Cindy2428
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Bonus – Do we really need to worry about high pH? (Included in his slide show presentation)
http://cavemanchemistry.com/HscgAlkali2015.pdf?
The only “C” I ever received in college was in chemistry. I had never been so happy to get a C in my entire life. I worked hard for that sucker. To this day I still don’t know if I actually earned it or my poor prof just didn’t want to see me anymore during his office hours….
That being said, full disclosure; I get the jist of this and could probably complete the test after much practice, trusting Kevin on the math. I’ve included the entire presentation for our resident geniuses who want to double check his figures. **Note Kevin chose to use citric acid because most soapers make bath bombs and would have it readily available. Other acids will work as well.
Terminology: For the non-chemists among us, “Balance” refers to a scale. – For these tests you need a scale which will measure in a minimum of .01 grams. (Your kitchen scale won’t be accurate enough). “Lye” is the solution we create when we add our sodium hydroxide to our liquid. “Caustic soda” is defined as our lye granules. “Delight” is the standard soap recipe Kevin uses in his lab. “Weigh from the balance” – Critical – Most of the time, we weigh to the scale; We add whatever, and we tare the scale to add the next ingredient. For this test we can’t do that because it’s not possible to remove any extra. So you will need to weigh, remove and put back your ingredients for each step – Think before the tare feature…..
Overview – There was a major controversy that ED was selling weak, inferior lye/sodium hydroxide/caustic soda. It flew around the internet like wild fire. Basically 1 soaper complained and it took off from there. Cutting to the chase…. Kevin’s testing has proved that by re-testing UNCOVERED caustic soda at specific time intervals will significantly reduce it’s efficacy. In his presentation, he found testing from a new bottle of his choice, initial test came out to 99.XX% pure. Leaving the bottle open overnight in his hotel room reduced (efficacy) to 81%. (He also tested in shorter time increments,
but I’m trying to keep this as short as possible).
Bottom line – Caustic soda is so hygroscopic that even for short periods of time it’s efficacy will be significantly affected. So for soapers who work in small, very small batches, opening/closing your caustic soda container(s) multiple times will cumulatively cause you problems.
Kevin in no way, sense or fashion suggested this is what happened for this soaper. He did say that as a result of his experiments his hypothesis would be that was probably the causation for the decreased efficacy.
For any math challenged people – or just total left brain people like me, here is an easier, though not as measurable test. Put some caustic soda in a safe container and leave it exposed to open air. Use only a small amount and time it under different humidity conditions. Depending on how much you use you will be amazed to see how quickly the dry caustic soda becomes a lye puddle.
For those who do not know who Dr. Kevin Dunn is, he is a chemist who began teaching a college course he titled “Caveman Chemistry”. He took his students into nature to teach them chemistry. One of his classes included soap making and it’s just taken off from there. He was approached by the soaping Guild to speak and many years later he’s become our soap chemist expert . He laughingly states his job now is primarily making “Bad Soap”.
http://cavemanchemistry.com/HscgAlkali2015.pdf?
The only “C” I ever received in college was in chemistry. I had never been so happy to get a C in my entire life. I worked hard for that sucker. To this day I still don’t know if I actually earned it or my poor prof just didn’t want to see me anymore during his office hours….
That being said, full disclosure; I get the jist of this and could probably complete the test after much practice, trusting Kevin on the math. I’ve included the entire presentation for our resident geniuses who want to double check his figures. **Note Kevin chose to use citric acid because most soapers make bath bombs and would have it readily available. Other acids will work as well.
Terminology: For the non-chemists among us, “Balance” refers to a scale. – For these tests you need a scale which will measure in a minimum of .01 grams. (Your kitchen scale won’t be accurate enough). “Lye” is the solution we create when we add our sodium hydroxide to our liquid. “Caustic soda” is defined as our lye granules. “Delight” is the standard soap recipe Kevin uses in his lab. “Weigh from the balance” – Critical – Most of the time, we weigh to the scale; We add whatever, and we tare the scale to add the next ingredient. For this test we can’t do that because it’s not possible to remove any extra. So you will need to weigh, remove and put back your ingredients for each step – Think before the tare feature…..
Overview – There was a major controversy that ED was selling weak, inferior lye/sodium hydroxide/caustic soda. It flew around the internet like wild fire. Basically 1 soaper complained and it took off from there. Cutting to the chase…. Kevin’s testing has proved that by re-testing UNCOVERED caustic soda at specific time intervals will significantly reduce it’s efficacy. In his presentation, he found testing from a new bottle of his choice, initial test came out to 99.XX% pure. Leaving the bottle open overnight in his hotel room reduced (efficacy) to 81%. (He also tested in shorter time increments,
but I’m trying to keep this as short as possible).
Bottom line – Caustic soda is so hygroscopic that even for short periods of time it’s efficacy will be significantly affected. So for soapers who work in small, very small batches, opening/closing your caustic soda container(s) multiple times will cumulatively cause you problems.
Kevin in no way, sense or fashion suggested this is what happened for this soaper. He did say that as a result of his experiments his hypothesis would be that was probably the causation for the decreased efficacy.
For any math challenged people – or just total left brain people like me, here is an easier, though not as measurable test. Put some caustic soda in a safe container and leave it exposed to open air. Use only a small amount and time it under different humidity conditions. Depending on how much you use you will be amazed to see how quickly the dry caustic soda becomes a lye puddle.
For those who do not know who Dr. Kevin Dunn is, he is a chemist who began teaching a college course he titled “Caveman Chemistry”. He took his students into nature to teach them chemistry. One of his classes included soap making and it’s just taken off from there. He was approached by the soaping Guild to speak and many years later he’s become our soap chemist expert . He laughingly states his job now is primarily making “Bad Soap”.
