How to trim soap?

[mintle]

I have bought my first cheap wooden soap planer/beveler from China on etsy. I have thought I will be able to trim a whole thin layer of soap (and remove soda ash for example). But I was only able to trim tiny scraps, never a thin sheet/larger layer of soap. It bevels edges very well, though.
So I have thought 'ok, maybe I bought the cheap one and it does not work very well' and I invested in acrylic seifenhobel from manske-shop.de. But it does not work either!
I have tried both with relatively fresh soap (1 week curing) and older ones, I have watched youtube tutorials and still I cannot trim the whole side of my soap. Is it because maybe sometimes I cannot cut the bars precisely and have curvy edges?
So please please help me with some DIY for dummies !

 

[Ann Marie]

Hi!

I have wanted to trim soaps also but haven't found a good way to do it , unfortunately. I would use my cutter and just try to plane the soaps by hand but it doesn't come out evenly and takes a long time. I don't know if trying to put them back in the mold you cut them in and trying to shave of a thin slice with a sharper knife would work?

 

[Cindy2428]

I am a total novice here and I'm sure someone with more experience will chime in, but have you considered a mandolin?. I've seen cheese cutters, but I think you would have to have a really steady hand from digging in and not keeping your depth level. With a mandolin you could turn it upside down and put it in a box, or clamp it to a vise and slide it thru.

 

[DeeAnna]

The problem is you're trying to take an even thin slice off a broad flat surface. That task is a challenge even for an experienced woodworker with a well-tuned wood plane.

A big part of the solution to this issue is practice. The trick is to find where to put pressure on the bar and how much pressure to use as you push the bar through the cutting blade. If you put too much pressure on the front end of the bar and not enough pressure on the back (uncut) end of the bar, you'll tend to get an uneven cut. It is very easy to make this mistake unless you think carefully as you pass the bar over the cutter.

Another issue is trying to take too deep of a cut. I don't know if your cutters can be adjusted for the depth of cut, but if you can, aim for a paper thin shaving if you have the option.

 

[rogue]

I was thinking mandolin also for flat facing trims too. I figured out something really nifty this evening though.
I hate "crunchy" edges on my soap when I cut it too soft but I don't really like the true jewel planed edges of a mitered planed cut either. I tried one of those cool dental pick/floss pre made gadgets and I can take just a sliver edge off really well! Coolio!

 

[KristaY]

I use a mandolin with a light hand and it works okay. Mostly I don't worry about my large, flat sides and just trim the edges with either a paring knife or a vegetable peeler. BTW, love the dolphin stamp! (Sorry Rogue if it's not a dolphin but it's still adorable!)

 

[rogue]

Winky girl face but thanks. Got them today, finally got to play!

 

[IrishLass]

For trimming paper-thin slices off of whole entire sides of my soap in one fell swoop, I really like the acrylic soap planer that I have from Soap-Making Resources: http://www.soap-making-resource.com/soap-beveler.html It's actually a beveller and a planer all in one device, but I pretty much use it exclusively for planing off any unsightly faces or sides of my bars that I'm not happy with. It works great (as I said, the slices are paper-thin), but like DeeAnna made mention of in her post, it takes a little practice to get good at applying even pressure so that all comes out straight/even.

What I usually like to do is take a bar out of a batch that I've decided needs some planing work done on it (a bar that I've singled out from the rest of the batch as being 'my' bar), and then run it over my planer blade to gauge how much pressure is needed so that I have a good idea of how much pressure to apply to the rest of the bars in the batch. I've found this to work very well for me.

IrishLass

 

[mintle]

Thank you all for your replies! You are very kind and helpful.

I had to check what a mandolin is (I thought about it as a musical instrument only ).
I guess I will just have to practice more :/.
My german trimmer/planer is good but maybe not the best (the blades are not adjustable), and I envy all of you who can easily order top-quality equipment from US (like that acrylic planer/beveler), but for me it would mean covering additional huge costs of delivery/shipment and customs payment.