80% Lard Soaps..OK, I Get it Now.

MunbynSMF
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Nope, that's actually a computer keyboard he's holding. It's my hubby's piggy (he works with computers for a living). I like the idea that it looks like a soap cutter, though. :)


IrishLass :)
 
Those are beautiful, IL, all aspects of them. Did you use one of those Wilton liners for the exterior surfaces? Would you mind posting a picture of it if so? So beautifully trimmed/beveled as well.

I remember seeing a thread about bevelers a while ago and being seized w/envy of yours, it is the Lotioncrafter one, right? I tried to find one, but LC does not make them any more, there were no second hand ones to be found, and nothing else like it on the market that I saw ....
 
not_ally said:
Those are beautiful, IL, all aspects of them. Did you use one of those Wilton liners for the exterior surfaces? Would you mind posting a picture of it if so? So beautifully trimmed/beveled as well.
Click to expand...

Thanks not_ally! Yes- I used Wilton's Graceful Vines fondant mat as my mold liner. It comes in a 20" x 20" roll, and I basically just cut it into individual pieces to fit the bottom, top, and each side of my log mold...well, every side except for the 2 short ends of my log mold, that is. For those, I like to use mylar to line so that each of the faces of my soap come out flat/smooth.

Once my soap is all poured into the mold, I lay the top fondant liner right on the top surface of the soap and gently press on it to make the raised impressions penetrate into the surface of the batter.

Here's a pic of the fondant mat I use: http://www.wilton.com/store/site/product.cfm?id=93495AAA-423B-522D-F11F0C5BE27A3F93 I bought mine at Michaels's craft store in the cake baking section. It's real easy to cut-to-fit. Over the years, I have been able to buy enough rolls to have fondant liners for all my collapsible wood molds (I really love these as liners, as you can tell).

When I go to soap, I just 'glue' each of the cut liners into place in my mold with Vaseline, and then when I unmold, I collapse my mold and peel the liners off the soap. They peel right off quite easily and cleanly like buttah. I should probably mention here that I gel all my soaps and also use sodium lactate, which I'm sure helps in how easily and cleanly the peel off. Oh, and for what it's worth, the liners don't need any 'greasing' with mineral oil or anything like that since they are made out of silicone.

not_ally said:
I remember seeing a thread about bevelers a while ago and being seized w/envy of yours, it is the Lotioncrafter one, right? I tried to find one, but LC does not make them any more, there were no second hand ones to be found, and nothing else like it on the market that I saw ....
Click to expand...

Nope- LotionCrafters no longer sells them, but you might be able buy them elsewhere. This is something I recently found out a year or 2 ago, but the LC beveller that I have is not actually a soap beveller, but a Japanese woodworking tool made by Kakuri. It is called a Kakuri 1/8" and 1/4" Radius Plane. There used to be a place in California called Japan Woodworker that sold them, but I can't seem to bring their site up. It looks like they might have closed? In any case, I just tried to do a search and it looks like there's a place in Australia that sells them, only they all it a Kakuri Round Molding Plane (it looks exactly like mine, though): http://www.japanesetools.com.au/collections/planes/products/kakuri-round-molding-plane

Anyway, if you can find one, it's really worth the price. It seems to be built to last for generations, and the blade can be sharpened if need be. As you've noticed, it makes great soap bevels, and it is completely adjustable so you are not stuck with one size/dimension/angle of bevel.


IrishLass :)
 
Molding/Moulding planes are a not completely uncommon tool in the US as well. I would be careful to treat any metal surfaces after use to avoid corrosion, but I'll bet an industrious person could find some really nice ones.

The reason these are so named - look at the molding around doors, base molding around the room, etc. These days they are made with large shapers or routers but they used to be made by hand, each shape a different blade.

Here are some router bit profiles that should give you ideas of shapes to look for:

routertypes.jpg


Most all of them I have seen are vintage - if you don't want a carpenter to cry, search for repro's. :)
 
Irish Lass, I just want to thank you now, for past advice, and what I know will come in the future. You are one the most generous soap makers I know. The combination of that and the fact that I really *trust* that advice is why I am your mini-me/would-be soaping doppelganger, not sure what we came up w/there :)

I *really* like the way the liner and the trimming/bevelling worked here, they were perfect with a single-colored/unswirled soap. They really provided a sense of luxury and evident work-craftmanship, if that makes sense.

I am going to do some research on those Kakuri planes and put the result on my Christmas present request list (it is usually hard to hit the right kind of thing at the right cost level, this is a good one!) I have to admit, it was kind of hard to figure out how they worked from the picture in that link, but I'm sure several hours of experiments (and then 5 ms w/my crafty brother-in-law) will make me really happy :) Thanks again.

ETA: OMG, Lee, we were cross-posting, you have scared the crap out of me! JK, I will just show the pic from IL's link to my BIL and he will tell me if I am capable of using it w/o losing a significant amount of skin/digit :)
 
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DeeAnna said:
Here's a variety of chamfer/edge/radius planes sold in the States, including IL's chamfer plane --
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That's the stuff I was looking for! I knew Lee Valley had to have them. My Google-fu was broken over the weekend.

I buy enough from them these days that sneaking a couple in will be no problemo. :p
 
Lee Valley is one of my favoritest places for woodworking stuff. Great products.
 
Lard and Hydrogenation

I know that grocery store lard is hydrogenated to make it shelf stable but is hydrogenated lard a concern for anyone? As far as it also is often treated with bleaching and deodorizing agents, emulsifiers, and antioxidants, such as BHT...

I've made grocery store lard soap before and truly love animal fats in soaps. I have a grass-fed tallow farmer so I can render my own tallow ... Haven't found a reasonable supplier of lard straight from a farm before it's processed. Hydrogenation produces trans fats, which no one should eat but what about in a soap application on the skin?

Thoughts?
 
There is not a full, detailed recipe posted in this thread, Silverette. All we are talking about here is just the basic proportions of fats, with lard being a large proportion of the total fat. See the first few posts in this thread for inspiration and use Soapcalc or your favorite soap recipe calculator to design your own recipe.

Post 1: 80% lard, 20% CO
Post 5: 5% castor, 15% coconut and 80% lard 5% SF - and sugar for bubbles
Post 14: 15% CO, 5% castor, 10% high oleic safflower, 70% lard
Post 15: 75% Lard, 20% CO, 5% Castor
etc.....

ETA:
"...is hydrogenated lard a concern for anyone?..."
No. I use store bought lard and home rendered lard interchangeably for soap.
 
silverette said:
Can you tell me how to find the above recipe? Thanks
Click to expand...

Which recipe, specifically?

SudsandLather said:
I know that grocery store lard is hydrogenated to make it shelf stable but is hydrogenated lard a concern for anyone? As far as it also is often treated with bleaching and deodorizing agents, emulsifiers, and antioxidants, such as BHT...

I've made grocery store lard soap before and truly love animal fats in soaps. I have a grass-fed tallow farmer so I can render my own tallow ... Haven't found a reasonable supplier of lard straight from a farm before it's processed. Hydrogenation produces trans fats, which no one should eat but what about in a soap application on the skin?

Thoughts?
Click to expand...

I hardly think that any harmful effects can happen from a 3-5 minute exposure on skin...even if there were any possible harmful effects of hydrogenated oils on skin.
 
I've been making hair soap for some time, primarily for my husband so that he cuts down on the over-chemicalled commercial soap. He is fine with the soap for his hair - green tea and soap nuts. However, I have found that I can no longer use it as it makes my hair really greasy. It started off fine and then I coloured my hair with a different make of colourant (I'm obviously happy to use chemicals to cover the grey!) and it stopped working. I've done some research on this and found out that using a soap for hair can make hair greasy, it depends on the history of the hair and individual makeup. It appears that with continued use this should change and the hair no longer gets greasy once all the previous additives have gone. There was nothing about this effect on any of the sites I visited which sold cp shampoo bars.
 
I have a crazy question. Lard, is this the same as tallow? I have been wanting to try this for some time. Everyone says it's wonderful. I have found tallow for sale, but not lard per se.
 
I find this definition which makes me happy in a vocabulary nerd way:

Fat from goats, sheep, llamas, alpacas, deer, moose, elk, caribou and other ungulates is hard and when rendered is called tallow.
Fat from pigs, bear, and rabbit is soft fat, and when rendered is called lard.
Fat from poultry such as duck, geese, and chickens is called “schmaltz” and is soft, almost liquid, at room temperature.

I cannot wait until DH makes BBQ chicken so I can annoy him with talking about his schmaltz sputtering on the grill.
 
My understanding is tallow comes from herbivore ungulates (hooved animals that eat only plants) and lard is from omnivorous ungulates (hooved animals that eat plant and animal foods -- pigs). I haven't seen rendered rabbit and bear fat also called lard, but maybe that's a more common usage in culinary circles?
 

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