Kind of new to soap making

[Cyber]

I've made soap in the past but it involved collecting natural lye and concentrating it tell an egg floated showing about a quarter sized spot. Then adding oil and when it was ready taking the soap from the top of it. Like they did in the 1800's lol

I decided to give it a shot a few days ago using measurements and mixing by hand. I am using fat from wild game so I dont have an SAP # to work with. Once rendered it is about the same viscosity as olive oil so I went with .135

Ran the numbers, mixed everything up, and spent two hours stirring it. Well it never thickened and if I stopped stirring it would separate out. I tried warming it up a little to 110f while stirring and that did not help. I tried adding another 6g of Lye dissolved in 2 tsp of water. That did not make a difference. After 4 hours of stirring I gave up, put the bowl on the counter and went to bed.

The next morning when I got up I noticed that it was all converted to soap and was at the thin trace point. I left it on the counter and went to work. When I got home it was at the thick trace point. I went ahead and put it in the mold, boxxed it, and put it on the shelf to set.

Seeing as I have never seen saponification work without stirring I was surprised that it was at trace in the morning.

Anyone have any advice or comment on it? I look forward to reading them.

 

[earlene]

I remember reading about a woman who used to stir her soap with a stick and would do similarly to you, walk away and it would saponify on its own.

Anyway, if you can name each of the wild game, you may be able to find SAP values for some of them. Unless you mixed it altogether when you rendered, then probably not so much.

Here is one link with SAP values for some wild game. Here is another. If you need SAP values for fats not listed on one of the lye calculators you use, sometimes a diligent Google search will turn one up for you. Also someone here may already know from their own research if you post a specific thread to ask.

Regarding the soap you made, what SF setting did you use on your lye calculator and did you use full water, not changing the default? Just curious. Also have you ZAP tested it yet? Since I don't know how old/young it is, I don't even know if you would want to zap test it just yet, but once you unmold, I expect you will. It would be interesting to know if it ZAPs.

 

[Cyber]

I used Raccoon this round, I have 15lb of raccoon fat and a couple of lb of opossum fat. I did not see that in any of the lists you posted and I did an internet search but did not find anything.

I started with a small batch because I was testing, so I used 141.75g of rendered raccoon fat, 18.99 g of Lye, and 46.78 g of water. Plus the added 6g of lye and 2 tsp of water.

It is still soft in the mold Im guessing it will need a few days to harden up.

Thank you for your comment and help.

 

[toxikon]

Random Google searches seem to show that raccoon fat SAP falls between .135 - .140. So you could pick out an oil close to that in a soap calculator to determine the best amount of lye and water to use. I'd stick with a modest superfat, maybe 3%.

And invest in a stickblender to save your arms!

 

[earlene]

There are people who say coon fat soap is better than lard soap.

So I put your numbers into a lye calculator and it looks like that soap is going to be lye heavy. Maybe I'm reading the numbers wrong.

Are you using commercial sodium hydroxide (NaOH) or your homemade lye made from ashes?

 

[Cyber]

Im using commercial Lye (Potassium Hydroxide) KOH

 

[toxikon]

Im using commercial Lye (Potassium Hydroxide) KOH

KOH is for making liquid and cream soaps - no wonder your soap isn't hardening up. You'll want NaOH for bar soap.

 

[earlene]

Ah, that explains it. As toxikon said.

So basically, what you did was the LS CP method when you meant to make CP hard bar soap.

It has happened before. Don't feel bad. I know I have read at least two other threads here on SMF where someone accidentally used the wrong lye.

 

[Cyber]

So it will never harden up?

 

[shunt2011]

It will likely remain pliable. It will harden some but not like a hard bar of soap made the NAOH.

 

[Cyber]

It will likely remain pliable. It will harden some but not like a hard bar of soap made the NAOH.

Ok, if it is not going to harden into a bar then what suggested uses for the soft soap?

Thanks to everyone for your input.