My new mini-mold and new (old) soap guillotine.

[Tienne]

This little mold was made for me, so I could make smaller batches of tall soaps. It's adjustable and will make 4-5 bars. I am totally in love with it! It's so cute! The good thing about this mold is, that I can make small batches and not get stuck with 12 bars of one kind of soap. (Boring!) The bad thing about it is, that when a soap comes out absolutely spot on, I don't have 12 bars of it!

I've also just bought myself an old bread cutting machine to use as a soap guillotine. (Here in Scandinavia we eat loads of hard, dark rye bread and you can pick up one of these cutters at any flea market for a song.) It works brilliantly as a soap cutter! I actually bought two and plan on removing the blade on the other one and replacing it with a guitar string, The blade on this thing is super thin and it's ultra sharp and it'll take you fingers off if you aren't careful! LOL I totally chopped up, diced and sliced a bar of soap testing it and it was able to slice off pieces of soap that were so thin, that I could see through them! (The blade looks much much thicker than it really is, in the pic.) Just above the flowers in the fourth pic, you can see a little metal thingy. That raises up when you lift the cutting arm and it's adjustable so you can get the exact width of soap you want each time. Both cutters are decades old and have their fair share of nicks and knocks as you can see, but the blades are immaculate, so it's all good. If you're able to get a hold of one of these things, do it! It's a cheap and easy way to cut soaps STRAIGHT!

(The soap in the pic is fresh out of the mold. I usually CPOP, but I left this soap ungelled to see if I would have any partial gel problems with my new mold, but I didn't. Whew!)

 

[TVivian]

Ok.. That may be the coolest thing I've ever seen! *jealous*

 

[Tienne]

Vivian, I looked it up on eBay and they have some there. There's one on auction right now that looks brand new. (The Raadvad Denmark one.) The second one (the Jugendstil vintage) would not be good, because it doesn't have the width adjuster thingy and it has a metal thing on top of the blade that would interfere with the cutting, but the first one looks fab! Just look around for "Raadvad" once in a while on eBay and I'm sure you'd be able to find one.

http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_sacat=0&_from=R40&_nkw=raadvad&_pppn=r1&scp=ce0&_rdc=1

 

[seven]

wowza!! beautiful soaps, Tienne! was that a drop swirl where you pour from up high? totally in love with the colors. awesome job!!

and that cutter, yep, i am jealous too. if you said it can cut real thin, it'll def come handy esp. when you do pasito's technique

is the cutter big and heavy (looks like it)? the one on ebay makes me drool big time, but i think i'll get slapped hard on shipping i also just bought a single wire cutter from bud haffner on etsy, and i still want yours, LOL! oh, the obsession!

happy new year, btw... it's already 2014 over here

 

[Tienne]

Happy New Year, Seven!

And yes, I did have Pasito in the back of my mind when I bought them. (HA! When do I NOT have Pasito in the back of my mind! LOL

The cutter does weigh a fair bit, that's true. I wonder if our shipping prices are as expensive as American prices, though? I don't think they are. I think the cutters each weigh maybe 10 lbs? Maybe a bit more? Anyway, I would never ever have been able to afford the shipping on a wire cutter from the US, so I had to be creative and then it hit me. A Raadvad! Heh heh, UPSP can bite me!!

Thank you so much for your kind comments about the soap. Yes it's a drop swirl, but not from up high. I barely have room to get the pour inside the mold, that mold is so teensy. I would just end up splattering the batter everywhere if I tried that LOL so it's a double drop from a regular height. (I just poured each colour twice. Sage, blue, white then sage, blue, white again. Half as much white batter than the other colours though, coz white can be so in-your-face.)

(*PS: I don't know if you can tell from these pics, but can you see the edges? Heh heh... I tried the cotton cloth thing about 2-3 hours after cutting and it works! LOL!! You gotta try it. I used an old worn t-shirt to make sure there was no "fluff". )

(*PPS We're gaining in on him, Seven! Hahaha! )

 

[seven]

10lbs?? ZOMG! that's def gonna slap me hard on shipping... germany-jakarta 5kg, i can just imagine, LOL as much as i love the raadvad, i have to pass

yes, i can see the edges. they're pretty smooth, i must say... def gonna try the cotton method for my next batch. am gonna do a pasito again pretty soon, as well as test driving my new wood 2 bars mold (like the one he has, tee hee!).

btw, did we read each other's minds or what? coz i just did a drop swirl too (i'll post it to the gallery later on), 2 days ago. mine didn't come out as nice as yours tho. i like how your swirls are bigger so you can really see the contrast. mine is more thin swirls coz i was bloody nervous doing it, and yes, my mold is tiny as well, it practically doesn't have any room to do wiggle, LOL!

 

[Tienne]

Aww, you have the two-soap one already?!? *jealous*

My hijacked mold maker actually wanted to celebrate Christmas and all that, so he's only had time to make the small tall mold above as yet. He's got all the materials ready for the two-soaper, but now this silly New Years stuff is getting in the way. Aaargh!

Soon.... *sigh*

******

Do you know how a wire cutter can sometimes lift especially TD-coloured soap and make those tiny little pox looking bubble thingies when you cut? The cotton cloth fixes that too. You just wait and see how smooth your soaps will be. Pox be gone! All you have to do is wait for the surface to be a bit dry before you do it and be ever so gentle. The soaps just have to lose that wet new cut feeling first.

Btw, the rounded corners at the bottom of the soaps aren't buffed that way or bevelled. I lift my freezer paper just a little bit (maybe 1-2mm) out of the mold before I stick it down and then when I pour, the paper will sag that little bit until it hits the bottom and voila! Rounded corners. . I found that out by accident one day, but I like it. LOL

 

[Obsidian]

Beautiful soaps. I've been thinking about making a mold for tall then soaps, do you mind sharing the inside dimensions of yours?

 

[Tienne]

Beautiful soaps. I've been thinking about making a mold for tall then soaps, do you mind sharing the inside dimensions of yours?

I won't tell!! Hahaha, just kidding. I don't mind at all!!

It's at its max length 14 cm long on the inside. That makes 5 one inch bars + a little slack. It's 6 cm wide and 10 cm tall from the inside bottom to the very top edge. I like my soaps to be 6 x 8 cm or 6 x 9 cm (give or take) so I wanted some extra head room in the mold, just in case I want to put embeds on or high tops or whatever and still have room to be able to cover the mold as well. The soaps above are approx 6 x 9.

Edit: The bolts are on the outside of the mold at the ends and the ends are completely loose, so they can be moved. (The bottom is also completely loose.)

 

[Obsidian]

Thanks so much, that sounds just perfect

 

[seven]

Do you know how a wire cutter can sometimes lift especially TD-coloured soap and make those tiny little pox looking bubble thingies when you cut? The cotton cloth fixes that too. You just wait and see how smooth your soaps will be. Pox be gone! All you have to do is wait for the surface to be a bit dry before you do it and be ever so gentle. The soaps just have to lose that wet new cut feeling first.

Btw, the rounded corners at the bottom of the soaps aren't buffed that way or bevelled. I lift my freezer paper just a little bit (maybe 1-2mm) out of the mold before I stick it down and then when I pour, the paper will sag that little bit until it hits the bottom and voila! Rounded corners. . I found that out by accident one day, but I like it. LOL

yeah! most of my soaps have that white specks perfect example is my eucalyptus hanger swirl, you can def see the specks, grrrrrr. this cotton method is looking more promising now. it's another extra step, but i don't mind if it'll give me a smooth surface.

about the rounded corners, i just did a blackbery raspberry soap (i'll post it soon) and one of the corners was rounded, the other one not, LMAO! turned out, i wasn't being careful with my liner, and one side kinda lifted a bit. it looks a bit funny, but hopefully ppl won't notice

ya know what, a couple of days back i was browsing and came to soaphutch. i was drooling over one of their hdpe molds. it was the right size, and it has a separate dam so you have the freedom to make a shorter or longer batch. with shipping, it came to $140-ish. i dunno whether i should splurge or not. do you have hdpe molds? if so, how are they? i rarely un-gel my soaps coz the climate is simply too hot. was wondering with hdpe will i get problem gelling my soaps or not. if want to prevent gel, i absolutely must use the freezer, and there's simply no room for a mold that size.

not that you ask, but this is my dream mold:
http://www.shop.woodfieldswood.com/12Lx2-1-2Wx3-3-4H-3048x635x952cm-Log-Silicone-Soap-Mold-12212334LM.htm

bloody expensive!

 

[Tienne]

I have some Mr DoRight HDPE molds and I'm not at all impressed with them. I have seen some sleek-sided transparent molds, that look really nice, though,(like the ones Savonnerie Mika uses) but I haven't tried anything like that myself. They do look slick, though! I have seen a lot of youtubes where folks seem to struggle to get the sides or the bottoms off of those kinds of molds and I don't need the hassle. I used to think I NEEDED some of those molds, but really, I don't.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UzCDC4B72rM

And OMFG, the price of your dream mold is a nightmare! 138 dollars?? Really?? OMG. It is a really nice looking mold though! Have a look at this one here, though. The price of this one is a little easier to swallow.

http://www.themouldsshop.co.uk/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=78&products_id=494

They have silicone liners that fit it too. The width of the soaps come out a little slimmer in this one though if you use the liner, than in the one you you posted. I know that little detail can make or break a mold being a dream mold. The heart wants what the heart wants!

http://www.themouldsshop.co.uk/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=132&products_id=466

I think I've pretty much come full circle regarding molds. Wooden molds, to single cavity molds, to HDPE to silicone and now I'm back to wooden. I truly adore my new little mold, however humble it may be. Right now, it's my absolute favourite mold. (Ask me next week though, after I get my two-soaper and I may have changed my mind... again.) :crazy:

 

[Tienne]

Oh and I laughed at your one-sided rounded corners. LOL Yeah, pulling up the paper the same height on both sides really helps with that little issue. Too funny.

 

[TVivian]

Vivian, I looked it up on eBay and they have some there. There's one on auction right now that looks brand new. (The Raadvad Denmark one.) The second one (the Jugendstil vintage) would not be good, because it doesn't have the width adjuster thingy and it has a metal thing on top of the blade that would interfere with the cutting, but the first one looks fab! Just look around for "Raadvad" once in a while on eBay and I'm sure you'd be able to find one.

http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_sacat=0&_from=R40&_nkw=raadvad&_pppn=r1&scp=ce0&_rdc=1

I'd LOVE to buy it! Wish I could justify the money. My husband would really think I've lost my mind if I announced I was buying a vintage bread slicer.. For my soap. Haha! Thanks for giving me the info

 

[roseb]

Wow! The bread cutter is too cool...just the picture is worth the cost! Gorgeous soap! The cutters are way out of my budget right now. But them are beautiful!

I was thinking about ordering a small 1 lb loaf, but was afraid of the same thing. Great soap and only 4 bars! LOL!

 

[cmzaha]

Absolutely gorgeous swirl and colors!

 

[savonierre]

That is beautiful soap and the cutter is the bomb diggity..

 

[Lin]

I was wondering about deli cutters for slicing soap, but the ones I looked at the guide wouldn't allow thick enough for good bars.

Whats the cotton method you're talking about?

 

[seven]

I got nervous when i found out the shop is located in the UK (the exchange rate zomg!), but then i calculated and it's still come cheaper. Plus, it has a silicone liner which is a major plus! The only miniscule downside is the width (5 cm), which is a bit small. If only i can make a silicone liner for my wood molds. I still haven't found a pourable silicone over here, otherwise i'll make some myself.

 

[Lin]

What about?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GKClapkhZxo