Why Do a Water Discount?

[melstan775]

What's the purpose of water discounting? If you increase your superfat from 5 to say, 7, how does that affect the water discount ? Do you need more or less superfat in relation to water discounting or what? Input always <3'd.

 

[CaliChan]

Only reason I.ever discounted was.to try and shorten cure time
Although I didn't notice much of a difference. Just a more condenced bar

 

[AlchemyandAshes]

You can use a water discount to speed trace time and produce a harder bar quicker. A water discount produces a stronger lye solution, because of course, the ratio of lye to water is higher the less water you use. Some soapers prefer to work with the terms of "lye solution concentration" instead of "water discounting".
And yes, using a water discount means less water to evaporate during cure, resulting in soaps that are truer to the size and weight you cut them.
You don't usually want to use a water discount if your using any accelerants or doing intricate swirls because you will achieve trace much quicker and it can get to thick trace before you know it.
Water discounting doesn't affect superfatting.

 

[jcandleattic]

Only reason I.ever discounted was.to try and shorten cure time
Although I didn't notice much of a difference. Just a more condenced bar

It actually doesn't shorten cure time. All it really does is decrease the amount of water to evaporate over time.
There is really so much more that goes into curing than just water evaporation.

 

[CaliChan]

It actually doesn't shorten cure time. All it really does is decrease the amount of water to evaporate over time.
There is really so much more that goes into curing than just water evaporation.

Yeah I know that now. I just really didn't want to have to wait 4 months for my castile bars to cure I was a little desparate. But I know now there's no short cuts when it comes to soap making

 

[whitetulips]

You mean 4 weeks, right?

 

[whitetulips]

BTW, I made HP Castile soap in my crock pot so I could add distilled water to it to make my own cleaning products. HP soap is already cooked, so you can use it in a day or two.

 

[Shannon_m]

You mean 4 weeks, right?

Castile (aka 100% olive oil) takes months to cure. I've seen some instances where people cure it for 6-9 months. Generally it's because olive oil is a liquid/soft oil and it takes that long for it to get hard enough.

 

[melstan775]

You can use a water discount to speed trace time and produce a harder bar quicker. A water discount produces a stronger lye solution, because of course, the ratio of lye to water is higher the less water you use. Some soapers prefer to work with the terms of "lye solution concentration" instead of "water discounting".
And yes, using a water discount means less water to evaporate during cure, resulting in soaps that are truer to the size and weight you cut them.
You don't usually want to use a water discount if your using any accelerants or doing intricate swirls because you will achieve trace much quicker and it can get to thick trace before you know it.
Water discounting doesn't affect superfatting.

Thank you for that awesome explanation, Shawnee. You know everything.

 

[CaliChan]

BTW, I made HP Castile soap in my crock pot so I could add distilled water to it to make my own cleaning products. HP soap is already cooked, so you can use it in a day or two.

You can technically use CP soap in 2 days as well because most of the chemical reaction that makes soap happens in the first 24-48 hours. But it won't have the same lather among other things as it would when its finished curing. Olive oil takes several months of curing to get the best out of it. I can use mine now ( its been 2 months) but its nothing like it should be

 

[melstan775]

You can technically use CP soap in 2 days as well because most of the chemical reaction that makes soap happens in the first 24-48 hours. But it won't have the same lather among other things as it would when its finished curing. Olive oil takes several months of curing to get the best out of it. I can use mine now ( its been 2 months) but its nothing like it should be

I noticed my castille is getting drier. This makes me happy because I was sure none of my soaps would cure right. I like being wrong.

 

[AlchemyandAshes]

Thank you for that awesome explanation, Shawnee. You know everything.

You crack me up!
Can you please tell my kids that I know everything? They have the nerve to doubt me...

 

[jcandleattic]

BTW, I made HP Castile soap in my crock pot so I could add distilled water to it to make my own cleaning products. HP soap is already cooked, so you can use it in a day or two.

You can but I wouldn't. It is still very harsh after only a 2 day cure time. HP or not. As I said earlier, there is so much more that is going on during the cure than just water evaporation. Even though the lye is no longer active, there is still a chemical reaction going on inside of that soap.
The difference between a 2-3 day old HP bar vs a 4-6 week old bar is a phenomenal difference. My skin just cannot handle young soap. If I want my skin to feel like that, I'll just buy commercial. :shifty: