I just cut my first bar of soap! Yayyyeeee

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KimT2au

You bet they die
Joined
Jul 28, 2018
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Location
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Phew, it has been a heck of a day (if you would like to know more go and check out my post on What's Your Gripe) and the only spec of sanity seems to have been when I cut my soap. First some history, I have only made liquid soap before now. We usually use liquid soap so that is what I needed, I was not aware it was meant to be more difficult than lye soap so I went ahead and made LS. Don't ask about my first batch of LS :shakinghead: At least the other batches have been successful since then. Anyhoo, I decided to make some lye soap and although the recipe was originally done as a HP soap I did mine as a CP soap. The batch was made Tuesday afternoon and I cut it this afternoon (Thursday afternoon). On the whole I am darned pleased with it. It did have glycerin sitting on the top of it while it was still in the mould but that reabsorbed. My cutting skills are not too brilliant but I guess that will come with practice and also be helped by purchasing specialist equipment. I stamped the bars with a paw print as my whole family is dog crazy so that seemed an appropriate thing to do. The soap is a lovely creamy / off white colour but because I placed them on coloured fabric they look all sorts of colours in the photos. The bars are now sitting in a wire basket in my sewing room waiting to harden up. I have learned a lot from making this batch of soap and really can't wait for them to hurry up and harden so we can start using them. :nodding:

Edited to add the photos I forgot to add to the original post :D It has been that sort of day.




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Congratulations! It turned out nicely. Don't cure it on metal/wire without something under it. Paper towels or the like. The soap will react to it and will likely cause DOS.

Thanks for the tip, @shunt2011 , it is on kitchen towel. The actual wire basket is coated in that plastic type coating, would that still have been a problem even with the coating?
 
Congratulations. Isn't it exciting? Love the paw print! Very nice soap. My first was made in a baking pan and cut with a bread knife, nothing close to uniform sizes. Looking back it was truly ugly but I was excited and proud. Enjoy the journey!
 
It's so awesome, isn't it?!
I made the mistake of thinking that a coated wire rack would work. How wrong I was! There were nicks and cuts I couldn't see so the glycerine dripped through them and discolored my soap, my table and the rack.
Don't do it!! Save your sanity and use busted up cardboard boxes if nothing else. Even if the bars sweat, you won't have to clean up so much.
Welcome, happy soaper!!
 
I love first soap pictures :) Your soaps look so nice and you did a great job with the stamping. Save one bar. I thought I hadn't, and wished I had. I found a bar from my first batch recently and it was fun to see, even with a couple of DOS starting. Thanks for sharing, and congratulations on your first batch!
 
congratulations! You don't have to have anything super duper fancy - you can use something like this:
https://hydestore.com/hyde-06872-6-...ma5GEpvMNSQsUJmhQgmgxU1LpmmNlYaRoCuqMQAvD_BwE

and a miter box from Wal-Mart.


Ooohhh, @dixiedragon, what an excellent idea. Thank you so much.

It's so awesome, isn't it?!
I made the mistake of thinking that a coated wire rack would work. How wrong I was! There were nicks and cuts I couldn't see so the glycerine dripped through them and discolored my soap, my table and the rack.
Don't do it!! Save your sanity and use busted up cardboard boxes if nothing else. Even if the bars sweat, you won't have to clean up so much.
Welcome, happy soaper!!

Oohh, good tip, @Iluminameluna, I will put some card board under them today. Thanks.
 
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We don't have Walmart, so you could get a mitre box from Bunnings and a putty knife that is used to fill holes in Gyprock, that will cut the soap. That's what I used at first and it worked well.
https://www.bunnings.com.au/hyde-4-plasterboard-joint-knife_p0730102
https://www.bunnings.com.au/search/products?q=joint knife&redirectFrom=Any
https://www.bunnings.com.au/haron-300-x-100mm-wooden-mitre-box_p5711498
Thanks, Relle, a visit to Bunnings is one of my jobs for this weekend :D
 
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