Coconut soap sadly forgotten

[stanekster]

Hi all,
I am a big dope. I made 100% coconut oil soap. And it looks like it came out amazing! But alas, I fell asleep and missed my cutting window. The bars are super hard. I tried to cut with a heated knife, but it basically crumbled. Since there does not seem to be a need for 2.5 lb bars of soap, I am at a loss of what to do.
I read another post where they discussed powertools to cut (but that seems to not work). I was wondering if a fine toothed hacksaw would work? Or can I repurpose the loafs somehow?

thanks,
Steve

 

[Catscankim]

Lol. Sorry. Maybe stick it on low in the oven to soften it? Lol.

im just guessing. I have no clue.

 

[Ladka]

Or can I repurpose the loafs somehow?

You might try to grate it somehow, add washing soda and borax and use (or gift) it as washing powder.

 

[Obsidian]

I'd try warming it first, if that doesn't work then a hacksaw is worth a try. I imagine a small bandsaw might work too.

It could always be grated and rebatched too but I'd save that as a last resort.

 

[DeeAnna]

Set your oven to its lowest temperature. Usually that is somewhere between 145-170 F / 65-75 C. Put the soap back in its mold or you can line a cookie sheet or pan with parchment paper or an oven-safe silicone mat and put the soap on that. In other words, don't put the soap directly on metal.

Put the soap in the oven on a rack somewhere in the middle of the oven. Leave the oven turned on.

Let the soap warm from 30 to 90 minutes. Keep checking it during this time and remove it when the soap is soft enough to cut. If you cut a bar and it's still too hard, warm it awhile longer.

Don't walk away and forget it! The soap will eventually go into gel and get very soft and pasty if you leave it in the oven too long.

 

[stanekster]

Let me revise my statement from before... I am an impatient dope. Thanks DeeAnna that is a great idea. If this happens again I will try it. For some reason I felt like I had some limited time to react (not sure why).

Here is what I tried (before I saw your great idea):
- heated knife up but still crumbled.
- tried heating up loaf (but in microwave). I tried 20-30 sec increments. This softened the loaf up so I could get a few slices off. And then I felt like I was at science fair again watching the backing soda volcano.... but this time the magma came from the side. I image microwave heated inside up really hot before outside got warm. So marked that off the list of solutions.
-tried hacksaw, it really did not help. The blade got gunned up, cut unevenly, and crumbled slice.
- lastly I decided to go nuclear.... I ended up cutting the bars up with my chop saw (miter saw). It cut easily, but left a lot of markings that won’t polish out. But at least I can use the bars for our family. The saw spewed some soap chips and wasted some soap, but I could vacuum it up.
Anyhow, that is how the story ended... if I I’m had just been a little more patient.

 

[Guspuppy]

Too bad I didn't see this yesterday when trying to cut my rock-hard 100% shea soap! It didn't even occur to me that there might be a way to soften it back up!