Rebatching....
I have rebatched soap shreds many times by first letting the shreds soak overnight by spraying a little water over the top and mixing it gently. Just about enough so that it look like salad dressing that you would put on a lettuce salad. You may have to add more after a couple of hours depending on how dry or old the shreds are. Next mix up all the new oils that you are going to need and be sure to calculate the appropriate amount of lye water based just on the new oils…Heat the oils all together either on the stove or in a crock pot….I’ve done it both ways. Now put the “melty” soap shreds (no more than 50%,… less is better, by weight of the new oils) in the new hot oils and mix it up with a spoon. After the shreds have been heated up in the new oils, use your stick blender and blend the hell out of it. Let the mixture cool to about 100 degrees before you mix your lye water in. You can add fragrance, colorant or anything else you wish at this point.
The mixture will not be as fluid as a regular cold process mixture, so you will have to move fast as the mixture comes to trace. It will be pretty thick….so be ready with your molds and rubber spatulas and any other tools you may need to get the soap into you mold quickly. I use wooden log molds I have made myself that are lined with Mylar…. Get the soap into your molds quickly and bang you mold on your work bench or whatever to get the soap mixture to eliminate any air voids that are in the mixture. I use a rubber spatula to pack it down and smooth the tops as well. This method seems to work well for rebatching shreds without ending up with bars of soap that look like they have speckles or pieces of dried soap sticking out of them or what people call confetti soap…
Rebatching isn’t for everyone, it takes some patience and practice but once you succeed it’s a great way of making a lot of new soap using only half the oils you normally would use…
Jerry
