HEY SOAP PEOPLE!

[1shotwade]

Growing up I had to help make soap when we butchered hogs.I remember it well but have not been involved with it since.

I have read that deer tallow makes a much harder soap so I saved some this year. I have also heard that using wood ash lye will make a soft soap but no a hard one.In order to get a hard soap you must add salt.I have no idea what is fact and what is fiction.

Last weekend I made some lye from wood ash and some lard from the tallow.A video I had seen on youtube showed a mixture of 3/8 cup of lye water strong enough to float an egg with a "quarter" size of the egg above the water line.This was added to 1 cup of lard(He used pork fat for his lard)This guy had a hard time getting a trace!

Since I had a limited amount of lye water made, I upped the recipe to 1/2 c lye water to 1 c lard.(I had extra lard  to delute the mixture if needed) It traced in maybe 20 minutes and before I could grab something to scent it with it was already too stiff to pour!So I have ugly soap for not getting it poured in time but it seems t be hardening up fairly well.

I do have a couple questions. First, I noticed, just before it began to trace, it appeared to be separating! Can anyone tell me why this would happen?Or if it may affect the final product?

Secondly, can anyone tell me how to know when a soap recipe will make a hard or a soft soap?With this not being totally cured, it seems soft to the touch. I have also done the taste test and it has very little bite to it!Should I have maybe added more lye? Or maybe added the salt(1 tsp per cup lard)?

Any help would be great!Thanks,
Wade

[feather]

In order to get a hard soap you must add salt.I have no idea what is fact and what is fiction.

Whether you make a hard or soft soap depends on the chemical composition of the lye. Salt will only help a hard soap become harder.

Potassium hydroxide soaps are softer and more easily dissolved in water than sodium hydroxide soaps. Sodium hydroxide and potassium hydroxide are not interchangeable in either the proportions required or the properties produced in making soaps.

An exact number of molecules of lye to an exact number of molecules of fat/oil, make a well balanced soap. If you added too much lye, your soap will burn your hands and face. If you added too much fat/oil, your soap, will be fatty/oily but will not harm you nor clean you. You'll know more after you let it sit for at least a few weeks or a month.

[1shotwade]

Thanks Feather! I'm just not good at waiting!LOL!
Wade

[feather]

Feb 23, 2018 19:24:03 GMT 1shotwade said:

Thanks Feather! I'm just not good at waiting!LOL!
Wade

While a noble cause to try to make soap 'from scratch' instead of from a recipe with pure ingredients, I've never tried it. I like to know the recipe and why it works.
Have patience and I'll look back on your endeavor in a few weeks to find out how it worked out for you.

I've only used cold process, which is what you seemed to have tried. My mom told me stories of her grandmother, boiling a cauldron of soap over a fire outside. That would be hot process. It is an art for sure.

[Maura]

Soap will mix and set quicker the larger the batch is. It also makes a difference if you stirred by hand or used a stick blender. I think with tallow you need to use a hotter temp of lye than you would with vegetable oils.

Hard oils make hard soap, generally. This is why people add coconut oil to their olive oil soap. The coconut oil is solid at room temp, that is your hint. Since your tallow is solid at room temp, your soap should end up harder than an olive oil soap.

Get back to us in a month and tell us how it turned out.

[1shotwade]

Maura, please explain what you mean by using "a hotter temp of lye". Do you mean that the actual temp of the lye should be higher as in heat it up? Or do you mean it should be mixed stronger as in more lye in the water(floating an egg with more than a "quarter" size above the water?
Thanks,
Wade

[Maura]

When you add lye to the water the mixture will get hotter and hotter. It will reach a certain temp, then start to cool down. With olive oil soap a temp of about 110 is just right, but 105 will also work. At 100 degrees you are really pushing it. When you mix it with the fats, the temperature of the fats should be within 5 degrees of the lye temp. The mixture of fats and lye will then heat up. From my own adventures in soap making, lard is more difficult and takes longer than vegetable oils. Next time, I will be careful to use a warmer temp than I usually do, say 115 to start. The mixture has a tendency to cool down before it has a chance to trace. I think this is why Grandma made soap over a fire- she didn't have a stick blender to speed up the process.

[1shotwade]

OK, that explains a lot then! Here's what I do. I made lye water from wood ash so never "mixed" lye and water. When It had boiled down to the right consistency(egg floating with the size of a quarter above the water line), I quit reducing it.At that point, I melted my tallow lard and stirred in the lye water.As soon as I had it stirred in, I removed it from the heat and hand stirred the mixture to trace.

No numbers, no fancy recipes, just doing it the old way! The whole Idea here was for me to get some practice in so I remembered how to do this in the case it was ever needed.It's fine if you do but I have no interest in selling soaps or making money and the like.It's just a matter of self-sufficiency for me.

Thanks for the additional info. I had never considered the temperature relationship between the lard and the lye!
Wade