Rebatch an oily batch

[kdot]

I make the same 12 lb batch just about every day. Last month, I must have doubled up an oil, because I had about 1 pound of extra soap batter!! So now the batch should be fully cured, but is still slightly soft and oily. I have never rebatched before, but think it might be worth a try. Couple questions:
* I'll grate each bar and put it into the crock pot. Add FO and water as needed and melt thoroughly. Do I need to do anything to remove the oiliness? How does rebatching fix the oil problem?
* Since the lye is technically gone, can I use my household crock pot? I have a giant one that would be perfect for the large batch.

Thanks! I truly hope I can salvage this batch. -appreciate all your suggestions.

Karen.

 

[Obsidian]

You can rebatch it but you need to add in extra lye to saponify the excess oil. Figure out how much lye water you need and add that to your soap once its melted down. You don't add your FO until you are done cooking it, just before you mold the soap up.
I personally use my food crock pot for rebatching. Even having to add lye, it won't make the crock unsafe for food. As long as the crock isn't aluminum that is. I do dump my soap into a stainless steel bowl before dding the FO though.

 

[Susie]

Especially don't use a crock pot with a plastic lid around FO/EOs.

 

[Stacie]

How would you figure out the lye amount in this case, not knowing how much oil still needs saponifying?

 

[The Efficacious Gentleman]

Grate and melt with a little water, as you said, but keep any scents until you start to cool the mix down again

 

[Stacie]

Not only do I not understand how to calculate the lye in this circumstance, but I don't understand why the concern about FO/EO since it would likely have been added in the initial failed batch. If so, does that change anything for the rebatch?

 

[Obsidian]

It sounds like they added in close to 16oz of extra oil. I would try to remember which oil I most likely over used then calculate the lye for say, 10oz of that oil. Better to use too little lye and have a high SF then too much and have a lye heavy batch.
Rebatching often will cook off much of scent so some needs to be added back before molding. If you add scent to really hot soap, it can burn away so you want the soap to cool down a bit before adding the scent back in. Whenever I rebatch or make HP, I put the cooked soap into a large stainless steel bowl then add in the scent. I've had FO burn off from a hot crock pot before, filled the house with nasty FO fumes.

 

[Stacie]

How much water do you normally need to add to dissolve the soap? Enough to cover? More? Less?

 

[Obsidian]

I use around 1/4 cup water per pound of grated soap but you might want to start with a bit less.

 

[Stacie]

Thanks!