Borax Hand Soap for Blacksmith or other dirty work

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yes indeed! American orange essential oil is mostly d-limonene (>93%), with myrcene and pinene in low percentages. The minor constituents vary a bit in orange eo from other places but all of the examples listed are at least 84% d-limonene.
Yup, you can definitely use orange EO instead of d-limonene, but you have to use about 15% more to get the same amount of limonene for equal cleaning power. But it is certainly worth a cost comparison, as well as a scent comparison, i.e., one person may prefer the scent of one over the other.

I first learned about using d-limonene in hand soap from the Swift Crafty Monkey blog, which is a very respectable source for safe use of ingredients. If you are a subscriber, you can read her liquid scrubby hand soap formula here; it includes d-limonene at ~.7% - edited to add actual percentage from my notes of this recipe. Many of the "orange cleaners" used to wash greasy hands in mechanic shops use a combination of orange scent and d-limonene, but obviously I don't know the percentages they use.

Both orange EO and d-limonene can cause skin sensitivity, including phototoxicity. However, the amount of either that is used in hard bar soap is so low, and it is washed off so quickly, that chances of irritation are much lower than using either in say, a lotion or bath bombs, or even liquid soap.

If it were otherwise, we would not see all those mechanics using this kind of product daily on their hands. ;). Our mechanic swears by my version of Earlene's blacksmith soap, which is my regular bar soap recipe with borax, pumice, and d-limonene. He says it is much gentler than the orange cleaner stuff that he used to buy, and his skin doesn't get irritated at all - just nice and clean.
 
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Agreed. I once tested Orange Essential Oil X10 against d-Limonene used on a cottlon ball to remove tacky residue from labels I peeled off the glass bottles I use for storing EOs and FOs

Result: Both performed about the same but the Orange EO residue washed off easily with soap and water and rinsed clean; I was disappointed the d-Limonene didn't. I thought it would do better.

Keep in mind, d-Limonene is a solvent, not an EO. Its best use is in DIY cleaning products. Read the label. ;)
Yes, that's why I was considering it. A mechanic bar is a cleaning product, right? That's why I thought a solvent would be worthwhile in this application. The fragrance would've been a bonus.
 
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Yup, you can definitely use orange EO instead of d-limonene, but you have to use about 15% more to get the same amount of limonene for equal cleaning power. But it is certainly worth a cost comparison, as well as a scent comparison, i.e., one person may prefer the scent of one over the other.

I first learned about using d-limonene in hand soap from the Swift Crafty Monkey blog, which is a very respectable source for safe use of ingredients. If you are a subscriber, you can read her liquid scrubby hand soap formula here; it includes d-limonene at ~.6% if I remember correctly. Many of the "orange cleaners" used to wash greasy hands in mechanic shops use a combination of orange scent and d-limonene, but obviously I don't know their percentage.

Both orange EO and d-limonene can cause skin sensitivity, including phototoxicity. However, the amount of either that is used in the hard bar soap is so low, and it is washed off so quickly, that chances of irritation are much lower than using either in say, a lotion or bath bombs.

If it were otherwise, we would not see all those mechanics using this kind of product daily on their hands. ;). Our mechanic swears by my version of Earlene's blacksmith soap, which is my regular bar soap recipe with borax, pumice, and d-limonene. He says it is much gentler than the orange cleaner stuff that he used to buy, and his skin doesn't get irritated at all - just nice and clean.
Thank you. I just bought both. I always end up buying more after conversations like this with you. 🤣
 
Yes, that's why I was considering it. A mechanic bar is a cleaning product, right? That's why I thought a solvent would be worthwhile in this application. The fragrance would've been a bonus.
Good thinking! You have @AliOop to thank for giving you the use rate for this recipe.
0.7% - edited to add actual percentage from my notes of this recipe
Before adding both EO and d-Limonene I would test each separately ahead to time to see which fragrance I like better, which lasts longer, and which does a better job.
For all those 3 criteria I'll bet my
2¢ Worth.gif
on the d-limonene. Maybe. LOL :smallshrug:
 
@AliOop @Zing
Out of curiosity, does the type of pumice matter? I bought a couple pumice stones at Walmart a while back (when I was seeing just how many soapy ingredients I could find locally) and powdered them superfine in my coffee grinder (only used for soapy ingredients). Is this the same thing or do I need to buy a different kind?
 
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You are so creative; I never considered grinding down a pumice stone! Did it dull or nick the grinder blades at all?

I typically use fine or super-fine pumice, so as long as your grind is super-fine, it should work. Let us know, please!
 
You are so creative; I never considered grinding down a pumice stone! Did it dull or nick the grinder blades at all?

I typically use fine or super-fine pumice, so as long as your grind is super-fine, it should work. Let us know, please!
From what I've read (and after watching Elly's everyday soapmaking video that showed her smash up chunks of pumice with a mortar and pestle), pumice is super hard but also super porous and thus relatively easy to crush. I was terrified to try it, but I ultimately decided to put the store bought pumice stone in my ninja blender and pulse once or twice to see what happened. It was LOUD, but my ninja busted it to kingdom come. Very cool to watch. Then I poured the coarse ground pumice into my DIY coffee grinder to get a super fine consistency. None of the blades look damaged at all, but then I used a $5 thrift store coffee grinder just in case. I'll let you know how it works out.
I'm still second and third guessing whether to actually use lard and crisco in a soap. I do think I'll use a 40% lye concentration instead of 45, though.
 
I do think I'll use a 40% lye concentration instead of 45, though.
I think that is a wise idea. Any time I go above 40%, the trace is super fast, and there just isn't enough liquid to have a workable batter. That would be especially true when you add in things like pumice.

I am not a huge fan of Crisco in soap, but lard makes wonderful soap. Give it a try!
 
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Keep in mind, d-Limonene is a solvent, not an EO. Its best use is in DIY cleaning products.

This statement is confusing the matter. As I mentioned above, it accounts for most of what is in a bottle of orange EO (84%-93% for the analyses reported in Tisserand and Young). d-limonene is useful as a solvent and is sold as a solvent, but it is also used as a food additive, in drugs, in perfumery and as an insecticide. I wouldn't recommend adding the Walmart brand to food, but d-limonene is easily available as a health supplement.
 
Well??!! Any update?
Yes - yes! I MADE IT TODAY! Finally! I used AVJ as half the water. I used 150g boiling water to dissolve 62g Borax, but it just would not dissolve! I stirred and stirred, I strained it and then poured water back through it, strained it again and again....to no avail. So I'm not sure how much actual borax made it into the soap - probably only about 30g. I also added 10g ground orange peel along with the pumice, and activated charcoal. It took forever to come to trace - I could have kept blending for hours it seemed. Not sure what that was about ( less water?) and then once it did trace, I added the borax solution and boom! Thick trace. Poured into cavity molds, and then accidentally erased the 25 minute long video I hade taken of the entire process! Grrrrrr.
 
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That color is just from activated charcoal?! It's gorgeous! Do you mind telling me how much you used? You made a batch of 1000g oils, right? I'm taking notes.
As for the fragrance, I can't even envision that smell because I don't know what cypress smells like and I have never even heard of elemi until now. I really DO learn a lot on this site!
 
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That color is just from activated charcoal?! It's gorgeous! Do you mind telling me how much you used? You made a batch of 1000g oils, right? I'm taking notes.
As for the fragrance, I can't even envision that smell because I don't know what cypress smells like and I have never even heard of elemi until now. I really DO learn a lot on this site!
I used a truck load of charcoal! I'm not a measurer (well not for things like that) and I so i would estimate I used one tsp PPO. It was about half a dessertspoon (heaped) for 1000g of oils.

I just chucked in a bunch of EOs that I thought would be palatable to your average blacksmith - pleasant, fresh, but not too girly. Elemi essential oil is more common over this side of the world I think? It's a bit tea-tree ish but not as medicinal smelling. https://www.aromaweb.com/essential-oils/elemi-oil.asp
 
Keep in mind, d-Limonene is a solvent, not an EO. Its best use is in DIY cleaning products.

This statement is confusing the matter.
Sorry. I didn't mean to be confusing. It's been some time since I experimented with the 2 of them side-by-side. My notes are not readily available but my overall conclusion was to use d-limonene in a water-based spray cleanser and orange essential oil as a fragrance.

Since post #121 was about using d-limonene as fragrance and solvent in a hand soap I'm a bit concerned about how it would behave in that role. I look forward to reading about how well it functions in that capacity. :)
 
I used 150g boiling water to dissolve 62g Borax, but it just would not dissolve!

Dissolve Borax in boiling water. Use some of the water used to make the Lye Solution. Once dissolved add it to the warmed oils before adding the lye solution.

ETA: Borax is SO finicky! Once dissolved, it particulates out and settles to the bottom, hard as a rock and next to impossible to break up and re-use. (Don't ask how I know that... 😂)
 
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Hmmm. I might practice dissolving borax today.
Good idea! Try a tablespoon of Borax in 2-3 ounces of boiling water. Let it set. Don't stir. Then time it to see how long it takes to cool to a hard solid mass at the bottom of the Pyrex cup. Curious minds want to know... that includes me. :nodding:
 
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