# Hand Milled Soap?



## Delinda (Dec 5, 2005)

I just bought a used book at a book store-The Complete Soapmaker by Norma Coney. It is mainly about hand milled soap. I have made lots of CP soap but never the Hand milled so I thought I would try it. IMO this is alot of work for nothing, am I missing something here? I grated about 6 bars of good soap and melted it with water in a double boiler like the book said. Well after about 1 hour it still had not melted-it just formed a soft ball. I put it in a mold anyway and it never did harden up. What is the benefit of hand milled? Does anyone make this and why?


----------



## shining (Oct 30, 2004)

This is so funny you posted this! I have had this book for several years and have just recently revisited it. When I first tried hand milling, it worked great and I could make a big batch and then mill it into smaller batches with different additives and it worked beautifully. However, after a couple of good batches, I had a couple of bad batches that were just like you described and I never tried again--until a couple of days ago. I had made some 100% olive oil soap and I poured it into decorative molds. When I unmolded them they had a thin layer of ash which doesn't bother me, but these were to sell. So, I remembered that I had the book and grated them down and melted them and they melted beautifully. I poured it into the molds, popped them in the freezer and when they came out, they just looked great. So, for that botched batch, the milling worked great. I have done several batches this week and they've all worked great. But, when you get one that doesn't, it's so frustrating! What I did this time and I think it helped, was to add the soap to the water gradually. Add some at first, let that melt over low heat and then add more a little along. She recommends adding it all at one time, but the gradual process seemed to work better for me and seemed less likely to make a big soap ball.

I will be interested in what others have to say about milling! Thanks for posting this!

Staci


----------



## Delinda (Dec 5, 2005)

Thanks for answering Staci, I do have a few batches that are not very pretty, I quess I will give it another try and add the soap slowly as you suggested. It's all the grating I don't really like.


----------



## Liese (Dec 12, 2005)

Some folks seem to be using something called a "salad shooter" for the grating part.


----------



## halfpint (Jan 24, 2005)

I personally do not like the book. Her instructions for lye are dangerous (she has you add water to the lye, rather that the lye to the water) and what she calls 'hand milled' is really rebatching. I do not like rebatching unless absolutely necessary (a bad batch), as sometimes it turns out and sometimes it doesn't. Hand milled soap is grated down, but is made into a bar of soap under a high pressure press.

Dawn


----------



## MELOC (Sep 26, 2005)

what i have done, with success, is to take inferior soap and grate it and incorporate it into a fresh batch of cold process. for example, i made a batch of lavender soap that had no color. it turned out to be high in conditioning value and low in cleansing value. so i grated it up and added it 50-50 with a batch of colored lavender soap that was made to balance the cleansing value. i ended up with one of the nicest soaps i had made. it was pink with little cream colored spots through it. i recommended that the person who made cinnamon soap too strong should try this as a way to diffuse the strong scent by 50% or so. this will also work to combine scents from scraps.

edit...

when i looked at my picks, i found i had also added a grated purple lavender soap to the milled batch...











here is a green one...


----------



## thefarm (May 11, 2002)

Very nice looking soap I hope to get there some day!brenda


----------



## *Cakes (Aug 9, 2004)

1.I agree with the SAFETY issue, the first edition of that book is Wrong. Mix the lye to the water.

2. I remill to ensure my additives keep all their skin benefits. Some additives may not survive the intensity of the lye. My daughter has extreme eczema (well, not any more since I've made soap!) and i simply did not want to take the chance of my additives not surviving. No, most soapers will not take this extra step and are convinced the additives survive saponification. Maybe they do. Then I guess I am doing extra work for nothing. Also, remilled soap does not look as "pretty & professional" . In fact, my biggest problem now that I am making some scented soaps is mixing the fragrant oils properly. 

3. Another benefit to remilling is you make,say,a 5 pound batch then you can make any variety of additives and smells, shaving soap, shampoo bars all from that one batch.

4. EASY REMILLING: I grate 16 oz. into a 1.5 qt. glass dish. Put 4-5 Tbs. milk or water in the dish. Let sit overnight. Nxt day add 1/4 C. liquid (water, tepid milk, brewed tea, etc.) Heat in microwave for 60 seconds and stir. Heat for maybe additional 30 seconds. Keep eye on it! If mashed potato-like add oatmeal or other additives. Maybe zap for 10 more seconds. Lastly, mix fragrant oils. Spoon into mold. Empty frosting cans work well.

5.Ithought the big press rollers was French Milling and i was free to call mine remilling and people who goofed up could call it rebatching. We need a new word for this process. I HATE the term rebatching for soap I am purposely doing all this extra work.


----------



## donsgal (May 2, 2005)

Delinda said:


> I just bought a used book at a book store-The Complete Soapmaker by Norma Coney. It is mainly about hand milled soap. I have made lots of CP soap but never the Hand milled so I thought I would try it. IMO this is alot of work for nothing, am I missing something here? I grated about 6 bars of good soap and melted it with water in a double boiler like the book said. Well after about 1 hour it still had not melted-it just formed a soft ball. I put it in a mold anyway and it never did harden up. What is the benefit of hand milled? Does anyone make this and why?


I do it all the time because I cannot find soap online that offer the fragrances that I want. So I buy fragrances separately and buy unscented cp soap and do my own thing.

I find that it is every bit as good as the original soap and I have not had any problem rebatching it. If it does not melt well enough, you either need to add more water/milk or increase the temp. of the oven a bit (mine is around 225 I believe). It also helps if the soap that you are rebatching is not too cured.

donsgal


----------



## BasicLiving (Oct 2, 2006)

MELOC - when you grate and add 50/50 with another batch of CP - when do you add what you grated? At trace with the new batch?

Thanks,
Penny


----------



## MELOC (Sep 26, 2005)

i like to add the grated soap before the trace gets too thick. some batches trace faster than others, so i try to get the grated soap chips in and all mixed and wet before it thickens too much. i don't like to add them too soon as i want the batch currently being made to have time to saponify unimpeded before i incorporate the chips. maybe 50-50 is a bit much, but a third would work great. both of the batches shown were made that way and were awesome.


----------



## BasicLiving (Oct 2, 2006)

Thanks MELOC - I read the cinnamon soap reaction thread too and posted that I had just made a soap using cinnamon. I think I'll grate it and try the method you described. I think I added too much cinnamon anyway and am not pleased that it overtook the smell of the cinnabun fragrance I used. I appreciate the tip!

Thanks,
Penny


----------



## MullersLaneFarm (Jul 23, 2004)

I love Norma Coney's book!

The water into lye was a change that the editor's made.

Her batches are huge (and good thing since she shows using a food scale.) 

the amount she suggests for her remilling is way too much (unless using soap that is a year or so old!)

Other than that, she has great recipes, great explanation of oil characteristics, great troubleshooting, great pakaging ideas.


----------



## kesoaps (Dec 18, 2004)

Okay, I admit I'm a bit anal about this subject, but it drives me nuts. This is called _rebatching_. Milling cannot be done by hand, at home, as it takes special equipment that presses the grated soap back together at a high psi that cannot be achieved in the kitchen 

Not that there's anything wrong with the rebatch method, I'm rebatch challenged and admire anyone who can do it. I've just got a serious hangup regarding the terminology and feel you all should share it


----------



## MadAussieInUSA (Sep 21, 2006)

the best shaving soaps are triple milled. you get the best lather for the straight razor that way.

triple milled.. mmmm..


----------



## MELOC (Sep 26, 2005)

kesoaps said:


> Okay, I admit I'm a bit anal about this subject, but it drives me nuts. This is called _rebatching_. Milling cannot be done by hand, at home, as it takes special equipment that presses the grated soap back together at a high psi that cannot be achieved in the kitchen
> 
> Not that there's anything wrong with the rebatch method, I'm rebatch challenged and admire anyone who can do it. I've just got a serious hangup regarding the terminology and feel you all should share it



i recommend a night out to a movie or a dinner. perhaps staying at home and taking a nice long and hot bath would help too. be sure to use candles and some really luxurious handcrafted soap!


----------



## MullersLaneFarm (Jul 23, 2004)

Tracey, chill!!!

milled is milled is re-batching.

French milled is milled and then pressed.

Milling is not pressing.

Rebatching is processing messed up soap

milling is done purposely to add extra goodies to the soap.

You want some rich jersey cow milk soap and matching bath salts??? I'm sure I can get the local candle maker to make a matching candle for your night of relaxing as you repeat the mantra 'milling is not rebatching'


----------



## BasicLiving (Oct 2, 2006)

After a chuckle over the rebatched/milled discussion, I got to wondering something.....

Yesterday I made a NEW batch of soap and I ADDED the shaved up soap that I made earlier and didn't care so much for. Do I now have a MILLED soap????? It doesn't seem I rebatched really, as I made a whole new batch to add the old soap to. But I started with a new batch - so it doesn't seem that would be called milled either. Maybe I just made a new batch of soap :shrug: 

What would you call that?

Penny


----------



## kidsngarden (Mar 24, 2006)

I call it confetti soap!

Bethany


----------



## Vashti (Dec 22, 2006)

We've always bought bulk plain goats milk soap and milled (lol or rebatched) it and added the elements that we wanted. My daughter has been doing this with me since she was 9, and she sells her creations in her Etsy shop. We're going to adventure into making real soap ourselves with lye very soon. We want to be especially prepared and educated first! Anyway, we've always used the microwave to melt down our soap. It seems to work quickly and is very easy. We chop it up in to about 1 inch pieces, and place it in a plastic bowl, then microwave. We don't grate, as it takes too much time adn effort and seems to be unnessesary.


----------



## BasicLiving (Oct 2, 2006)

I used my food processor to grate the old bars and it worked very quickly and very well. I grated about 12 bars in just a couple of minutes.

I just unmolded and cut the bars and they are really pretty! I added the "confetti" to a batch of CP soap I made with cinnabun fragrance. The cinnamon soap I used for the added a really nice color. I really like it! Hope those on my Christmas list do!

Penny


----------



## Vashti (Dec 22, 2006)

I'd love to see a picture of those bars, Penny! They sound wonderful!


----------



## BasicLiving (Oct 2, 2006)

This is the first time I've ever done this, and I am pleased with how they turned out. Thank heaven for this forum! I'm much happier with this than I was with the cinnamon soap I originally made.


----------



## MELOC (Sep 26, 2005)

nice job! i see a face in that middle bar. it is either a dog, or a very creepy looking man, lol.


----------



## BasicLiving (Oct 2, 2006)

OHMYGOSH Meloc - I wish you hadn't told me that. Now I see it too - but it looks like a cat to me. Upper portion of the bar, right? Creepy! Our house in town had a roof that got kind of stained over the years. It used to really creep me out because I could make out the word "H-E-double-hockey-sticks" on it. My husband thought I was crazy until he finally saw it too!

I'm not going to stare at any more of those bars......

Thanks again for the tip about shredding soap and adding it to a batch. At least now I know what to do with anything that doesn't turn out quite to my liking!

Penny


----------



## used2bcool13 (Sep 24, 2007)

What kind of mold are you using for those great rectangular very flat bars of soap? All of my plastic boxes have some kind of rim or ridge. 
I looove all of your soap pictures. I also have tried making milled soaps with mixed results. My favorite recipe is very large and I don't always want to do it with one scent.
What oils do you like to use?
Thanks
Alison


----------



## BasicLiving (Oct 2, 2006)

Usedtobecool13 - I use a variety of molds - I only have one mold that I bought and I love it, but I usually make 5 pounds of soap at a time and it only holds 2 pounds, so I end up using 2 or 3 different molds.

The wood mold has double wells on it and I've learned to fill them very full to get a nice, rectangular soap.

For the confetti soap I also used a silicone bread pan - but it bulges a little on the sides when filled, so I just trimmed the bars up after I cut them. I also have an old shoe box lined with wax paper that I love because it's just the right size to slice lengthwise down the middle and then cut the bars to end up rectangular as well. It's seen it's better days, but still works great and is one of my favorites. I love using Pringle cans for round soaps. I use silicone muffin molds in stars, flowers, heart shapes for some nice, different shapes.

I am very partial to lard because that's the first soap I made from Cyndi's website and it came out so nicely I'm afraid to switch to anything else! I play around on the soap calc and have come up with several recipes I like - but they all have lard as the main ingredient.

For fragrances, I have used a variety of fragrance oils. Maybe because it's the holidays, but right now the Cinnabun, Hot Apple Pie, and Orange Cranberry are my favorites!

Hope this helps!

Penny


----------

