PerthMobility
Well-Known Member
Very many thanks for taking me this far. I will make the above batch today and report back. Thanks also to everybody else who have contributed to my beginners experience, as a sales person might say. Happy lathering.
Study finished, time to make soap
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Soapmaker145
Well-Known Member
My suggestion: cap the coconut at 20 to 25% and shift the extra into the lard or olive oil, drop the canola to 15% and increase the olive oil (unless you have the high oleic canola, then leave as is). Run the recipe through Soap calc and check the linoleic percentage. Try to keep it at no more than 15%. No more than 10% is even better.
If you have access to castor oil, use 5% and reduce the liquid oils by 5%. If you have access to any butters, you can substitute them for 5% of the lard for a harder bar. Use at least a 5% superfat. I'm not sure what quality NaOH you have. I find the cheaper grades do better with a 6 to 7% superfat but you would need to do some testing to figure out what you like.
As far as shortening, I avoid hydrogenated products in all forms. Other people like them so YMMV.
If you have access to castor oil, use 5% and reduce the liquid oils by 5%. If you have access to any butters, you can substitute them for 5% of the lard for a harder bar. Use at least a 5% superfat. I'm not sure what quality NaOH you have. I find the cheaper grades do better with a 6 to 7% superfat but you would need to do some testing to figure out what you like.
As far as shortening, I avoid hydrogenated products in all forms. Other people like them so YMMV.
PerthMobility
Well-Known Member
Thank you for your suggestions. I will apply them all with the second batch so that we can compare. Our NaOH is rated at 98%
RobertBarnett
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Good luck to you and thanks so much for the open mind and Willingness to work with us. Trust me lard makes beautiful soap. It isn't gross smelling or anything.
Robert
Robert
PerthMobility
Well-Known Member
I am certainly willing to work with lard. I love pigs and my father made his fortune producing them for bacon. My favourite meal is a slow roasted shoulder of pork with extra crackling. The only thing that is wasted about a pig is its squeal and I'm working on that to scare the h*** out of shoplifters. 
SUCCESS our first batch of soap has performed just as you all said it would. Removed it from the mould this morning. The only problem was that we made too much soap for the size of the mould so I am going to have to either get a few extra moulds to take the extra or adjust the amounts with my Excel Soap Calculator.
A great big thank you to all who have helped to get us this far. Now I can start seriously looking at all those many, many, exciting recipes in this forum and the many books I have installed in Kindle. And with my trusty Soap Calculator I am no longer fear ounces, grams and mould sizes. Magic ...
SUCCESS our first batch of soap has performed just as you all said it would. Removed it from the mould this morning. The only problem was that we made too much soap for the size of the mould so I am going to have to either get a few extra moulds to take the extra or adjust the amounts with my Excel Soap Calculator.
A great big thank you to all who have helped to get us this far. Now I can start seriously looking at all those many, many, exciting recipes in this forum and the many books I have installed in Kindle. And with my trusty Soap Calculator I am no longer fear ounces, grams and mould sizes. Magic ...
