Soap Making 101

[valmom]

What about instead of making a lye heavy soap (which would be awful on your skin and possibly burn) if you go on SoapCalc and pick oils and amounts towards the "cleaning" end of the scale? Some oils are known for producing "moisturizing" or "sudsy" or "cleansing" or some other property. I don't think you want to go lye heavy unless it is purely for cleaning greasy laundry! Enough of a base (lye) *will* burn skin.

I think back in grandma's day soap was made from wood ash lye and any animal fats saved from butchering. Not an exact science since the strength of the lye was very variable. Sometimes it came out rough with lye and sometimes it wouldn't set up at all, unless grandma was very experienced.

 

[Farmfresh]

Another strange question, in case you haven't all figured out that I am very weird my grandmother used to make lye soap. I guarantee she didn't have calculators aor any recipes. She never saw a computer or cell phone. Her brother never even had indoor plumbing until 1975! But my reasoning, that lye soap would clean through anything. In our reenactments the men get very dirty cleaning their black powder rifles. any thoughts on how you would make a recipe with more lye in it?
Kristina

Actually ANY raw soap will strip a cast iron skillet. It is just the chemical reaction. The problem is that the iron it strips ends up IN your soap. :/

The closer you get to a balance between the lye and the oil in the soap, the more cleansing the soap is. Too much lye and the "soap" ends up as a slimy mess that won't clean anything and just leave burns in its wake. Too much oil in the soap and you get slime again, this time it is greasy slime. In order for soap to BE soap you have that balance.

When I make a hard working cleaning soap for my laundry mix I strive for a 2 percent superfat. This leaves enough oil to guarantee that all of my lye is bonded and I still have a great washing soap.

 

[BirdBrain]

Coconut oil is probably your best bet for a very cleansing oil. If your recipe is heavily weighted toward coconut oil you will want to cut it as soon as it is cool and can hold it's shape as it gets hard pretty fast. I tend to discount my water to 25%, so that is a factor in hardening too.

 

[savingdogs]

Another strange question, in case you haven't all figured out that I am very weird my grandmother used to make lye soap. I guarantee she didn't have calculators aor any recipes. She never saw a computer or cell phone. Her brother never even had indoor plumbing until 1975! But my reasoning, that lye soap would clean through anything. In our reenactments the men get very dirty cleaning their black powder rifles. any thoughts on how you would make a recipe with more lye in it?
Kristina

Actually ANY raw soap will strip a cast iron skillet. It is just the chemical reaction. The problem is that the iron it strips ends up IN your soap. :/

The closer you get to a balance between the lye and the oil in the soap, the more cleansing the soap is. Too much lye and the "soap" ends up as a slimy mess that won't clean anything and just leave burns in its wake. Too much oil in the soap and you get slime again, this time it is greasy slime. In order for soap to BE soap you have that balance.

When I make a hard working cleaning soap for my laundry mix I strive for a 2 percent superfat. This leaves enough oil to guarantee that all of my lye is bonded and I still have a great washing soap.

Thank you FF, that is a much better answer than the way I went about it.

 

[Bettacreek]

Just so everyone knows, AAA-Chemicals.com is having a "store-wide" sale until Sep 30th. Coupon code upon check-out is "Fall-2011". It's 15% off.

 

[valmom]

Ooh, good to know- I need more lye I just opened my last bottle!

 

[Farmfresh]

Just so everyone knows, AAA-Chemicals.com is having a "store-wide" sale until Sep 30th. Coupon code upon check-out is "Fall-2011". It's 15% off.

Thanks! You should also post this on the Stock Up thread.

 

[aggieterpkatie]

Well, my dad and I made 2 wooden molds this weekend! It was cheap...he had the wood already and I just had to buy hardware (threaded rods and wingnuts) and it was about $5 per mold. I could have done it slightly cheaper if we'd used thinner rods. I'll post pics soon!

 

[SSDreamin]

Well, my dad and I made 2 wooden molds this weekend! It was cheap...he had the wood already and I just had to buy hardware (threaded rods and wingnuts) and it was about $5 per mold. I could have done it slightly cheaper if we'd used thinner rods. I'll post pics soon!

Can't wait for the pictures! Plan to try to make some myself.

Would you be willing to post some simple (dummy-proof, for me ) instructions with the pictures?

 

[krisac]

I appreciate all the responses. I guess I'm not being really clear. The soldier's "being men" are asking the shop keeper's for "lye" soap. What they are asking for is a heavy duty cleaning soap in a bar that will clean the soot, black powder etc off their hands. silmilar to what a mechanic might use at the end of the day. They don't care about any mositurizing, smells, lotions properties, I can add those, but the main property I want to give them is that is will clean ANYTHING off their hands. I hope to use a natural scrubbing agent as well so ideas on that would be helpful. If superfatting make is more moisturizing, i'm wondering if it would scrub off this grime as well. I need it in bar form or it could go into tins as well. it would have to be able to be carried in a soldiers haversack (like a crossbody leather purse. )
Thanks Kristina