soap with squishy white corners-kinda long

[delta soap diva]

this has puzzled me for some time. it doesnt always happen but when it does i lose 4 bars of soap. i use a large flat mold, in other words, not a loaf mold. it is made of wood and has a wood lid. you're not supposed to have to insulate it but i do anyway and it doesn't seem to matter whether i do or not, i've tried both ways. what happens is the corner bars of soap are discolored and white and soft and squishy. the corners of the corner bars that is. it doesnt seem be limited to one type of soap that i make, like oatmeal for example. it seems to be random. this didnt happen till i switched molds, so maybe that corner soap cools to fast? i have tried doubling up on the insulation in the corners but that doesn't seem to make a difference, maybe i need to REALLY insulate those corners. it's just in the corners, not the outer bars, those bars are fine, it's something about the corners. anyway this is not a crisis it just means i can't sell those bars and i get 4 bars for me! but i'd like to solve the mystery and not lose those bars. any thoughts are most appreciated.

 

[Missjulesdid]

I used to get partial gel quite a bit, though after cure you really coudn't tell.

What I've been doing lately is something that I read to do on this forum.. I warm up my mould with a hair dryer before pouring. It seems to work. If you have a wood mold that is oven safe, you could also warm it in the oven, but the hair dryer works for me.

 

[itsmeroro]

Sheesh! I feel your pain about partial gel -- this has all of the sudden happened to me several batches this week... finally the BW & OO recipe turned out fine.

I need to remember to put the mold into the oven for about 5 minutes before -- good idea!

Cheers!

 

[delta soap diva]

i have a heat tool that i use to melt the tops of my candles, i'll try that.

but what is it that makes happen only some of the time? just the way it is or what? :?

thanks!

 

[Missjulesdid]

I'm sure there are a lot of factors that can play into it... the temp of the room, thickness of trace, temp of the batter, temp of the lye when it was incorporated, the ingredients... If I was an actual expert I could go into more specifics, I'm just going by what others have told me.. and it makes sense to me!