Pine Tar Recipe

[The Efficacious Gentleman]

I agree with the gel - will not do that again with this soap. And from what a certain wise-woman (aka YOU!) says, it doesn't need too much help to fully gel.

Mine smells of heavily smoked ham that we can buy here called Speck. It's not unpleasant by any stretch of the imagination, and the soap itself is very enjoyable.

 

[paillo]

I love mine after about a six-month cure. I use the Farnham US-made brand, can only find it in farm coop stores in the horse health aisle. The guys in my local coop are curious about the PT soap, I've promised to bring them some, and they're interested in carrying it. I sell to only a few local stores, but am thinking I'd love to have this soap in with an entirely different kind of clientele than the norm. They're folks who know pine tar - fun!

 

[DeeAnna]

I agree, my dear Efficacious, that PT soap doesn't need too much encouragement to gel. I do CPOP this soap, but more along the lines of turn the oven on, preheat to 170 deg F, put soap in, and turn oven off. Just enough to encourage what it naturally wants to do.

For some reason, I've only found the Bickmore product around here. I hadn't thought of this before your suggestion, Paillo, but I now wonder if my horse club folks would be interested? I also have given some of this soap to the guys in our local Whitetails Unlimited chapter. Some guys will shower with PT soap to mask their scent when getting ready for deer hunting.

 

[judymoody]

I use 20% PT and I need to put it in a cool place, uncovered, or it will overheat and separate. No SB for this one!

 

[DeeAnna]

I haven't tried higher than 10% PT. I'm not making this soap for medical reasons so 10% is fine for me, and I know the chances of a softer soap or overheating are higher the more PT in the recipe. Might try it someday, though, and I'll keep your caution in mind!

 

[The Efficacious Gentleman]

Mine was a mere 10%, too. Will make another batch (it was just a 500g batch to start) as I think it'll hold. Trouble is, no-one here has heard of it - when people in the 1800's were using it in the UK and US, I don't think that the idea got down this far, unless it's known as something else entirely. Even to the extent that they don't use it to treat wood or horses hooves!