Cutting a tallow and coconut oil soap problems

Soapmaking Forum

Help Support Soapmaking Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

jamesdsoap

New Member
Joined
Feb 9, 2023
Messages
1
Reaction score
0
Location
United Kingdom
Hi,

I make a tallow and coconut oil soap (about 70:30 mix).

It's great in individual molds, but when I've tried to make it in a large rectangle mold it off has "brains".

The biggest problem is cutting it though.

Can someone suggest how best to cut it with a multi cut wire cutter? Whenever I try, it crumbles...

Thanks in advance
 
These are both hard fats, especially the tallow. Try adding a liquid oil to the mix and unmolding the soap sooner. Cut as soon as the soap comes out of the mold.
 
The soap is probably overheating if you're getting "alien brains". You don't say what your lye concentration is nor the temperature of your soap batter or if your fragrance causes acceleration and overheating. You might be able to tweak these parameters and control the overheating issue.

lsg is right -- the soap needs to be cut when the soap is ready to be cut. My rule of thumb is when the soap is firm yet still yields slightly to a finger press. The firmness should be similar to refrigerator-cold mild cheddar cheese.

Tallow and coconut soap needs to be cut relatively soon after it firms up. If you wait too long this type of soap tends to get really hard and brittle and will shatter or crumble when cut. Be sure to wear gloves to protect your skin -- saponification may not be finished at that point, so the soap may be still be lye heavy.

If the soap is very hard (like Parmesan cheese) so you can't cut it with a multi-wire cutter, try a single wire cutter. Or try a bench scraper (dough cutter) and see if that works better. If those ideas still don't work, you may have to warm the loaf gently in the oven (similar to the CPOP method) until the soap softens enough to cut better. Don't use a knife on brittle, hard soap -- the triangular cross section of a knife will wedge the soap apart and the soap is much more likely to shatter.
 

Latest posts

Back
Top