Stick blending

[John Harris]

As I have said in several threads, I have been away from soaping for 16 years. Back then, I used to make 112 bar batches. Often, I would make a batch and then, a couple of hours later, do it again. I had so much friggin' soap around the house!

Anyway, back then, I would stick blend the daylights out of the batter. I would stick blend non-stop from beginning to medium trace. I never had any trouble. Now I am trying to brush up on my soap skills and I am reading in various places that stick blending should be done for 2-3 minute intervals and then stirred for a while. Does it really make a difference? Do some of you have horror stories?

I would appreciate any advice you guys could give.

Thanks,
John

 

[Dawni]

It does make a difference between being able to pour your batter to only being able to glop it in the mold with a spoon..

For solid colored or uncolored soap, glopping is not so bad. But if you have swirls planned you'd need workable batter.

There is no set time for using the SB coz it depends a lot on your batch size, recipe, soap and ambient temps, water content, additives and fragrance. Some of my recipes didn't need a stick blender at all and some will take forever without it.

 

[Obsidian]

The main reason to blend in short bursts is to prevent overheating of your stick blender. Most just don't have the motor to keep up with minutes of continuous running.

Blending non stop won't hurt the soap beyond the possibility of over mixing and getting too thick.

 

[Nanette]

Use your blender in a soap pot that is deep enough....shallow will give you unwanted air bubbles, as will going wild and crazy with the blender....sigh, I should know......

 

[Zany_in_CO]

Hi John - There's good info about using a stick blender on DeeAnna's "Soapy Stuff" site:
https://classicbells.com/soap/soapyStuff.asp

 

[KiwiMoose]

It depends on your recipe too. If I stick blend any longer than 10 seconds my soap will start to seize, so I tread carefully.

 

[Michele50]

Howdy, John. I'm curious about your soaping many years ago; did you use a lot of slow to trace oils?

(True) Castile soap, unless one uses a substantial water discount, is notorious for taking forever to trace, even Bastille soap/75% Olive Oil would take quite a while w/out the water discount. You probably know that oils high in saturated fats (lauric, myristic, palmitic, and stearic fatty acids) are going to be faster to trace than those high in unsaturated fats ( oleic, linoleic, & linolenic). Castor, VERY high in ricinoleic, accelerates trace; so while it brings stability to lather & promotes creaminess, 2-5% (I believe) is the norm.

There are always exceptions. Just as lard is slower to trace than other hard oils, a bit higher in unsaturated fats, if you're making shaving soap or like shampoo bars then you'd use a higher percentage than the 2-5%. Some say not to use shampoo bars; the pH of hair is more acidic than natural soap--a WHOLE other topic.

Numerous things factor in whether to stick blend or not or to use it very sparingly, just as Dawni mentioned in her response:

"....There is no set time for using the SB coz it depends a lot on your batch size, recipe, soap and ambient temps, water content, additives and fragrance. Some of my recipes didn't need a stick blender at all and some will take forever without it."

Speaking of water content, if you're trying to re-teach yourself soaping, you might want to skip the water discounting until you get more comfortable. This is just a suggestion as it can cause soap on a stick if your recipe is already fast-moving and some FOs (as well as EOs) can cause your batter to seize. I love Bramble Berry for the info they give on their Fragrance Oils.

I have a simple stick blender, even the directions state to use it in short bursts. I'd love to have a commercial stick blender. I watched a Youtube video where the fellow was using one (a mighty NICE one) and thought how grand it'd be to have one. However, unless one makes loaf after loaf after loaf or a lot of Castile soap, there's no need for one. I actually have two so, if I needed to, I could switch off between the two to prevent overheating and breakage.

That's my 2 cent's worth.

 

[DeeAnna]

"...You probably know that oils high in saturated fats (lauric, myristic, palmitic, and stearic fatty acids) are going to be slower to trace than those high in unsaturated fats ( oleic, linoleic, & linolenic)...."

Um, think you meant to say "faster to trace"?

"...you might want to skip the water discounting until you get more comfortable..."

I don't understand why this advice is so often given to beginning soapers -- books, tutorials, etc. often include this mantra without any justification or explanation. IMO, choosing a particular lye concentration is a no-big-deal decision that should be based on the recipe to be made.

From what I see here on SMF, people in general, whether beginner or advanced, tend to have fewer problems when using a "discounted" lye concentration around 33%, give or take 1-2% percent, than when using a lye concentration of 28% -- what many people define as "full water." More: https://classicbells.com/soap/waterRatioConc.asp

 

[Mobjack Bay]

As I understand it, stick blenders work so well because they induce “shear force” in the batter. For a large batch of a given recipe made at the same temperature as a small batch, I think the SB effect would be “diluted” for the large batch unless the SB is proportionately larger.

 

[penguin]

I only stop start to save my motor from burning out, but most of my mixes trace within 5 mins anyway

 

[John Harris]

Howdy, John. I'm curious about your soaping many years ago; did you use a lot of slow to trace oils?

I've always kept my soap oils very simple. Olive, coconut, palm, and maybe some canola. Then small amounts of one of the following: shea butter, cocoa butter, sweet almond oil, castor, bees wax and a few others.

 

[Michele50]

".....Um, think you meant to say "faster to trace"?

You are absolutely correct, that's exactly what I 'meant' to write. I feel a bit stupid; I shouldn't have posted so late past my bedtime.....was up, unable to sleep. My mistake has been 'corrected.'

DeeAnna, I appreciate you catching my BIG boo-boo, and, by the way, I enjoy reading your responses to questions and posts. You have a world of knowledge, so do many others in this forum, and so eager to help others in order to broaden our knowledge.

I've always kept my soap oils very simple. Olive, coconut, palm, and maybe some canola. Then small amounts of one of the following: shea butter, cocoa butter, sweet almond oil, castor, bees wax and a few others.

Thanks, John for the response. In the past, I've used more hard oils than soft but I'm working with the reverse now so I can try my hand at the teardrop design and other techniques that require slower-moving trace.
My husband and have enough soap to last two lifetimes.

Use your blender in a soap pot that is deep enough....shallow will give you unwanted air bubbles, as will going wild and crazy with the blender....sigh, I should know......

Yeah, that makes making very small batches hard to do unless one uses just a whisk.