Why is coconut considered a hard oil?

[shunt2011]

I soap my salt bars at 80-90 degrees so I have plenty of time. I haven't really tinkered with, say, 10% vs 20% coconut in my standard recipe, which I soap warmer (90-100). It would be really interesting to see people test notorious problem fragrances in different recipes - say 100% lard, 100% palm, then maybe a more standard palm/coconut/olive and lard/coconut/olive.

That’s would be a great experiment.

 

[Michele50]

"......Unless I am misunderstanding chemistry, a single oil can't be a combination of sat/unsat. ......"

I might completely stick my foot in my mouth here because a chemist I AM NOT. I love this forum, because if one does get something incorrect (simply ignorant or by error). Here I go....

I'll open with, not everyone uses the same soap calculators out there, some I've seen don't show the fatty acid profile and I like to see this; that's why I primarily use the one I do (SoapCalc). I'm going to take a shot in the dark and say that you don't use this one. Sorry if you do and I'm wrong because then all this is probably moot.

I believe single oils/lipids are made up of both saturated and unsaturated fats. This is why many will show up to have some of both in SoapCalc (or other soap calculators). Looking at Lard below we see that Lard consists of these fatty acids (at least): [saturated] Myristic, Palmitic, and Stearic (no Lauric). It also, however, contains [unsaturated] Oleic and Linoleic fatty acids (no Linoleic). The right side is SoapCalc and the left is from WikipediA.

"....I'm trying to see in soap calc where you get your lard sat/unsat numbers from, but can't find it. When I plug in Lard:
View attachment 41568

When you enter SoapCalc with all fields blank (except those default fill-ins). After choosing 'Lard' (below, with pink boxes and lines) you are right that nothing shows up in the sat:unsat but...........

......that's because the 'calculate recipe' tab needs to be clicked.

So, once this is clicked, the percentages of saturated and unsaturated fatty percents show up.

Here's what calculating Olive Oil shows on the sat & unsat:

It, of course, is mainly made up of unsaturated fatty acids (Oleic and Linoleic) and only a small amount of saturated fatty acids (Palmitic and Stearic).

This is for lard only. When more than one is chosen, the greenish column will display the 'combined' sat:unsat of 'all' oils in the recipe:

Above, since Lard is the highlighted lipid it's percents are listed under the white column ('One') but the green column displays the combined percentages per fatty acid and the total of sat : unsat below the two columns.

Below, I've also included the same recipe (for display only) with OO highlighted:

Naturally the sat : unsat will be the same and so will the numbers in the green column. The white column ('One') now displays the percentages of these for Olive oil rather than Lard.

"......True, they are not "hard" but they are solids and not liquids.

Correct, some aren't hard per se even though they are called 'hard oils.' Not really 'hard' but solid, vs fluid (pourable) in room temps. It's probably what we visualize when we see the word hard (a rock for instance). Coconut Oil, the original question, isn't hard like a rock (or like Illipe butter). I don't often see brittle, usually just hard and soft. The third class might allow for better viewing some 'hard' oils as hard; thus we might view things like fluid (soft), hard (pliable but not pourable), and then brittle (needing a sharp object to remove some).

I hope I haven't further confused things; my intentions are good ....... but I don't have the chemical background that many others do.

Brittle lipids are those that are physically hard and require some muscle to remove needed amounts. I keep all my butter in the fridge so I have to take a sharp knife to my Illipe butter to remove some. I've left it out for a while but it is 'brittle' so, even at that, I need a knife and I chisel some off.