So, I'd been sitting here doing some extensive searching into using Rosin in LS. If it's ok, i'd like to share the little bit that I've found, and input would be most welcome for future use to others.
Rosin (colophony, Greek pitch) is a solid form of resin obtained from conifer types plants, ie pines, produced by heating liquid resin to remove the liquid terpene components (turpentine). It is not pine tar. The 2 are not the same, in that pine tar is made from pine wood, via high temps and destructive distillation. Both are used in soap making, however, according to Summer Bee Meadow, it's not recommended for liquid soap making; why, I'm unsure of, though I know there are commercial liquid soap products on the market. So again, I don't know.
Rosin is comprised primarily of resin acids, most notably Abietic and Pimaric, acids not normally seen when using soap making calculators/formulators, as we use fatty acids. There are different color variations of Rosin, from very pale yellows to almost blacks, all transluscent, and the coloring indicates quality of the resin. Location source, ie Hondouran, Brazilian, Chinese, etc, also determine quality, supposedly. Rosin, when used in soaps, adds a special emollience, clarity, as well as bubbles, which we all love about a good soap. In Catherine Failor's book, Making Natural Liquid Soaps, she notes that rosin also emparts it's own preservation properties to soap. The accurracy of this, I'm unsure of. That can be something to look into later.
All this information is great, and most of it readily available about rosin, as an industrial item. But there isn't much mention about HOW to use it in soap, particularly in liquid soap making, as Catherine Failor discussed in her book. She includes recipes, but not how to handle the material, ie how to prepare it, when to add it, etc. Today, I was able to finally stumble upon 1 blog from a man who had the material left over from his job. The blog, Tooling Up, gives a little bit of a step by step to his process. It's not uber detailed, procedure wise, but pictures are with comments as to what is going on in them. He also references Failor, and one of her reciepes, during his method. It is quite simple and to the point, and basically, instead of melting the rosin right along with his fats, he melts it seperately in another pot, then adds it during trace, as the rosin causes the mixture to seize up prematurely. Unfortuantely, he doesn't mention temps, so we're on our own to figure out what is best for us and our heating devices. After adding it to the rest of his mixture, his soap turned a deep golden color. Almost a like a heavy or medium bodied raw honey color. Especially after dilution. And from the looks of his pictures, beautifully clear. He also shared his spreadsheet that he made up, based off of a Failor reciepe, that includes SAP values and amounts used. It really is a very basic recipe, with coconut and olive oils, and rosin.
So, I guess, now for the good stuff. Here's the link to the blog so you all can see for yourself:
http://tooling-up.blogspot.com/2013/02/making-liquid-rosin-soap.html
His spreadsheet:
https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B-JHo9tm7cE7UHExalJMZ2oyQmc/edit
And just for some unforseen reason, the internet hates us all and should these links stop working in the future, basic info about the recipe:
coconut oil 300g (65.2%)
olive oil 90g (19.6%)
rosin 70g (15.2%) SAP: 182 KOH Needed: 12.74g NaOH: 9.09g
I'd like to also add a few other values of Rosin that I was able to find on my own, though I don't have links to my exact sources at this time. Took me some time looking this stuff up. So I'm honestly not inclined to try again right now. I have the SM3 program, so Rosin is added in as an oil and having these properties to input was nice.
Specific Gravity: 1.06. The program will tell you this seems a bit too high. I dunno. I put it in anyways. It's what I was able to dig up.
Iodine: 125. I believe because of the iodine input, the program was able to give me a hardness quality of 1.6 and moisturizing quality of 1.4. I cannot say if this is accurate or not. It's what I'm looking at right now. I could be wrong about the correlation.
What i've also found, is that the SAP value can vary depending on the coloring of the Rosin used, but from what I've found, the average is around 180. I nthis recipe, it's 182, and other sources will say 160-170 or 170- 190. Again, it depends on the Rosin you get. I believe somewhere here in this forum, another gentleman posted a chart with different SAP values.
I'd also opened a thread on Summer Bee Meadow's forum page about rosin, since they have it included in their list of oils and their properties, but they don't have it included in the oils selection for the calculator. If I get any more info, I'll add it here later. And yes, their site is back up. I'm totally stoked!! Here's hoping it stays that way.
Again, if there is anything else anyone would like to input, of course it's more than welcome, a this post is intended for those wanting info about Rosin. And the more added, the better.
Rosin (colophony, Greek pitch) is a solid form of resin obtained from conifer types plants, ie pines, produced by heating liquid resin to remove the liquid terpene components (turpentine). It is not pine tar. The 2 are not the same, in that pine tar is made from pine wood, via high temps and destructive distillation. Both are used in soap making, however, according to Summer Bee Meadow, it's not recommended for liquid soap making; why, I'm unsure of, though I know there are commercial liquid soap products on the market. So again, I don't know.
Rosin is comprised primarily of resin acids, most notably Abietic and Pimaric, acids not normally seen when using soap making calculators/formulators, as we use fatty acids. There are different color variations of Rosin, from very pale yellows to almost blacks, all transluscent, and the coloring indicates quality of the resin. Location source, ie Hondouran, Brazilian, Chinese, etc, also determine quality, supposedly. Rosin, when used in soaps, adds a special emollience, clarity, as well as bubbles, which we all love about a good soap. In Catherine Failor's book, Making Natural Liquid Soaps, she notes that rosin also emparts it's own preservation properties to soap. The accurracy of this, I'm unsure of. That can be something to look into later.
All this information is great, and most of it readily available about rosin, as an industrial item. But there isn't much mention about HOW to use it in soap, particularly in liquid soap making, as Catherine Failor discussed in her book. She includes recipes, but not how to handle the material, ie how to prepare it, when to add it, etc. Today, I was able to finally stumble upon 1 blog from a man who had the material left over from his job. The blog, Tooling Up, gives a little bit of a step by step to his process. It's not uber detailed, procedure wise, but pictures are with comments as to what is going on in them. He also references Failor, and one of her reciepes, during his method. It is quite simple and to the point, and basically, instead of melting the rosin right along with his fats, he melts it seperately in another pot, then adds it during trace, as the rosin causes the mixture to seize up prematurely. Unfortuantely, he doesn't mention temps, so we're on our own to figure out what is best for us and our heating devices. After adding it to the rest of his mixture, his soap turned a deep golden color. Almost a like a heavy or medium bodied raw honey color. Especially after dilution. And from the looks of his pictures, beautifully clear. He also shared his spreadsheet that he made up, based off of a Failor reciepe, that includes SAP values and amounts used. It really is a very basic recipe, with coconut and olive oils, and rosin.
So, I guess, now for the good stuff. Here's the link to the blog so you all can see for yourself:
http://tooling-up.blogspot.com/2013/02/making-liquid-rosin-soap.html
His spreadsheet:
https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B-JHo9tm7cE7UHExalJMZ2oyQmc/edit
And just for some unforseen reason, the internet hates us all and should these links stop working in the future, basic info about the recipe:
coconut oil 300g (65.2%)
olive oil 90g (19.6%)
rosin 70g (15.2%) SAP: 182 KOH Needed: 12.74g NaOH: 9.09g
I'd like to also add a few other values of Rosin that I was able to find on my own, though I don't have links to my exact sources at this time. Took me some time looking this stuff up. So I'm honestly not inclined to try again right now. I have the SM3 program, so Rosin is added in as an oil and having these properties to input was nice.
Specific Gravity: 1.06. The program will tell you this seems a bit too high. I dunno. I put it in anyways. It's what I was able to dig up.
Iodine: 125. I believe because of the iodine input, the program was able to give me a hardness quality of 1.6 and moisturizing quality of 1.4. I cannot say if this is accurate or not. It's what I'm looking at right now. I could be wrong about the correlation.
What i've also found, is that the SAP value can vary depending on the coloring of the Rosin used, but from what I've found, the average is around 180. I nthis recipe, it's 182, and other sources will say 160-170 or 170- 190. Again, it depends on the Rosin you get. I believe somewhere here in this forum, another gentleman posted a chart with different SAP values.
I'd also opened a thread on Summer Bee Meadow's forum page about rosin, since they have it included in their list of oils and their properties, but they don't have it included in the oils selection for the calculator. If I get any more info, I'll add it here later. And yes, their site is back up. I'm totally stoked!! Here's hoping it stays that way.
Again, if there is anything else anyone would like to input, of course it's more than welcome, a this post is intended for those wanting info about Rosin. And the more added, the better.
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