Beveling question

[Carly B]

When you are making rectangular or square soaps cut from a loaf, if you bevel, do you bevel all 12 edges, and if not, which ones?

I know it's a tacky looking picture, but if nothing else, it should make it easier to explain.

 

[dibbles]

I bevel all the edges.

 

[AliOop]

I do all of them. I seem to recall that Arienne Arsenault talked in one of her videos about only beveling the long edges, since those are the ones held in the hand, and it saved her time and wasted less soap. But when I tried it, the soap looked half-finished to me.

 

[Carly B]

Thank you, ladies. If you have a textured top, I assume you leave the four edges of the top plane alone?

 

[AliOop]

Thank you, ladies. If you have a textured top, I assume you leave the four edges of the top plane alone?

Correct. I rarely do textured tops because I'm not good at them but I do have some cavity molds with a design the bottom (which becomes the top of the soap) that are very popular. I leave the top edges alone on those in order not to ruin the design.

 

[amd]

I bevel all sides except the bottom side edges, if that makes sense. I use freezer paper to line my molds and never get those corners sharp enough to be square, they have a slight round to them anyways. I do the top (even when textured) before I cut it into bars - then it's two long motions to bevel rather than 36 (18 bars x 2) small motions after cutting. Then I only have to do the bevels on the face of the soap after cutting.
Here's my equally tacky drawing of a loaf with one bar cut:

The orange lines are what I don't bevel.
The blue line is the bevel done before cutting into bars.
The green lines are the bevels after cut into bars.

 

[dibbles]

If I texture the top - which is rare because I don't do it well - I don't bevel the long sides of the top. I do still take off the bit on the short edges that seems to creep up the sides of the mold wall if I can. If it looks decent as is, I just leave it.

 

[AliOop]

I do the top (even when textured) before I cut it into bars - then it's two long motions to bevel rather than 36 (18 bars x 2) small motions after cutting.

I forgot to mention that I do the same and bevel the long top edges/sides of loaves when I make them. It does save so much time!

 

[IrishLass]

I bevel all sides.


IrishLass

 

[The_Phoenix]

I bevel all edges except the top if it’s textured, which it usually is. It’s less effort for me to just do every edge than to remember which edges NOT to do.

 

[violets2217]

I know it's a tacky looking picture, but if nothing else, it should make it easier to explain.

hmmm.... I bevel the front and back edges...which would be the red and blue lines in your diagrams. My bottom edges are usually pretty neat and rounded, due to my homemade wooden molds that I sealed the corners with silicone caulking and line with freezer paper as mentioned by @amd above. I only clean up the top if my batter decided to climb up the edge of the mold while pouring or I didn't clean up the top edges enough after pouring & manage that out of the mold before cutting.