The effects of water discounting

[cheesenoodle]

Right now I have a recipe of 10% almond oil, 60% olive oil, and 30% coconut oil. The water to lye ratio is 2.664 when I choose 38% of oils as water weight.

Lowering the ratio to 1.5:1 yields a lot less water required for the same recipe, taking it from 344g to about 200g or so.

Are there any dangers of doing such a low water amount aside from an extra concentrated lye solution? Is it reasonable to have it come to trace, then to gel, and then a mold doing hot process, or will it harden up way too fast?

I want to lower the ratio so they dry faster and don't warp as much. That's the idea at least.

What do you think?


Edit: Looks like this is an answer: http://southernsoapers.com/news/soapmak ... p-methods/

 

[cheesenoodle]

From the above site:

Lye x 1.0 = 50% (the physical limit for pure lye & pure water, and neither your lye or water are pure!)
Lye x 1.15 = 46.5% For “extreme soapers”
Lye x 1.2 = 45.45%
Lye x 1.25 = 44.44%
Lye x 1.3 = 43%
Lye x 1.4 = 41.66%
Lye x 1.5 = 40% For experienced DWCP soapmakers
Lye x 1.6 = 38%
Lye x 1.7 = 37%
Lye x 1.75 = 36%
Lye x 1.8 = 35.7%
Lye x 1.9 = 34.5%
Lye x 2 = 33% This is a good place to start
Lye x 2.1 = 32%
Lye x 2.3 = 30%

 

[Fragola]

Well, trace can be a bit fast. But I didn't see any dangers. A while back, I used to masterbatch a 50% lye solution and few times I simply forgot to water and was unknowingly soaping with 1:1 solution.

That being said, I am not comfortable discounting below 1.8-2:1.

 

[cheesenoodle]

I tried 2:1 this time, it wasn't anything too special, but at least it'll dry a little faster!