Adding oils at Trace?

[AlicesWonderhands]

What do you think about this?
What is the use for this?
How do I calculate this?

 

[IrishLass]

We have a couple of really good, fairly recent threads that discuss this topic. I'll go see if I can round one of them up for you.....

In the meantime, though, the short answer is that if you are making CP, adding oils at trace is a complete waste of time. In HP, though, it's a different story.


IrishLass

 

[IrishLass]

Ah, found it! Here you go, Alice: http://www.soapmakingforum.com/showthread.php?t=42614


IrishLass

 

[AlicesWonderhands]

thank you for the digging. I found it pretty confusing though. I work in oz. and im not sure how her calculations would work with other recipes other than the one she noted....

 

[Seawolfe]

Superfat percentage options are on every soap calculator, so I'm not sure what the question is?

 

[The Efficacious Gentleman]

We know that trace is just the beginning of saponification and that saponification last around 24 hours or so depending on recipe and conditions (heating or cooling).

So if trace takes 30 minutes and saponification takes 24 hours, anything added in at trace is out of the process for such a small amount of time (1/48th of the time!) that it is just a pain to add stuff later when you don't have to do so. It in no way saves the oils.

Dr Kevin Dunn did some actual experiments on it, which might also help

 

[The Efficacious Gentleman]

I found it -

http://cavemanchemistry.com/LyeDiscount-Dunn.pdf

I'll leave that as it is, as Dr Dunn puts it much better than I can.

 

[AlicesWonderhands]

We know that trace is just the beginning of saponification and that saponification last around 24 hours or so depending on recipe and conditions (heating or cooling).

So if trace takes 30 minutes and saponification takes 24 hours, anything added in at trace is out of the process for such a small amount of time (1/48th of the time!) that it is just a pain to add stuff later when you don't have to do so. It in no way saves the oils.

Dr Kevin Dunn did some actual experiments on it, which might also help

YES! THIS is what I was wondering!!! Put it all in oil wise, and give yourself a superfat % in the soap calc. has been working well so far. IT was just someting I came across in research and it had me baffled. Was I missing out on something? Was this a step I had never heard about before? lol

with this baby/momma soap I am working on, I will be adding oatmeal and honey, after the cook only because I dont want to COOK the oatmeal or honey to a point of burning.