# Oatmeal soap breaking when cut



## Dahc (Feb 14, 2006)

Hi. Last year we started making our own soap and for the most part, things have turned out very well.

I have a new problem that started a few months back and although I've tried various things I haven't been able to figure out why or fix it. Our oatmeal and honey soap is breaking when we try and cut it. It's not breaking in half, it's more like the edges of the soap are coming off on the knife as it passes through the loaf.

For our own use this would be fine but we sell some of this soap and these bars are unsalable.

I've looked around this forum and others and the general consensus is that it happens when waiting too long to cut the soap. This can't really be the cause though. It seems the longer we wait, the better this soap cuts.

The first batches of this soap we made turned out perfectly. Then, we changed the recipe a bit and started adding goats milk also. That's about the time it all started. So, we eliminated the goats milk but it kept happening.

One thing that is different is at this time, we have excessive humidity levels in the air. It's so bad the soap is actually sweating oils and will not dry properly. The oils being sweated out can be wiped away but I was thinking maybe the high humidity is causing the soap to break.

Anyone know? Anyone have this problem before? What'd you do about it?


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## MullersLaneFarm (Jul 23, 2004)

Dahc,

Is the oatmeal & honey recipe the same as your other recipes w/o O&H? Do you have problems with your other soaps? What type of oatmeal are you using? Are you grinding your oatmeal?

The soap is not sweating oils, rather glycerin. Honey is a humectant and is attracting the humidity in the air.

I suspect the oatmeal .... posting the recipe would help determine the cause.


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## Dahc (Feb 14, 2006)

MullersLaneFarm said:


> Dahc,
> 
> Is the oatmeal & honey recipe the same as your other recipes w/o O&H? Do you have problems with your other soaps? What type of oatmeal are you using? Are you grinding your oatmeal?
> 
> ...


The recipe :

48oz lard
16oz coconut oil
13.5oz coconut milk
2oz honey
4oz water
9oz lye (6.5% superfat)
2tbsp oatmeal (volume)

The oatmeal is quaker old fashioned oats, ground into a powder and added at trace. All other soaps we make use the lard/coconut oil base. The coconut milk is not standard across the board but none of the other soaps have this problem. They all cut very well. We make a soap we call coffee & cream that also has honey in it but again, that soap cuts very well.


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## MullersLaneFarm (Jul 23, 2004)

Recipe looks good. 

I've used old fashion oats (make sure it ISN'T the instant!!) without problems. (Although I've switched to using oatmeal baby food.)


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