I will make an own post writing what he said. I must just ask him first if that is okey for him. And then I must test my soap that is in the mold right now, to see if I see any "unusual behaviour" that can come from partially hydrogenated vegetable oils in soy wax, as he had experienced. I don't know what to look for, and it might not appear right away, if at all, I don't know. I probably will cut it tomorrow, and impatient as I am, I will test it the same day, or the day after. And write back to him, and write a post here.
Yes, I probably can hand stir. I did start to do that today, but got impatient and gave it a couple of bursts with the blender. But I probably could have just hand stirred, yes. I have already bought a new blender. I found a really cheap plastic one, 200 watts for 9,30 GBP included shipping (I calculated from NOK to GBP). I found one with just 150 watts, but it was more expensive. It was so cheap that it really was not an investment, and I think I need a less powerful blender anyway, it would make things easier in the future, I hope.
I will use more water next time. I imagine the 40% lye solution made it trace quicker, since many experience just that (but some the opposite). It loosened up when I added more water, so I guess a not so strong lye solution will make it easier to work with. But it was not impossible today, compared to what I am used to. I could not make a landscape soap or anything fancy and time consuming like that (I'm too clumsy and messy for it anyway, so not a big deal), but I would like to experience for once a soap that does not suddenly thicken, and thicken and thicken and I have to run to get it in the mold quick enough. I did really not have to run as fast today, but I did it anyway, just in case it would seize. I am used to that sort of rapid thickening, so bad that you can turn the bowl upside down and nothing comes out. But the final soaps have ended up fine. It really never got to that seizing point today, so I can't complain to much. Next time with more water, lower temperature and hand stirring only, and small changes in the recipe, that will probably do the trick. Unless I'm unhappy with the final soap and have to start a new recipe from scratch, again. But I think it will be fairly good as it is. At least I hope so.
My last soap, I actually did hand stir, and just a little bit. Even then, it suddenly and very rapidly thickened. That was seriously the most stressful soap ever. They changed the recipe of the vegetable lard I used in a high percentage, and I think the new recipe was even worse than the old one. I can't use that fat anymore because of the new recipe. The old one was full of shea, but now it is full of coconut and rapeseed oil, and I don't know the sap. value anymore. Anyway I bought that fat and soaped with it, not realizing the new recipe. Holy macaroni! That was stressful, and with only a small amount of hand stirring. But soap it became anyway, fully usable and quite good looking as well. But such rapidly thickening impossible soap batter are not too fun.
I have heard others find soy wax impossible and rapidly thickening. For example Wicked Lee Goods on Youtube, she said she had tried soy wax, and that it was good in theory, but not so good in real life, it thickened up for her. Others find it totally fine. I don't have too much choice other than to use it, if it thickens or not, since any other hard oils are unavailable around here. If soy wax don't work too well, I will have to make it work.
