freemotion
Food Guru
~gd, making lye soap for home use....I'm not talking huge quantities for income purposes, just for the family and a few friends, maybe.....is not that complicated. It just looks that way on paper. Working with lye is not diffcult or scary for anyone who uses bleach. The precautions are the same, although lye is more caustic, you will rinse it off just as quickly as you would rinse bleach off. You would work with it in a kitchen that is free of children and rambunctious pets and any major distractions. Eye protection is something most of us already have with our saws and grinding wheels, and rubber gloves are cheaply purchased at the grocery or discount store.
I had to order the lye through my local Ace hardware store. I bought a case of Rooto drain opener and talked the guy down to a good price. It is wrapped in plastic garbage bags and stored in my garage with empty canning jars and such.
I render suet and scrap fat in the winter (wood stove is going full time anyways) and freeze it in bricks for soapmaking and for making suet/birdseed cakes for my winter birdfeeding. I can buy the suet for $0.89/lb and can often get trim fat for free. I also save any chicken fat that is from commercial meat birds that is too white and flavorless for my cooking, and I add that in small amounts to a batch. So it is inexpensive. I make it unscented and natural in color. Everyone loves it. Oh, and goat's milk is the liquid, now that I have it in abundance.
I got my equipment for very little outlay of money.....the cheapest stainless steel pot and a couple of Rubbermaid pitchers and a silicone spoon, along with an inexpensive scale for measuring the ingredients. It is all stored in a plastic tote in my basement when not in use.
Making soap is sinfully simple and easy. If you can measure and stir and follow a recipe, you can make soap.
As for grating, I have a couple of food processors and I slice the bars into about a 1/8" slices (that crumble) and run them through the food processor. If you are making a dry powder, adding the washing soda or the borax to the processor at the same time helps make a smaller particle since it keeps it dryer. The dryer and harder the bar, the finer the grind using this method.
I had to order the lye through my local Ace hardware store. I bought a case of Rooto drain opener and talked the guy down to a good price. It is wrapped in plastic garbage bags and stored in my garage with empty canning jars and such.
I render suet and scrap fat in the winter (wood stove is going full time anyways) and freeze it in bricks for soapmaking and for making suet/birdseed cakes for my winter birdfeeding. I can buy the suet for $0.89/lb and can often get trim fat for free. I also save any chicken fat that is from commercial meat birds that is too white and flavorless for my cooking, and I add that in small amounts to a batch. So it is inexpensive. I make it unscented and natural in color. Everyone loves it. Oh, and goat's milk is the liquid, now that I have it in abundance.
I got my equipment for very little outlay of money.....the cheapest stainless steel pot and a couple of Rubbermaid pitchers and a silicone spoon, along with an inexpensive scale for measuring the ingredients. It is all stored in a plastic tote in my basement when not in use.
Making soap is sinfully simple and easy. If you can measure and stir and follow a recipe, you can make soap.
As for grating, I have a couple of food processors and I slice the bars into about a 1/8" slices (that crumble) and run them through the food processor. If you are making a dry powder, adding the washing soda or the borax to the processor at the same time helps make a smaller particle since it keeps it dryer. The dryer and harder the bar, the finer the grind using this method.
I do appreciate having different points of view before I go into anything. I have done some research and reading and I would really like to get into soap making. I started with making candles when I was a little kid (you know the cheap wal-mart kits?) and that progress to making my own wicks with canvas and using old candles to make new ones. Then I started loom knitting. Then I started cooking from scratch when I moved out. Now I've got chickens and I'm still trying to get this garden thing down. Ya'll are right when you say it is an addiction and one thing leads to another! It is such a wonderful feeling to make something. To have something tangible to show for your work. I think that's way my secrtary job isn't working out as well as I expected. I don't have anything to show for my work other than an empty desk. Next year after I graduate with my AA and AAS, I'm going into welding and carpentry. 
