Bettering the curing process

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momoha

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Hello everyone,

After reading DeeAnna’s explanation of the curing process, my husband, who had studied chemistry a while ago, came up with an idea to better this process. He told me that if we partially fill an airtight container with carbon black, rice, or both, and put the uncured soaps in it, the curing process will be bettered because the above said agents will take the water content out of the soap more efficiently over time by increasing the rate of natural diffusion. This should also result in fastening the development of the crystal structure.

What do you people think of this? Is it a valid reasoning?
 
And probably take the scent out too ;) lol

I don't think it would work, I think it is more of the air flow on it as well
 
My thought is to try half a batch with your husband's idea and half the batch the regular letting it sit out method. That way you will be able to compare how the two methods work. It could be an interesting method some living in high humidity places.

I really do not know if it would affect scent since fragrance oils are oils. So I really doubt if if will affect the scent. If a fragrance oil is a sticker or not depends mostly on the fragrance itself.
 
My opinion may not be a popular one, but I just can't understand why everyone is in such a hurry to get their soaps cured. I mean I understand for those that sell in large quantities the idea of wanting a faster cure, however, IMO if you are selling that amount, a good plan in place should take care of that and you should never worry about not having soap ready.
I view soap as a fine wine, you just cannot rush it if you want a great quality product.

Now that I've stepped off my cure time soap box (pun intended) I'll get onto the actual post.

I agree with @cmzaha - best way to find out if it works or not is to experiment and see if you like the results.
 
Well, it’s not really about fastening a process, but more about understanding the most efficient way of doing something. Why do people use immersion blender? Just because it is more efficient than whisking by hand. So if it exists a more efficient way to do the cure, it would be interesting to find out wouldn’t it?

We are indeed doing the experiment. I noted the weights down of all the soaps, put half outside in the traditional way, and the other way in the box with rice (sadly we couldn’t get carbon black which would have been much more effective). So let’s see what happens... It’s pretty dry here nowadays though, I’ll have to do the experiment again when we hit the monsoon.

I hope DeeAnna will see this post and have a minute to give us her answer though :)
 
But how would you know if the crystalline structure of a properly cured soap was actually in place? I can weigh my soaps all day, but the only thing I would ever know is how much water is lost. I guess one could tell by soap performance - cure one soap in normal conditions for a normal cure time and compare that performance to the quick cure soap... but this is rather subjective testing. (If your mind is made up that the quick cure is better, then that is what you will see.)

I'm pretty content to sit back and let my soaps and time do their thing in a cool room with air flow and a dehumidifier. Trying to wrap my head around what this setup would look like with 300+ bars curing (which is what I currently have).
 
We may already have a test of sorts. Does soap cure faster for the folks who live in the Arizona desert versus those that live on the Gulf Coast? :)
No. Curing is more than just water evaporation. It takes longer for water to evaporate in humid areas, but not cure faster. 2 completely different things
 
jcandleattic hit the nail squarely on the head , for the process described is really water evaporation not "true" curing and is in the same line of the "dehydration" idea that floated around few years ago . the saponification process is still going on in that its crystal structure is being set up . that is the most important part of the soaps life ..... as we see when we use a soap that is a couple weeks old as oppose to one that is months old , the characteristics are quite clear .
 
If you could train your husband in 37 days instead of 37 years, I bet you'd want to try that:beatinghead:

Ha! 42 years in and he's not trained yet!

No. Curing is more than just water evaporation. It takes longer for water to evaporate in humid areas, but not cure faster. 2 completely different things
While I agree with you mostly. There have been people on here that say, if you can figure out a way to have the water evaporation happen quickly, the curing could be hastened because the crystalline structure would develop more quickly. Hm....
 
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We may already have a test of sorts. Does soap cure faster for the folks who live in the Arizona desert versus those that live on the Gulf Coast? :)
No. Nope..and when monsoon season hits--now thru mid September it can be just like the Gulf Coast, or Florida! At least it feels that way to me...no, soap has its own way of doing what it do and curing still takes 4-6 weeks, and more for Castile or brine bars...5.5 weeks seems about right for the regular soaps. My experience.
 
While I agree with you mostly. There have been people on here that say, if you can figure out a way to have the water evaporation happen quickly, the curing could be hastened because the crystalline structure would develop more quickly. Hm....
I don't believe it to be true. Just look to HP soaps. While yes they seem to be "cured" faster than CP soaps, all you have to do is use an HP soap that is a week old (presumably all water should be, for the most part, evaporated at that point) and an HP soap that is 4-6 weeks old. To me, the proof is in how the soaps feel, and I maintain, more is happening during cure than just water/liquid evaporation. And nothing but time will quicken the formation of the crystaline molecular structure.
 
I don't believe it to be true. Just look to HP soaps. While yes they seem to be "cured" faster than CP soaps, all you have to do is use an HP soap that is a week old (presumably all water should be, for the most part, evaporated at that point) and an HP soap that is 4-6 weeks old. To me, the proof is in how the soaps feel, and I maintain, more is happening during cure than just water/liquid evaporation. And nothing but time will quicken the formation of the crystaline molecular structure.
I agree my 2+ year old soaps are fabulous. But actually most people use full water for HP soap so in theory they take longer to dry out. In CP soap I use a steep water discount so they are actually harder initially than my HP soaps.
 
Does soap cure faster for the folks who live in the Arizona desert versus those that live on the Gulf Coast? :)
My experience: I live in Colorado which has an Alpine dessert (dry) climate. One of my wholesale customers was on the Gulf Coast in Mobile. I used their recipe, including cure time, to make same-soap batches at the same time as they did. So, not terribly scientific, but they were ready for sale at the same time.
 
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My experience: I live in Colorado which has an Alpine dessert (dry) climate. One of my wholesale customers was on the Gulf Coast in Mobile. I used their recipe, including cure time, to make same-soap batches at the same time. So, not terribly scientific, but they were ready for sale at the same time.
I live in South Florida, takes a minimum of 4 weeks for me, but I live in constant air conditioning.
 
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