Water: For best results,
use rain, distilled or soft water. You should generally use 6
oz of water to 16 oz of fat. Another way to figure the same thing
is: water wt=fat wt X 0.38. Don't worry too much about getting
it exact, however, as this measurement isn't terribly critical.
Lye:
You should know a little bit about lye, sodium hydroxide. Lye
is a very strong base and if you get it on you, you will find
it's bad stuff. (Be sure to store lye where kids or pets can NEVER
get at it.) You must use care in determining what utensils and
mixing containers you use when handling lye. Use wooden or plastic
spoons and enameled, plastic or glass bowls for mixing. (Lye will
eat up Aluminum in a hurry. Also, lye instantly and permanently
takes the shine off Formica. Formica is so sensitive to lye that
it left timeless streaks across the table where I wiped a few
dry crystals off with my hand. Now, with our table top and kitchen
counter top ruined, Brendy ushers me outside when I mix my lye.)
You would be wise to wear eye protection and rubber gloves when
handling the lye crystals or the lye solution after you have mixed
it into the water.
Dissolve lye in cold water. Never pour the water
into the lye or it could possibly explode all over the place.
If you don’t stir it immediately as you pour the lye into
the water, the lye will settle to the bottom and quickly solidify.
This isn’t a problem as tapping it with the stirring utensil
will break it up. As you mix it a chemical reaction takes place
between the lye and the water, heating it up. If you are making
a large batch of soap, the lye can possibly start the water boiling
- with little droplets of lye water splattering all over the place.
If this starts happening, stop stirring it until the bubbling
stops. Generally, it doesn’t take more than a minute to dissolve
the lye crystals in the water. You know this has happened as the
water will become relatively clear. The lye water will now have
to cool below 100 degrees F before pouring in the fat.
Fats
and Oils used in soap making. In my experiments I have
learned almost any fat or oil can be used to make soap. Fats for
soap making include animal fats such as tallow (fat from beef),
lard (fat from pork), and the various plant derived oils. Traditionally
animal fat has been used, with beef tallow making the best soap,
pork lard in the middle, and chicken fat the worst. It's generally
accepted that the harder fats make better soap.
There are a multitude of fats and they each bring
their own unique qualities to soap. If you want to know what a
particular fat will do, make a small batch of only that fat and
see what it does. Armed with this knowledge you can mix fats to
give your soaps the qualities you want. And this is how soap recipes
are born.
Whatever type of fat or oil you use, you must ensure
it is clean and free of impurities. It shouldn’t be rancid,
have excess salt in it, or any solid particles.
Rancid and dirty fat can be cleaned by boiling it
for a few minutes in a large pot with four parts water to one
part fat. Set it aside and let it cool. After it has solidified,
remove the fat from the pot in one piece. One way to do this is
to run hot water around the outside of the pot, melting a thin
layer of fat next to the pan. It should then slide out. Scrape
all the foreign matter off the bottom of the fat. If it is still
dirty, repeat the cleaning process again. It is also fairly easy
to render your own fat.
What are your best fats for soap making? Amazingly,
the soap making professionals feel that lard beats tallow and
vegetable oils for gentleness to your skin. However, soap made
with 100% lard doesn't lather very well. But it cleans beautifully.
There is a predominant idea today that you have to get bubbles
for the soap to do it's job. Soap making professionals have told
me this is not the case. But if you want bubbles, you can have
the kind of bubbles you want by using different oils.
Different Fats that create bubbles:
In your soap making, use at least 25% of these fats as part of your overall fats to get the desired effect you are seeking.
Saponification (Sap) Value: Each fat requires a different amount
of lye to change the fat to soap. See the Lye to Fat Ratio Table
soaptable for a short discussion
on this and a listing of different fats and the lye required to
convert them to soap.
The temperature of the fat you pour into the lye
water is important. It needs to be a bit above it’s melting
point. This is 130 degrees F for beef tallow, or 85 degrees F
for pork lard, or about the same temperature for vegetable oil.
Mixing:
With the lye water and fat at the right temperature, gently pour
the fat into the lye water. Stir gently, pulling the lye water
up through the fat. This may take several minutes. You should
insulate your mixing pot with old rags, etc, to prevent the fat
from hardening before the process is complete.
Saponification
and it's role in the mixing process: Simply stated,
saponification is the name for the chemical process that happens
between lye and fat as they turn into soap. It doesn't happen
all at once, but actually takes days to complete. There are different
levels of this process, and the most important one for you to
know about is the "Trace"
stage. This is the point at which your soap has thickened up somewhat.
As you let the soap run off your mixing spoon back into the mixture,
the falling soap stays on top and doesn't blend in, but leaves
it's "trace" mark on top. Another way to know when trace
occurs is it's thickness, much like the thickness of pudding after
you have mixed it.
It can take a long time to get your soap to the
trace stage depending on the type of fat you are using. The lighter
the fat (or oil) you are using the longer it will take for it
to trace. You can expect a wait of anywhere from 30 minutes for
animal fats to several hours or even days for the vegetable oils.
Does this mean you need to sit and stir your soap for several
hours until it traces? I don't. After mixing it for about 15 minutes,
I do other things and mix it back up every 15 or 20 minutes when
I happen to go by it. (You may wish to set your timer so you don't
completely forget it!) I say mix it back up because as it sits
it separates into two or three layers of fat and lye. And this
is why you have to wait for it to trace. At the trace stage of
thickness it won't separate out into layers when you put it in
your setting trays or molds.
A False Trace
can happen when making soap with fats that are solid at room temperature,
such as tallow, lard, or shortening. If the temperature of your
soap mix drops below the melting temperature of your fat, it will
start to solidify. As it does, your batch will start to thicken
up just like it was tracing - but it's not! To prevent this from
happening, be sure that the soap you are mixing stays above the
melting temperature of the fat. In fact, the warmer your soap,
the quicker it will saponify (one of the reasons I like to cook
it). It wouldn't hurt to keep your soap up to around 115 degrees
F to speed this process along a little more quickly. At 120 degrees
F lanolin will curdle your batch.
Vegetable oils can also be used for making soap. These
oils are liquid at room temperature and without employing a trick
or two usually require many hours of mixing before they trace.
Trick 1: Use a blender. The more finely the
lye and fat molecules are intermixed the faster it will saponify.
Hours (and even days, sometimes) can be reduced by using a blender.
Don't use an upright blender unless you don't mind millions of
tiny air bubbles being permanently whipped into your soap. Use
the hand-held type instead. With one of these, even your most
stubborn oils should trace within 20 minutes. And you will get
a trace with animal fats within seconds. Anyone who has sat around
for hours stirring a batch of soap will be ecstatic with this.
Trick 2: Cook it. There are a couple of processes
that I have developed myself yet are rather unorthodox. And this
is one of them. If you don't have a blender, perhaps cooking your
soap is for you. After it has cooled, pour or spoon it into the
soap mold or tray and treat it like you would for the no-cook
recipes. Even though it has been cooked, the chemical reaction
that slowly turns vegetable fats into soap will take much longer
than for soap made with animal fat that has been cooked. But I
expect you will be just as pleased with your finished product.
Superfatting oil: When your soap gets to it's trace stage, the saponification process is around 90% complete. Fat added at this point makes your soap softer. There is a reason why the superfatting fat is added after tracing instead of at the beginning with all the other fats. If it was added at the beginning you wouldn't have any control over which fat or oil ended up as your 'free fat' as all fats would saponify together. This is presupposing you are going to superfat with a different fat or oil than you used to make your soap with. Exotic oils are generally used in superfatting. They are added at trace to give the benefit of their desirable qualities without having to use so much that it empties your wallet. A good rule of thumb is to use 1 oz. per pound of total fat used in the recipe. (That's one part superfatting oil to 16 parts total fat.) Let me list just 2 of the more common superfatting oils:
Coloring Dyes: Several things are used to color soap. Approved
items are clays, mineral pigments and spices. You can get these
items from soap supply companies. Moving back into the area of
unorthodoxy again, I color all my soap with a piece of crayola.
Be aware that crayola as a wax isn't approved for skin use.
If you are going to use a crayon to color your soap, don't sell
it. The Gov. will get upset if they find you. Just because
it isn't approved, it doesn't mean that it's bad, however. After
all, it's only wax! We eat tons of it in chocolate.
I melt crayola into
my soap after it has traced. Don't be tempted to put your crayola
in at the beginning as the lye will change it's color. You may
need to heat it just a little bit to get your soap up to the melting
temperature of the crayola. Even adding a crayon at this late
stage of mixing, you may notice a slight color shift over time.
I'm excited with using crayons for another reason. I've found
that my 100% lard soap will lather with only a small amount of
crayon in it. How much? About 1 inch of 1/4 in. diameter crayola
per pound of fat. After a bit of experimenting, I've also found
the same amount of paraffin wax, another non-approved substance
for skin care, will do the same thing. When adding it, be sure
your soap is above the melting point of wax, then mix your already
melted paraffin well into your batch. You don't have to pre-melt
the crayola as it melts much easier. And the cost? A piece of
crayon or a little piece of paraffin is just about free compared
to the cost of coconut or olive oil. It's also available just
about anywhere.
Fragrance Oils: There are two types of fragrance oils, FO's (fragrance oils) and EO's (essential oils). An EO is made from a distilling process and a fragrant oil is a chemical fragrant that is steeped in alcohol. EO's are usually used in soap making as FO's have been known to seize soap, or turn it into a yucky ball that doesn't saponify correctly. EO's are much more expensive and harder to find than FO's. If it is an EO, it will most often say it on the label. You will also know it by the exorbitant cost. FOs can often be used safely at trace however. Make a small test batch first to see if your FO is going to work alright before making a big batch. Be aware that rose and cucumber FOs are notorious for seizing soap. If you want to use an FO that can possibly seize soap, you can safely use it during a rebatch.
The Setting Tray: Mrs. Mertz used a galvanized tub. Other old timers used a wooden box in the shape of a tray with a cloth laid in the bottom of it. The cloth was used to help remove the hardened soap from the tray. If you are going to use a solid tray, may I recommend plastic wrap instead of cloth as a barrier between your soap and the tray. But there is something even simpler than this. If you have any square edged, flexible plastic trays with lips at least as high as a bar of soap is wide, use this. (After the soap has hardened, a slight flexing of the tray will dislodge the soap.) When the soap begins to harden (1-3 days for the non-cook process), use a knife to section it into bars. After it has further hardened (3-7 days), remove it from the tray, and break it into bars following the knife marks made earlier. Even though your soap looks hard at this stage, it is far from done. There's a good chance it contains a bit of lye that should dissipate into the soap as the saponification process continues. This will be true so as long as you had your lye/fat ratio correct soaptable in the first place. Your soap will need to sit for 2-6 weeks, depending on the fat you used, to dry out and cure. Use litmus paper to test the lye content of your finished soap. Be sure to wash off any soda ash that has formed before testing. Soda ash has a high PH value. Your soap should be below a PH of 9 within 36-72 hours after it has traced. The closer the PH of the finished soap is to 7 the better. If your soap is over a PH of 9, let it sit around for a week or two. Hopefully as the soap continues to saponify the lye will get transformed and the PH will drop. Your soap should be below a PH of 9 before you use it. I may get some real flames on the following comment: If you don't have any litmus paper and you want to know if your soap is ready for use, taste it. Your tongue will tingle if there is still too much lye in it. Of course, you don't want to swallow this stuff. This was suggested to me as a possibility by Mrs. Mertz and also by a more contemporary soap maker who sells soap.
Final Curing and Storage: With the soap out of the tray (or molds if you have them), stack it up and set it in a warm dry place for at least two weeks. When it has fully cured, place it in a plastic bag or air tight container, and store it in a cool, dry place. You will probably notice a thin, white powdery layer on the outside of your soap. This is soda ash, and forms as a result of the carbon dioxide in the air interacting with the lye in the soap. This outer layer quickly washes off the first time you use it. "If this is a concern, cover your setting soap with plastic wrap so the air can't get to it. After saponification is pretty well complete, you can remove the air barrier to let your soap dry out." After all this, if there is still a thin layer of soda ash on your soap after it has cured, wash it off, then let the surface of your soap dry before storage.
My experience: The recipes I used left a lot to be desired. The instructions weren’t sufficiently detailed for me to really figure it all out and so I made several mistakes which I will now point out.
The first thing I had trouble with was getting the lye/water/fat ratio correct. Often the recipe simply said ‘a can of lye.’ Obviously, in yesteryear all lye cans must have been the same size. Not so any more. From analyzing several recipes both relatively modern and old, I find the lye to fat ratio in many recipes to be lye heavy. I suggest you figure the lye yourself using the fat to lye table soaptable before using a recipe. Then alter it accordingly when making your soap. Let’s not forget the 0.38 parts of water to one part fat by weight. (Water, lye and fat are the primary ingredients for all soap recipes I’ve found, and will make a good bar of soap all by themselves.) The fat to lye ratio does not have to be overly critical, however. You will end up with "soap" with fat/lye ratios from 2.4 oz (69gm) to 1oz (26gm) crystallized lye to 1 cup (8oz or 210gm) of fat. And you may actually want lye or fat heavy soap depending on what plans you have for it. Mix it:
Note: in playing around with the mixture ratio, I have gone as far as 6/10ths oz (17.3gm) to 1 cup fat (8oz or 210gm). This still made soap, but it was very soft and would probably go rancid if not used fairly quickly. The more lye in the soap, the harder it is. (One of my friends told me how before the days of the automatic washing machine, his mother always threw a bar of home made soap into the wash during her ‘manual wash cycle’ then pulled it out before the ‘rinse.’ The same bar of soap lasted several batches!)
The second thing I had trouble with was adding the different ingredients at the right times. I’ve created some real messes with this one. Here is a suggested order to add things:
The third thing
I had trouble with was getting it to set correctly.
Three methods of getting soap to trace have already
been discussed. When I first started making soap I didn't know
the first thing about "trace." Because of this, I had
several failed batches until I developed a unorthodox way of setting
soap that incidently is a lot faster than waiting for it to trace.
This method will only work with fats that are solid at room temperature,
like tallow, lard, and shortening. And you can't color or scent
your soap if you do it this way as you should only add these things
after tracing. Professional soap makers are leery of this method
as they feel it is important to stir the batch to trace as it
keeps the molecules moving. Yet I add this last method here as
I have had excellent luck with it.
The Intentional False Trace: After all the
ingredients are thoroughly mixed, set your mixing container in
cold water and continue to stir, especially the sides and bottom.
I use a big spatula to do this as the fat will solidify first
on the sides and bottom of the pan. This solidifying fat must
be remixed into the warmer mass in the center of the pot. As the
mixture cools, continue to quickly stir it while the whole batch
thickens. When it gets to the consistency of thick gravy or pudding,
(trace consistency) pour it into your setting tray. The idea here
is to get it so thick there is no way it can separate, yet fluid
enough so it will flow. With it in the setting tray, put it in
the refrigerator so the fat in the soap can continue to solidify.
After it is cold, take it out of the refrigerator and set it aside.
Unless you make the soap during very hot weather, it won’t
re-melt and separate. After a day or two it is ready to be cut
into bar sized pieces. Note: Don't get confused here. If you actually
traced your soap,
you shouldn't put it in the refrigerator. The refrigerator is
only used when you thickened your soap in cold water before tracing.
Final curing: As mentioned before, it takes soap days for the saponification process to complete, then weeks before it has cured, or all the water has finally evaporated. My experience is that it takes about 1 to 3 days for the soap to set up hard enough to cut the soap in the pan into hand soap sized bars without it melting back together again. Check it once or twice a day. You don’t want it so hard you can’t run a table knife through it. After sectioning the soap in the setting tray, leave it in the pan to further harden 3 - 5 days. You want it to be hard enough so it will maintain its shape and not break up as you are taking it out of the tray. You can’t hurt it by leaving it too long, but if you take it out too soon you can accidentally break pieces off or put big cracks in the bars that will later break. When it has cured long enough, remove the now solid soap and break it up into bars from the knife marks made earlier. If you used a solid pan lined with plastic wrap, after the soap is removed, use your finger to smooth out the small grooves made by the wrinkles in the plastic wrap. (If you wait, it will be too hard and you won’t be able to do this.) It is then stacked up and left to further dry (cure) for two or more weeks.
Using It: Even mentioning this may seem like over kill. When I first used that initial bar of lye heavy soap from my first ever attempt at soap making, I rubbed and rubbed, and didn’t hardly get anything. But I soon learned that I was just breaking it in. After I used it a few times, it was much easier to use. If you have kids, to decrease their resistance to using soap ‘you’ made, break it in first then put it out for them to use. They will hardly notice the difference.
This table is for those of you who want to get a bit more scientific in soap making, or just want to check and see if the person who created the recipe knew what they were doing. Each fat has it's own saponification value, or "SAP Value." And because of this, each fat requires a different amount of lye to convert the fat to soap.
For the soap to be made with no left over lye or fat you must have very accurate testing equipment. As the same oil from different sources will have a slightly different saponification value, we recommend you keep your soap a bit fat heavy to ensure you don't end up with lye in your finished product.
In the table below use the 0-4% excess fat columns (red) if you have accurate technical equipment to test for excess fat or lye. Use the 5-8% columns (green) to make good hand/body soap and the 9-10% columns (blue) if you want excessively fat heavy soap.
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