OMG! Did it get too hot?

[AlicesWonderhands]

how would i plane them with just reg kitchen tools?

 

[newbie]

You can use a knife to slice off thin amounts. Being a completely crappy hand cutter, I tend not to get nice rectangles. A 90 degree angle seems impossible, but you may be able to do a better job. You could also try a cheese slicer. One of my first tasks on that soap would be to slice a thin layer off the top- get that muffin top thing off and see how she looks!

 

[Susie]

You don't have to heat soap in the oven. It does not speed cure at all. You can just make cold processed and leave them on the counter for 18-24 hours. Also, zap will not hurt the baby.

 

[AlicesWonderhands]

You can use a knife to slice off thin amounts. Being a completely crappy hand cutter, I tend not to get nice rectangles. A 90 degree angle seems impossible, but you may be able to do a better job. You could also try a cheese slicer. One of my first tasks on that soap would be to slice a thin layer off the top- get that muffin top thing off and see how she looks!

I dunno. Im going to cut in to one today to see what I can do. I honestly think I want to just melt it in the crock and repour. hopefully the heat from the crock doesnt burn off the e.o.

or maybe Ill just cut them in to sample chunks and let it cure...

 

[AlicesWonderhands]

You don't have to heat soap in the oven. It does not speed cure at all. You can just make cold processed and leave them on the counter for 18-24 hours. Also, zap will not hurt the baby.

I normally dont bake it, I made a mistake and left the oven on. I normally turn it off and just use the oven as an incubator for the soaps as my curing room is too cool to put them in before gel. It also does cut down my cure/dry time by a week for my salt bars.

And I'm not willing to take any chances with lye and my pregnancy. Hubby is happy to do it.

 

[newbie]

Oh no! Don't automatically rebatch! You don't even know how they truly came out. Slicing a bit off the top is not a big deal and if your swirls are still there and everything is fine, you have your beautiful soap and you save yourself the hassle of a rebatch. If there is some issue with the soap, rebatch if needed, but most of us will avoid a rebatch if at all possible. And you don't yet have evidence that you need to.

 

[IrishLass]

I agree with Newbie. If it were my soap, I would just trim the edges off. You'd be surprised what beauty often lurks beneath that outer 1/16th" to 1/8" layer. Then, I would gather all the trimmings and squish them up into a 'free-hand' shaped bar of soap; or if you have a small Milky-Way-type mold you can press the trimmings into that to create a prettier bar out of then trimmings.

It almost sounds to me like your soap got hot enough that it went into HP-mode. I bet if you would have stirred it when it was bubbling up, it would have all come together and have been fine, although your swirls would have been ruined.


IrishLass

 

[dixiedragon]

They might be okay. Get some Saran wrap or some baking parchment, lay it on the top and press down with your gloved hands. That will help smooth out the top. leave the paper (or saran wrap) on the soap and when it cools and hardens, peel it off.

 

[AlicesWonderhands]

I have unmolded them and they are still icky with oil. I have them on parchment until I can decide what to do.
I cant imagine taking a knife to plane the surface off of each one of the bars and remaining flat and i cant just plane off the edges as the top is all pocked and imploded....

 

[dixiedragon]

You can use a cheese slicer like this:

Leave the soap in the mold and use this to peel off the bottom. If you leave it in the mold while you slice, you can keep it fairly flat, vs have weird gouges in it.

 

[newbie]

It's not really that difficult to slice off the tops with a sharp knife and get a flat top. If you are ultimately planning on chopping them all up to rebatch, you could try your hand at slicing off a thin slice of soap from the tops; no harm done if you don't do it well, really. And assuming you are not selling, if they are actually good underneath, I doubt having an imperfectly cut bar will bother you or your family or anyone to whom you give them.

 

[AlicesWonderhands]

So I bit the bullet and sliced the soaps. Yes, getting a flat plane IS a big deal for me. And i messed it up pretty bad.
but!
i was very happy with what I saw underneath. It shows me that I CAN do it. I also hand mixed this purple color.
The soap is still SUPER oily and soft.

 

[newbie]

Oh come on now! That doesn't look bad at all! I think your cutting looks fine. A little rinse and no one will know. Way better than rebatched, those bars are.

 

[AlicesWonderhands]

thanks!! I was pretty happy with it. I have to get the hang of this cp thing. I want to ensure gel and I still havent found a way to MAKE that happen other than the oven, but these new recipes are too hot for it.

 

[Cookie]

Love your colour and swirl. They look great now, they'll look even better after cure, good save

 

[newbie]

Have you tried a heating pad? I will lay out a fleece throw, folded in half, place the heating pad on it, then the soap on that and then will wrap the whole thing in the blanket. You have to have wax paper or plastic wrap or a piece of cardboard on top of the soap so the blanket doesn't get in it. I will check it every so often to see how hot it's getting and once I can tell it's hot enough that it will hit gel, I turn off the heating pad and keep it wrapped. I tend to babysit it so it requires more work but I can't seem to get the timing of the oven down and there is something about silicone in the oven that tends to give the bubbles on the sides of the soap. If you have an accelerating FO, in general that will heat up more, so often just a wrap in a blanket will be enough to get it to gel- no heating pad required.

 

[kumudini]

thanks!! I was pretty happy with it. I have to get the hang of this cp thing. I want to ensure gel and I still havent found a way to MAKE that happen other than the oven, but these new recipes are too hot for it.

Those individual cavity molds, specially those shallow ones are hard to gel soap in outside of the oven. Even if you insulate it really well there just isn't enough heat in there. What you could do is start preheating the oven to 170 F when you start making soap and then turn the heat off but light on once you get the soap in the oven. Those molds are more prone to ash as well so keep them covered with a towel or cling wrap.
ETA: haven't used the heat pad, so in my comment i didn't consider those.

 

[AlicesWonderhands]

Those individual cavity molds, specially those shallow ones are hard to gel soap in outside of the oven. Even if you insulate it really well there just isn't enough heat in there. What you could do is start preheating the oven to 170 F when you start making soap and then turn the heat off but light on once you get the soap in the oven. Those molds are more prone to ash as well so keep them covered with a towel or cling wrap.
ETA: haven't used the heat pad, so in my comment i didn't consider those.

Im worried about covering with a towel, or wrap, wont that leave marks on the top of the bar. and i find everything you say about these molds to be true. what do you recommend?

 

[dixiedragon]

gorgeous swirl!

 

[Seawolfe]

On my cavity molds I put my mold on a tray and then on top of a heating pad. Over the top I put a box or pan that covers the mold, but doesnt touch the soap. Then add towels for insulation.

I dont oven process because overheating happens too easy in my oven.

Im worried about covering with a towel, or wrap, wont that leave marks on the top of the bar. and i find everything you say about these molds to be true. what do you recommend?