What to do with shavings?

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Ratikal

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Hi everyone.

I successfully made a batch of beginner soap and Castile soap. I feel really confident that these batches will be good.

After cutting, I have a lot of trimmings left. What can I do with these?
 

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lsg

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You can either rebatch them or shred them and use in another soap as confetti. I usually wait until I have about pound of shavings and then rebatch them in a small slow cooker.
 

Saltynuts

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Yea rebatching them is way to go, lots of videos on youtube - just boil them basically and combine them into one new bigger bar. But check out videos that is just a very high level instruction on what to do.
 
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Hi everyone.

I successfully made a batch of beginner soap and Castile soap. I feel really confident that these batches will be good.

After cutting, I have a lot of trimmings left. What can I do with these?
If they are from a fresh batch I squish them together (use gloves) andmake a soap ball
 
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Late to the party.
Here are the methods I have tried:
1. Rebatching - can be done in a crockpot or in the oven. I always am let down by rebatching as it always comes out a little too lumpy and with air pockets.
2. Confetti soap - chop up the pieces you have and add them to new batter. With those beautiful white scraps confetti soap would be really nice against a contrasting color.
3. Ciaglia soap - similar to confetti, but you stick blend the shreds in your oils to whatever size suits you - can be a very fine slurry.
4. “zero waste” bars - shred the scraps and press them into new bars by hand (as @Lidiacgarcia suggests) or in a mold. I have a mold I made on my 3D printer for this purpose, it’s like a three piece bath bomb mold.
5. Another avenue is to do the “salting out“ method, where you add the scraps to a pot of salted water and boil it - the salt causes the soap to separate out and float on top. With your small amount of scraps it’s probably not the most efficient, but it is another way. You can find you tube videos on this method and great info here Salting-out soap | Soapy Stuff from @DeeAnna .

Lots of info on this forum on all these methods.
I have sooooo many soap trimmings right now - need to do something with them.
 

Zany_in_CO

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A Quick & Easy way to rebatch a few shreds (8-10 oz. or less): Grate or chop finely. Put them in a 1-cup Pyrex. Sprinkle a little water over them and mix lightly to wet all the pieces. Nuke on HIGH in the microwave for one minute. Let set for 5 minutes or so to cool down. Remove the soap and knead with gloved hands. Roll into a ball. Press into lightly greased round molds. Press and turn to mold and shape top and bottom. Ready to pop out when cool in an hour or so.

I generally do this every once in a while to keep shreds from piling up or when I need a new handsoap at the sink. 😁
 
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