his might sound like a stupid question

[leapinglizards]

I was having a conversation with a hobby soaper and they made a claim that seemed impossible- but HEY I thought I'd ask here....

They said, they accidently used an extra 12 ounces of lye in a 8 pound soap recipe- and even though it was THAT lye heavy, it was NOT zappy after 24 hours.

Is that even possible???

 

[lsg]

Without knowing the complete recipe, oils, superfat ect., it is hard to say.

 

[eucalypta]

Seems like a severe case of miscalculation to me. :twisted:
Even a 5%SF soap still zaps a little after 24 hours.....

What might help to stay on the safe side when making a soap:
Assuming that you usually make the same batch size, it is safe to say that with 500 grams of oils the amount of NaOH will be ca. 70 grams (1 pound oils, 2.27 oz NaOH).
So when you weigh your NaOH and it seems a lot (or you recipe says that much more is needed), an alarm bell should go off.
Time to check the recipe in the soapcalculator!

Hope this helps.