Rebatch help please

[Kansas Farm Girl]

I needed to rebatch some soap last week and I hate doing that. Mine rebatch always comes out globby looking to me. Is this normal? I am attaching a pix of the loaf and the cut bars.

 

[Obsidian]

My rebatches always look lumpy too. I did a batch today and added quite a bit more water to help smooth it out. Hopefully it wasn't so much it will make the batch soft but I'd rather have to wait a couple days to unmold then have excessive lumps.

 

[Kansas Farm Girl]

The first time I rebatched I used WAY too much water. I left it in the cream carton for a month before I took it out, cut it and let it continue to dry out. The bars looked more like the rawhide chew pcs you give dogs. Since then I have tried to avoid rebatching but this batch didn't give me a choice, I had divided out into 3 pots to color and it seemed like the color that I left in the original pot had most of the lye and the other 2 colors didn't have enough. The first one zapped and crumbled, the others didn't zap and stayed very soft. I must not have gotten it to trace when I divided it. So chunked it up and into the crockpot with 1 oz olive oil and about 1 tbls water. Adding the oil brought the SF to 10% when I recalced it.

 

[Obsidian]

Did the bars from your first rebatch shrink and warp as they dried. I was tempted to use more water but was worried about warping. I don't care much for rebatching either but this one of mine had some issues I needed to work on, it really wasn't usable the way it was.
Your pinky soap looks good even if the sides and tops are kinda lumpy. I'm generally happy as long as my mess ends up being useable.

 

[Kansas Farm Girl]

Yes, my rebatched with all the water shrank and curled. They started around 1" thick and ended up about 1/4". WAY too much water. The soap was very hard and lasted forever though. I have only tried some of the little pcs of this one and it does seem to be very usable. My BF won't care how it looks if she likes the scent. DH has already given his negative opinion of that. If it's not mint he doesn't like it.

 

[judymoody]

I call my rebatches "utility soap." Not pretty but it will get you clean and is often very nice soap.

 

[Obsidian]

I agree. I rebatched a bunch of scraps and it is the ugliest stuff ever but is a wonderful bar.

 

[Kansas Farm Girl]

I had some of that too, called it Ugly Soap, but it was some of the best. It stayed soft and almost tacky for it's whole life, but it was mild and had nice lather. So if this is what typical rebatch looks like I'll live with it. BF liked it so sent some home with her.

 

[lsg]

You might try addding some Instant powdered milk to the cooked batch right before pouring into the mold. Make sure it is the instant milk and not coarse grains or it won't dissolve into the soap. I find this helps to smooth out the soap so that it pours more fluidly.

http://www.pvsoap.com/instructions_for_rebatch.htm

 

[Kansas Farm Girl]

What's the difference between instant milk and the powdered coarse grains? All I have ever seen for what I have always called instant milk is the powdered coarse grains. Is there another kind?

 

[DeeAnna]

The finely powdered "instant" milk looks like fine white cornmeal; I use Carnation brand. The regular dry milk is more like sandbox sand. If you use the regular type, there isn't enough moisture to let the bigger particles completely dissolve and blend into your soap -- it makes lumpy milk bits in the rebatch. I did learn (the hard way, of course!) to gradually mix in the instant stuff, or it will also make lumps too.

 

[Kansas Farm Girl]

Thank you. I rarely buy powdered milk (long suppressed horrid memories from childhood and the note on the box about getting a better flavor by adding it to milk - when why bother to drink it?) so I am not very familiar with what is out there. Since what I have is the larger course stuff, can it be ran through a blender or processor and turned into a powder?