter was much yellower than anticipated so started tearing the house apart looking for the TD. Batter continued to thicken...
Original plan was 70% white and 15% each red and green. Quickly decided to up that to 33% across the board, since the white was so yellow. Even the TD didn't make much difference. Oh, looky here! A discolouring FO that I somehow overlooked....why do I always forget to (double) check these things???
Will post pix once they're out of the mould.

 

[Primrose]

Swap half your lard for tallow

 

[MGM]

Swap half your lard for tallow

that would slow down trace immensely, as I have no tallow ;-)

 

[SideDoorSoaps]

Can’t wait to see!

 

[KiwiMoose]

Love your stories @MGM - and surely a Christmas soap could do with some Clove or cinnamon EO? That would do it! Made coffee soap yesterday and added a mere 3g of cinnamon leaf (into a 1ltr oils batch) and off it went within seconds!

 

[DeeAnna]

Thyme EO works too. Figured that one out the hard way.

 

[Millie]

When I'm soaping a few batches I always wonder if it would speed trace if I put in a little batter from the last batch. Not that I want to speed trace. It is more, ugh, do I really have to clean this bowl again? Because I have a favorite soap bowl. Sometimes I use my second favorite soap bowl....

Haha, oops, then I read this current thread
https://www.soapmakingforum.com/threads/mixing-fresh-cp-batter-into-rebatch.77093/#post-797774
@Dawni post #3
Genius girl

 

[MGM]

Love your stories @MGM - and surely a Christmas soap could do with some Clove or cinnamon EO? That would do it! Made coffee soap yesterday and added a mere 3g of cinnamon leaf (into a 1ltr oils batch) and off it went within seconds!

I'm glad you asked! That was last week's Christmas soap, that took forever to trace: orange and vanilla M&P embeds, with clove in the CP batter. Clove is so strong and I dislike it, so I went easy....but then suddenly the bottle was empty! So I went and got the Allspice FO that I swore I wouldn't have a use for and started putting fragrance in the batter....but then I remembered that it has some sort of crazy low usage rate (I later checked.....0.99%) so I stopped shaking the bottle. Soaps are still cute and a little fragrant (but trace was slow!)

 

[TheGecko]

Thanks @shunt2011 and @SideDoorSoaps .
FO already set (Christmas soaps!!!) but I will go hotter if I can. I thought ppl said that lard started to smell if you went too hot.

@SideDoorSoaps what water ratio would you recommend? I have to be honest that that's one thing I rarely vary...and sometimes don't even notice what ratio/percentage I'm using. I'm either following one or using the default in SoapCal.

I know this is the opposite of what most people complain about, but I have a slow-moving recipe that I'd like to speed up. I made it last week and I spent a lot of time stick-blending, standing around, and just generally wasting time.
80% lard
20% CO
water : lye: 2.67
5% SF

I could soap warmer, but since it's lard, I don't want to overheat it.
I could add TD, but the soap is already pure white.
Fragrance is non-accelerating.
Is there something I can do with water?
Or should I just plan to bring a good book into the soaping kitchen?

With the cooler temps, I increased my lye concentration from 30% to 35%; it helped.