Stearic Acid - Does it make the soap milder?

[ShRivver]

What I seek to create is a general leather cleaner good for all kind of leather. Mainly shoes/boots/and other hard leathers. However should I be able to come up with something that would clean deerskin, pigskin, and other softer leathers would be ideal.

DeAnna, it occurred to me the other day that all soft leathers may have that "brand new red shirt - bleeding into the washer" kind of excess dye. That is why I tried a commercial brand on the softer leather. But tonight, I wonder something else. Perhaps if I made plain soap - THEN added my extra ingredients after the fact... shaved it down and added my beewax and lanolin it would tone down any harshness by cutting the soap with conditioners...

I am the creator and owner of a business called Boot Rub LLC and make a leather conditioner that works on ALL kinds of leather. We are a small business, for sale in 6 stores and online. It contains the three key ingredients that I'd like to carry over to the leather soap I am creating. (or not-so-much creating at this point) (walnut oil, beeswax, and lanolin) It is for continuity of a product line that I am trying to use the same ingredients.

Thank you, Science person, (Green soap) for that wonderful explanation of molecules, and such! I had spoken to an organic chemist earlier this summer and he, too, said the same things you did... though he was trying to get me to use less lye rather than a different oil. I love that the oil's harshness/mildness properties are similar by the way you explained it, and wonder what kind of shelf life you're talking... 1 month? 3? a year? two? Do you think using olive oil with a dash of walnut oil would be counter productive? Also, since it isn't being eaten, would walnut oil soap - gone bad - be harmful to leather? The only difference I've experienced in the older tins of boot rub is that after a year or so it tends to get a bit pasty, but if reheated to a liquid, that will go away.

Thank you also Lindy for your comments.

 

[green soap]

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I had spoken to an organic chemist earlier this summer and he, too, said the same things you did... though he was trying to get me to use less lye rather than a different oil. I love that the oil's harshness/mildness properties are similar by the way you explained it, and wonder what kind of shelf life you're talking... 1 month? 3? a year? two? Do you think using olive oil with a dash of walnut oil would be counter productive? Also, since it isn't being eaten, would walnut oil soap - gone bad - be harmful to leather? The only difference I've experienced in the older tins of boot rub is that after a year or so it tends to get a bit pasty, but if reheated to a liquid, that will go away.

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Go to soapcalc

http://www.soapcalc.net/calc/SoapCalcWP.asp

and fill in your recipe. If the iodine number is above the range suggested (above 70) and/or the linoleic + linolenic add to more then 16 or so, then you have a potential issue with longevity. So this means that yes, you can probably introduce some walnut oil in there. Not sure what other oils you are using. The iodine has nothing to do with iodine in the soap, rather, it is a chemical test that determines the number of potentially reactive molecular bonds.

If the numbers are borderline, and you still want the soap, you can add rosemary oleo extract -ROE- and it will prolong its life. I do this for the shampoo bars I make, they just need those soft oils to remain mild for hair washing. I can confirm that it delays rancidity, but cannot quantify this. As far as using vitamin E, it is good to keep room temperature oils fresh, but the vit E does not survive saponification, so I add ROE even if I have added vit E to the oils earlier.

I cannot tell you how long a soap with soft oils will last. This depends on many things: temperature, humidity, what other oils are in the mix, the age of your oils, how they have been stored (fridge is good for walnut, hemp, grapeseed, etc), what additives are used (stay away from chlorophyll), and so on.

Using less lye will increase your superfat, so it is a reasonable suggestion.

I don't think rancid soap would hurt leather (don't know for sure though) but it stinks pretty badly, so it would be an aesthetic issue for me.