Recent content by Jack

What's your rush? Given enough time, it will self neutralize. The CO2 in the air will eventually reduce the total alkali to a reasonable level. It may take a month or a year but certainly don't throw it away. js

A Painless Zap Tester In the process of getting a handle on the soap making process, I not only re-invented the alkaline battery but also came up with a very simple alternative to the zap test. The zap test is simple enough but has it's own set of issues, i.e sanitation, yuck factor and...

If you plugged the phone into the soap you would be getting close to my painless zap tester. Jack

Here is an update on my Zap Test posting. First of all, after poking my tongue at a number of different locations on my pH 12 bar, I did indeed learn what the zap is all about and cutting it in half and tasting the center was most unpleasant. What this seems to say is that using the tongue to...

I am a real coward when it comes to pain and prior to today, I had only done the zap test on a bar I made 20 years ago and a commercial bar. Today I got real bold and tongued a few bars recently made and tasted nothing, like not even flavor let alone pain. I have one problem bar made about...

That's why I treasure my old oven. It will hold 100F for ever and is great for proofing bread and making yogurt. But the good news is that small toaster ovens have no problem holding 140 but of course are batch size limited. >A full hot process method is where you "cook" the soap until...

I am having problems with just what is meant by hot processing as the various methods seem to gray into one another. Dunn mixes his soap and cooks it at 140F in an oven for 4 hours. The crock pot method uses much higher temps and regular stirring for indefinite time periods. We also...

Having been removed from another group for discussing "off topic" subjects like making lye and hot process, I hope I am among more tolerant folks here. I am interested in hot process soap making for a number of reasons but am having a great deal of trouble finding any useful information on...

Unfortunately, I no longer have any recollection of what Life Buoy smelled like; just the memory that I liked it. I do know what pine tar smells like and it brings up no fond memories. I gathered some pieces of pine rosin that oozes out of wookpecker holes on some pine trees this spring...

I would love to make a soap that smells like good old Life Buoy. According to the Wiki article, the key ingredient is/was carbolic acid or phenol but it seems to be absurdly expensive these days and I am wondering if anyone knows any other fragrance that smells like Life Buoy. Cole Parmer...

As mentioned in another thread, my mission is used corn oil from the fryer. It's the most common oil used in deep fryers so I would like to know more about how it performs. Not only is it cheap but for anyone with a fryer, it's free. Jack

Thanks for the ideas. Had to Google EDTA as I have never heard of it and hope I never have to pronounce what that stands for. Looks like the only source is pills from a health store. I also just made a bar of salt soap which is still in the oven. My interest in soap making is based on...

I just started using my home made soap and find it works great in the bathroom but not so cool in the shop. In the latter it works but with nearly zero lather and the runoff looks like thin milk. It dawned on me that the shop is not on the water softener and conclude that this is the...