bakmthiscl
Member
- Joined
- Mar 23, 2009
- Messages
- 16
- Reaction score
- 26
About two years ago I posted a thread on salting out:
http://www.soapmakingforum.com/showthread.php?t=32717
[/QUOTE]
I'm now reporting my latest success story, using this technique. In essence, what I did this time was the same as what I reported before. However, this batch of that muck oil had already been partly saponified. I quickly discovered it wasn't completely saponified, so started there:
I took about 1.5 gallons of the mucky oil + soap and heated it to 150 F with about 1/2 gal distilled water (from my dehumidifier). (Soft water, from a salt-based water softener would work as well). To this I added granulated lye. (Warning: I wear a dust mask and a full-face shield, and use ventilation to avoid splash and inhalation hazard. Gloves are advisable, but if you don't wear those, rince hands with water and vinegar. Lye can cause burns you don't feel till too late. Lye can destroy your eyes, nose and throat. Be careful.)
After giving it a few minutes to completely saponify, I added more water to dissolve the soap and enough salt to saturate all the water. I use water-softener salt, as it's cheap and clean. After a short time the soap had floated to the top.
At this point I could have ladled off the soap and repeated the salting-out (which eliminates the excess lye as well). However, I was doing this late evenings, so I just let it cool outside.
The next evening, I turned out the lump of soap into the kitchen sink and washed away the black "aspic". I then cut it in chunks and grated it in my Kitchen Magician. I added 1 gal of distilled water to the soap, dissolved it up at 150F, and added salt to saturate the water. Again it was late, so I put it outside to set.
The third evening I did the third clean-up step, which was a repeat of the second, but there was no "aspic", just dark brine.
Tonight I turned out that large lump of soap and found that the brine was now a tawny color, not black at all. All the excess lye is gone and the only real complaint I have is that I lacked cheesecloth to do a filtering on the third evening, so there are still a few dark specks in the soap I'd rather be rid of. Nonetheless, I decided to stop here with this batch, as it is better than some batches I've made from better starting oils. I ended up with 10.7 lb of soap in this batch.
Again: This soap is utility soap, not for milady's boudoir. I seriously doubt that it would be possible to eliminate ALL the odor from this soap, but I have eliminated a large part of the original odor of the muck oil I was using. The color went from very dark brown to a tawny almond sort of color, that I find acceptable.
http://www.soapmakingforum.com/showthread.php?t=32717
[/QUOTE]
I'm now reporting my latest success story, using this technique. In essence, what I did this time was the same as what I reported before. However, this batch of that muck oil had already been partly saponified. I quickly discovered it wasn't completely saponified, so started there:
I took about 1.5 gallons of the mucky oil + soap and heated it to 150 F with about 1/2 gal distilled water (from my dehumidifier). (Soft water, from a salt-based water softener would work as well). To this I added granulated lye. (Warning: I wear a dust mask and a full-face shield, and use ventilation to avoid splash and inhalation hazard. Gloves are advisable, but if you don't wear those, rince hands with water and vinegar. Lye can cause burns you don't feel till too late. Lye can destroy your eyes, nose and throat. Be careful.)
After giving it a few minutes to completely saponify, I added more water to dissolve the soap and enough salt to saturate all the water. I use water-softener salt, as it's cheap and clean. After a short time the soap had floated to the top.
At this point I could have ladled off the soap and repeated the salting-out (which eliminates the excess lye as well). However, I was doing this late evenings, so I just let it cool outside.
The next evening, I turned out the lump of soap into the kitchen sink and washed away the black "aspic". I then cut it in chunks and grated it in my Kitchen Magician. I added 1 gal of distilled water to the soap, dissolved it up at 150F, and added salt to saturate the water. Again it was late, so I put it outside to set.
The third evening I did the third clean-up step, which was a repeat of the second, but there was no "aspic", just dark brine.
Tonight I turned out that large lump of soap and found that the brine was now a tawny color, not black at all. All the excess lye is gone and the only real complaint I have is that I lacked cheesecloth to do a filtering on the third evening, so there are still a few dark specks in the soap I'd rather be rid of. Nonetheless, I decided to stop here with this batch, as it is better than some batches I've made from better starting oils. I ended up with 10.7 lb of soap in this batch.
Again: This soap is utility soap, not for milady's boudoir. I seriously doubt that it would be possible to eliminate ALL the odor from this soap, but I have eliminated a large part of the original odor of the muck oil I was using. The color went from very dark brown to a tawny almond sort of color, that I find acceptable.
