first batch out

[madwitch58]

finely got my first batch out of the mold. Cut it, not sure if I was supposed to do that yet or not, but it's for us so it's OK. Looked like and had the consistency of tofu. :? But it got hard the next day.
Picked up two steel brownie pans to use as molds for my latest batch. Used olive and coconut oils, but ran out of olive on the 2ed batch, so I used olive/soy bean oil to make it all turn out. will let you know how it worked.

 

[IrishLass]

finely got my first batch out of the mold. Cut it, not sure if I was supposed to do that yet or not, but it's for us so it's OK. Looked like and had the consistency of tofu. :? But it got hard the next day.

"The consistency of tofu" is a classic sign that your soap did not go through the gel stage. No worries, though. It'll just take longer to cure.

Picked up two steel brownie pans to use as molds for my latest batch.

Just make sure the pans are stainless steel. Lye reacts badly with aluminum, zinc and tin (contact produces the highly flammable hydrogen gas).

Used olive and coconut oils, but ran out of olive on the 2ed batch, so I used olive/soy bean oil to make it all turn out. will let you know how it worked.

Make sure to check your finished soap for zap. Substituting a combo oil with an unkown sap# for a single oil with a known sap# is not recommended. It can throw your lye amount off, sometimes way off.


IrishLass

 

[judymoody]

If you use metal pans, I recommend that you line them with freezer paper as the soap is likely to stick. And, as Irishlass recommended, make sure they really are 100% stainless steel. Aluminum & lye are a really dangerous combination!

 

[madwitch58]

No worries about the pans I made sure they said steel on the label. As for the oils I made sure all the weights came out exact. And if they don't turn out they way I want, that will just let me know what not to do next time. Learn from your mistakes, my Mother all ways said.

 

[judymoody]

No worries about the pans I made sure they said steel on the label. As for the oils I made sure all the weights came out exact. And if they don't turn out they way I want, that will just let me know what not to do next time. Learn from your mistakes, my Mother all ways said.

Hi Madwitch, Just to clarify, what Irishlass was referring to was not about the weight of the oils but the amount of lye needed to saponify those oils. Each oil requires a specific amount of lye. So a pound of olive oil would require a different amount than a pound of oils that was 50% olive oil and 50% soy. If your oil was an olive/soy blend, it would be difficult to determine what % is olive and what soy. So if you change your oils you should run your altered recipe through a lye calculator like soapcalc.net.

Hope this makes sense and I'm not preaching to the choir. You may well already know this but since you're relatively new to soaping, I thought it might be helpful information.

 

[Kleine Teufel]

So long as she's not making a massive batch, she should be ok with this one, since the olive and soybean are so close in SAP value. However, for future reference, it's always best to run your recipes through a calculator. And, again, as someone said, not trying to preach to the choir or anything, you might already know this, but just in case, and in case of someone else who is reading through to do their first batch, it's always better to say it just to be safe, lol. Talk about a run-on sentence.