Another round of "Why is my soap crumbly?"

[Vintageliving]

If you don't mind another one:

This one was for laundry soap, so 0% superfatting. I used this soap calculator: http://www.thesage.com/calcs/lyecalc2.php

Anchor lard, 508 grams
Root-o 100% lye, 70.48 grams
Distilled water, 141 grams

The only odd thing that went into this soap was that when I went outside to check the temperature of the lye water, the weather had drizzed a bit into it.
Not enough to raise the level of the water in the measuring cup.

I stirred the soap in the same enamel pot I warmed the lye in. It traced in one and a half hours. I decide to see what a thicker trace looked like, and stirred/waited until it looked like thick, pouring custard.

The soap took two days to be hard enough to take out of the mold.

It crumbled some as I took it out of the mold.

Mold is Tupperware, greased with petroleum jelly. I have made two other batches of soap in that mold, which have come out just fine.

Soap seems dry and doesn't stick together well.

Any suggestions, thoughts?

Thanks very much!

 

[jennikate]

I am by no means an expert but the fact you went for 0 sf due to laundry bar. That means its fairly lye heavy and I would think thats why Crumbly. Again not an expert just my 2 cents.

 

[Vintageliving]

JK, thanks for your post. I was wondering about that, and the lesser amount of water.

 

[PrincessMommy]

I know this conversation is a few weeks old, but I had a similar experience last year.

I made laundry soap using just beef tallow & coconut oils. Here's my recipe:

Tallow: 396.9 gr (20%)
Coconut: 99.2 gr (80%)

lye: 71. gr
water 118.52 gr.

It looks fairly similar to yours but I had less lye and water. Mine was still quite crumbly and I considered it unusable. It didn't smell very nice either.

I've since given up on making my own laundry soap, but if you come up with a usable recipe I'd love to know if its worth the try.

 

[Vintageliving]

PrincessMommy,

I melted some of mine using the Pectin Method and turned it into dish soap.

I plan to use the rest of my no-SF lard soap for laundry soap or dishsoap, too.

I have a hunch that it got crumbly because I used so little water and that it has no SF. Doesn't matter because it was for household use. I do want to know what effects various choices make in soapmaking. It was only crumbly at the time of unmolding. It's hardened up now.

I've made a small test batch of Mike's no-shred, laundry soap and will be washing laundry with it for the first time in a few days. Here's his recipe:

I keep this soap on hand all the time. It takes a few days to set up but it's really easy to make and works well in soft water. People with hard water will want to have it softened with borax or washing soda before adding soap.

1 gallon heavy plastic or glass container with wide mouth
1/2 gallon cold water
2.25 ounces lye
1 lb lard, melted
1/2 cup washing soda
1/2 cup borax (up this to 1 cup if you can't find the washing soda)
Fragrance oil or essential oil of your choice (optional)
Hot water to fill the container

Add cold water to container. Add lye; stir well (this barely gets warm because lye is so diluted) Add lard, washing soda, borax, fragrance oil. Add hot water to finish filling the container and stir well with a wire whisk.

Whisk 3 times a day or so until set up. Initially, it will start with a glob of soap on top but will set up more each time you whisk it. After three days or so, you will be left with a nice, powdery liquid that you can use in your laundry.

Add 1/2 - 1 cup for a top loading machine. Dissolve in hot water before adding to a very cold wash. Otherwise, just add it while the machine is filling. Use less in a front loader; this one WILL suds if you add too much.

Here's the link to the thread: http://soapmakingforum.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=5223

I've been using Dr. Bronner's liquid "castille", which isn't pure olive, no-fragrance, baby soap with borax to wash my clothes.

I've just made a batch of Mike's stain-stick soap and will use it to pre-treat spots.

 

[honor435]

vintage, did you hand stir? my arm would fall off after and hr!all trace is, is the oils and lye/water mixed. Id get a used sb, save ya lots of time. Ive never made laundry soap, let us know what happens.

 

[Vintageliving]

Honor, a stick blender is on the list. Though, I don't mind hand stirring. I think about my grandmothers and their mothers when I'm stirring. I do lots of things the old-fashioned way.

Am waiting to unmold the stain sticks, and the no-shred laundry soap has finally turned to a lovely, white, liquid soap. As soon as the cold snap is over, I'll do laundry and report.