Punkerdoodle’s Homestead
Active Member
Several(6
) batches of soap accomplished with varying degrees of success. They may been an unintended color, ugly, honey threw a curve ball, or just a plain old OMG but…all of it turned into decent if not really nice soaps. Using first batch daily now and no itching so far. Made some liquid hand soap for poops and grins and hands are actually better. Spent a bit but saved on lotion (what I tell my wife). All in all my daughter and I (add daughter in law) are having fun making something we use with common stuff.
All of that to for this…every batch I have done has put me in a frantic state between getting to trace and molding. Outside of that time things are almost textbook and i could almost do a reputable video. After trace the pucker potential is high for anything other than just enough to do a loaf mold full of goo.
I watch videos and that nice creamy saponifying goo flows so effortlessly into molds with plenty of time to do swirls of multiple colors and other neat techniques to make soap look like it should hang in an art gallery instead of foaming someone’s armpits.
I get two or three bar molds poured and the soap gods start laughing. Loafs are no problem if I just make enough for one. It glops up(technical term) and will not flow at all and I end up scooping and scraping.
Our water here is somewhat hard and pH as high as 7.8 so I tried distilled water from the store, no difference. Though temp may be problem so I heat oil and lye water to 125f before mixing. Checked temp after molding the last time and it was 107f, should I start at higher temp? Would increasing water extend the time between trace and setting up. Using soap calc with 3:1 ratio. It defaults to 5% superfats. All of the recipes I have done use basic oils I have on hand or inexpensive like lard, olive, castor, coconut, grapeseed, or avacado. The only butter I have used so far is Shea and only small amounts.
The problem is a constant across recipes raw material so I think it has to be process related and something stupidly simple.
Thoughts?
) batches of soap accomplished with varying degrees of success. They may been an unintended color, ugly, honey threw a curve ball, or just a plain old OMG but…all of it turned into decent if not really nice soaps. Using first batch daily now and no itching so far. Made some liquid hand soap for poops and grins and hands are actually better. Spent a bit but saved on lotion (what I tell my wife). All in all my daughter and I (add daughter in law) are having fun making something we use with common stuff.All of that to for this…every batch I have done has put me in a frantic state between getting to trace and molding. Outside of that time things are almost textbook and i could almost do a reputable video. After trace the pucker potential is high for anything other than just enough to do a loaf mold full of goo.
I watch videos and that nice creamy saponifying goo flows so effortlessly into molds with plenty of time to do swirls of multiple colors and other neat techniques to make soap look like it should hang in an art gallery instead of foaming someone’s armpits.
I get two or three bar molds poured and the soap gods start laughing. Loafs are no problem if I just make enough for one. It glops up(technical term) and will not flow at all and I end up scooping and scraping.
Our water here is somewhat hard and pH as high as 7.8 so I tried distilled water from the store, no difference. Though temp may be problem so I heat oil and lye water to 125f before mixing. Checked temp after molding the last time and it was 107f, should I start at higher temp? Would increasing water extend the time between trace and setting up. Using soap calc with 3:1 ratio. It defaults to 5% superfats. All of the recipes I have done use basic oils I have on hand or inexpensive like lard, olive, castor, coconut, grapeseed, or avacado. The only butter I have used so far is Shea and only small amounts.
The problem is a constant across recipes raw material so I think it has to be process related and something stupidly simple.
Thoughts?
I think you're going to see a lot of improvement if you shift to cooler temps and stick blending less.
Somewhere I got in my head 120f to 130f was optimum saponification temp, maybe so but sounds like may not be the ideal soap making temp. On the stick blender I hit it pretty good until I get emulsification, then stir with occasional bursts. Think I’ll switch to a spoontula instead. At the ball field but will look at the ratios out of the calc later. 3:1 is what sticks in my head but 2.7 seems like the lowest. I still don’t have a good grip on this superfats/lye discount/water discount thingy. Haven’t seen a explanation I can wrap my head around yet for some reason. In a previous life I developed refractory and high density alloys, kinda similar. I guess this is one of those things where prior knowledge may be a detriment. Explosives are easier but can’t do those with my 5 year old.
But there can be in soap making. I started my soapy journey with a lowly lil' $11 Hamilton Beach I got at the supermarket, and it was the best durn SB I ever used. Only drawback, they don't last. I went through Kitchenaid and Braun, but hated them. Ended up with the one BB sells, and its really grand, but I make sure to use the lowest setting for my quick moving recipe. So --burst-burst-- stir stir stir stir stir --burst-burst-- stir stir stir stir stir stir. I soap at ~110° because I'm impatient, water discount so I can unmold and cut in 8 hours, and I flirt with all the naughtiest FOs that move like greased lightening. My batter moves durn quick, so I was glad to finally have a SB I could dial back to "Saturday night on quaaludes" mode. Gosh I miss my lil' Hammi.
