discounting water

[vivcarm]

I make an olive oil soap for my Dad, and it takes a while to trace with the stick blender and harden, I use soap calc and water of 38%, having read here about water discounting what amount should I discount by, just to get it to trace and harden that little bit quicker? I have never done discounting before.

 

[honor435]

i just started doing this, discount 1 oz,
i tried w hp, wouldnt do that again ,it gets very thick.

 

[Imblebee]

I soaped a castile using 45% before. It was fantastically hard after just a few hours. Took just a minute or two to trace.

 

[Deda]

The term 'discount' in reference to how much water you use in your recipe is misleading.

You 'discount' Lye, or superfat.

Water can be figured 2 ways. I believe soapcalcs default uses water as a percentage of oils, figured by the weight of the oils without regard for specific sap values or lye discount.

I find it easier to use a lye to water ratio, 1.5:1 or 40% lye to 60% water. If your not comfortable using that little water you can up the percentage of water.

 

[vivcarm]

ooh! I'm a little bit confused now, but starting to get my head around it! oz are no good for me only grams and kilos, but I think I understand the 40/60 ratio, so thank you for that, just have to get some supplies in now!

 

[IrishLass]

I agree with Deda that the term 'discounting' when talking about water can be misleading. I use the term 'Lye Solution/Concentration' instead (the ratio of water to the specific lye amount for your batch).

On SoapCalc it's very easy to figure out your lye solution/concentration- just go to the box labelled "Lye Concentration" in the upper right section of the page just underneath the 'Superfat/Discount %' box. I use the 'Lye Concentration' box all the time instead of the box that says 'Water as % of Oils' in order to calculate my water to lye ratio. In the Lye Concentration box, just click inside the little box right next to where it says 'Set'. That then lets you type in a number in the box just to the right for whatever % of lye solution (water to lye ratio) that you want to use. When you do that, SoapCalc automatically calculates how much reduced water to add to your lye for the Lye Solution % number you typed in. I hope I'm making sense.

I pretty much always type 33% in that box and I'm able to unmold and cut my Castiles and Castile-types within 10 to 12 hours with that amount. They have actually hardened up quite nicely by then. I've used a 45% lye solution, too, which went great but fast. Just make sure if you go that high that you are using a tame fragrance.

IrishLass

Edited to add that SoapCalc lets you calculate in grams instead of ounces if you wish.

http://www.soapcalc.com/calc/soapcalc.asp

 

[vivcarm]

Thank you, I will try that, there is so much to learn! I use soap calc for all my recipes and have never noticed that before! There is no fragrance in the soap I make for my Dad, the only extra is calendula petals, as they are supposed to be soothing. Will let you know when I get some supplies in to give this ago, probably in the next week or so.

 

[kaseencook]

sounds like you are using the default 38% water as a percent of oils in SoapCalc. Olive oil and Canola can take a long time to trace and my soaps have warped badly at this water content.

I now use 27% water as a % of oils. So for 920g (1L) of oils, the water amount should be in the region of 250g (or 250ml), and for olive oil lye should be about 115g. This is the recipe I use for OO, and it traces very quickly and makes a hard bar faster.

 

[Guest]

I do my olive oil soaps at 27% water and they come out great, trace quickly and harden within a day or 2.

 

[Imblebee]

I just soaped my bamboo hemp with a 50% sol. It's 100% lard and traced nicely... set up SUPER quick.

 

[vivcarm]

sounds like you are using the default 38% water as a percent of oils in SoapCalc. Olive oil and Canola can take a long time to trace and my soaps have warped badly at this water content.

I now use 27% water as a % of oils. So for 920g (1L) of oils, the water amount should be in the region of 250g (or 250ml), and for olive oil lye should be about 115g. This is the recipe I use for OO, and it traces very quickly and makes a hard bar faster.

Does that mean that you put 27% instead of 38%? I never thought there could be so much to this! Thanks for everybody's input, very much appreciated

 

[vivcarm]

I just soaped my bamboo hemp with a 50% sol. It's 100% lard and traced nicely... set up SUPER quick.

What kind of soap does lard make? Creamy or cleansing? I have never used lard before, maybe I should give it a go.

 

[kaseencook]

yup! I just delete 38%, put in 27% and hit Re Calculate.