Future Noob Soapmaker

[goldendaddie]

Aloha everyone!

I wanted to ask a question before I start unloading my Amazon wishlist into the cart. I’ve watched an inhuman amount of videos on YouTube and read Kelly Cable’s book on The Natural Soapmaking Book for Beginners. I’ve seen folks using anything from plastic to glass to stainless steel for their soap making. I’m planning on doing the oil mixing/heating AND lye water mixing into a stainless steel pot, just to minimize the containers used. And it looks as though it will minimize the amount of times I have to pour from one container to another.

Question: I was planning on getting a 12Qt pot and was wondering what size container(s) folks use for their soapmaking? I’m not currently planning on doing this for anything other than having my own soaps, and maybe some for friends if they’re interested. You think 12 Qts is enough? Too big? Not big enough?

Mahalo!

 

[Relle]

Welcome golden daddie . Aloha

Ewa Beach, looks like a lovely place, have seen it on TV shows where they buy houses in Hawaii.

Just did a quick calculation to metric and 12 quarts is just over 11 litres , that's a big pot. I suggest you get something a lot smaller as you are learning. You can get something a lot larger at a later date. I'd be only trying out no more than 750 grms of oil at a time until you get the hang of it, just in case it doesn't turn out. I still only make loaves of no more than 1000 grms of oil at a time after many moons of soaping. My soaping bucket is 5 litres and I don't come anywhere near the top, when it's all in with the lye.

My suggestion would be for you to start reading the posts in the beginners section. Start from todays date and go back, take notes, lot's and lot's of notes. You'll get more info there to get you going.

 

[lsg]

Welcome to the forum. I agree with Relle, use a smaller container for making soap. My suggestion is to start out making 1 pound batches. That way if you have a fail, than you won't have wasted a lot of ingredients. By starting with smaller batches, you can experiment more until you find the perfect recipe for you.

 

[IrishLass]

Aloha, Goldendaddie!

I agree with Relle and lsg. A 12 qt pot is huge! My largest soaping pot is stainless steel and has a capacity of 6 qts if filled all the way to the rim, which of course I never do as that would be bad. My largest batches of soap contain 4 lbs of oils/fats, plus water/lye, which is enough to make 18 to 20 soaps depending on how thick I cut them, and the batter of my 4lb batches fits inside my large 6qt. pot with a safe level of room to spare.

I only make soap for me and my family and close friends, and I only make such large batches as a 4-pounder at Christmas-time for gift-giving. My normal/regular batches for the rest of the year are between 1lb and 3lbs.


IrishLass

 

[goldendaddie]

Thank you, all! I appreciate the feedback very much. I’m definitely shifting my aim toward a 6QT pot now. I guess my big worry was that I start mixing/blending the oils & lye and have spill over. I’m used to brewing beer (when I did that), so all my pots were huge for making 5-15 gallon batches. It’ll take a while to get all the tools & ingredients before I start anything, as I will be doing all my shopping online and having stuff shipped to the house. So in the meantime I’ll continue reading and watching videos.

Good idea on the 1lb batches to start; it would definitely not be good to have 20 bars of soap that I (or my wife) hate.

On another note, I was watching a video last night where a soap maker was mixing lye in water, and then lye water into oil without using any kind of gloves, long sleeves, eye protection of any kind, AND it looked like she was doing indoors in her kitchen. I’ve always been a “safety first” kind of guy; does this make anyone else cringe as much as it does me?

 

[IrishLass]

On another note, I was watching a video last night where a soap maker was mixing lye in water, and then lye water into oil without using any kind of gloves, long sleeves, eye protection of any kind, AND it looked like she was doing indoors in her kitchen. I’ve always been a “safety first” kind of guy; does this make anyone else cringe as much as it does me?

I hear ya! Gloves and eye protection are an absolute 'must' for me when soaping. I used to do the long sleeves, too, but after an incident when I was soaping and got enough raw batter on my sleeve to seep through the material onto my arm and start burning my skin, I stopped wearing long sleeves. What was meant to be a protective barrier actually worked against me by keeping the batter on my skin for longer as it took time for me remove my apron in order to be able to remove my shirt with the batter soaked sleeve so that I could wash the batter off my skin under the faucet. If I had just gotten the batter on my bare arm instead, it would've taken me just 2 seconds to wash the batter off my bare arm instead of it taking 2 minutes to be able to do so.


IrishLass