Soap Making help

[eact920]

Hi guys, soap making is involved in my investigative project for school and I need help. I was already able to boil the fat with water and the tallow(if that's what it is) is already laying at the top. I used 225 gram table butter or cows butter. I'm just not sure what to do next. What I was originally planning to do was put the 36 grams of lye on 108 grams of water but it seems that the 108 grams of water is almost equal to the tallow I'm eventually gonna mix(after the lye has dissolved). Is it supposed to be like that? any suggestions would really help! thank you!

*additional info: I do not have proper measuring tool to measure grams so I'm using this site: exploratorium.edu/cooking/convert/measurements as my basis

 

[krissy]

you really need to have the proper equipment and a basic understanding of how to make soap before we can really be of any help.

i am not 100% positive but i think that using butter will stink to high heaven and back plus make a yucky soap.

also you need to have a predesigned recipe with your different oils, correct lye amount and liquid amount.
working with lye *can* be dangerous and you should have as much information as you can about how to work with it under your belt before jumping in to using it.

please do some research and don't jump into this thinking it is going to be super easy. it isn't. it is fun but it does take someone willing to do research and learn.

 

[carebear]

Yes, first you need to learn how to make soap, and how to calculate for yourself how much lye to use (or at the very least how to use one of the online lye calculators). Converting volume to weight is not very precise unless yo uknow the specific gravity (or density, close enough) of your substances - granulation size can make a huge difference in measuring lye!

I strongly suggest you start with millersoap.com to learn more about soap, and soaping. There is also an about.com area on it.

You can use butter as an example of what happens, but it doesn't tend to make very nice soap. Tallow is not milk fat - tallow is the fat from the body of the cow.

 

[BBrandDesign]

Making your very own custom blend soap - what an amazing feeling! And so much fun too! You can make soap, at home, but you should begin knowing as much as possible before starting. You will need to know soap making supplies, resources, soap recipes, materials, ingredients, procedures, safety precautions, soap making methods and much more. You can save time and money if you know these..