# crumbling soap



## a1cowmilker (Jun 14, 2005)

Hi, I am new here and love to read about what all of you are doing.

I made blender soap two years ago and it turned out fine. I made it last week with peanut oi, canola oil and some old crisco. It traced fast ( like 15 seconds) and I poured it quickly. I added some powdered cinnamon to it.

I cut it two days later and it crumbled pretty badly. Any idea as to why? and can I rebatch it or add it to other soap like you would chunks of soap?

As you can see, I am very new to this, but seeing all those beautiful soaps have made me a lot crazy for homemade soap.

Thanks and even though my name is a1 cowmilker, it's an old name, it should now probably just be cowlover.

thanks,


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## kidsngarden (Mar 24, 2006)

I would think that maybe you have a lye heavy batch. Touch it to the tongue and if it has zap, you've got lye heavy soap.

Are you running your recipe through a lye calculator like www.soapcalc.com?

kids


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## MullersLaneFarm (Jul 23, 2004)

concur - sounds lye heavy if it traced that fast and is crumbling.

Is your recipe by weight or by volume?? so many of the blender soap recipes I see are by weight.


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## a1cowmilker (Jun 14, 2005)

It "zaps" so now I know. :Bawling: Two questions, do I throw it out or can I rebatch it? And, If I can rebatch it how would I do that?

I used a diet weight scale, not an electric one. 

Thanks, for the advice. I will go to that web site and see what I need to do.

a1


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## kidsngarden (Mar 24, 2006)

Shred it and use it for laundry soap. Add a bit of borax to neutralize it a bit. I've never had a lye heavy bar, but I wouldn't rebatch it if I did. All the work and who knows if it will turn out?

A digital scale is a wonderful thing! But I think I did my first batches on a non digital. 

Make sure you always do your ALL soap measuring by weight not volume. The only thing that weighs the same as it is volume is water - but I still weigh it anyway!

Bethany


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## MELOC (Sep 26, 2005)

i think borax is a base so it will not neutralize the lye. that said, i personally would feel it is safe to use for laundry. the extra lye dissolved in many gallons of water will probably be safe enough for clothes. lye is often used industrially as a cleaner.


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## Betho (Dec 27, 2006)

One thing to mention is that this probably happened because diet scales aren't quite accurate enough to measure small batches like blender soap. I had that happen to me a few times too! Instead of making the soap in a blender, make a couple pounds at a time and use a stick blender. You can usually find them real cheap at garage sales or thrift stores. That way the soap traces quickly but you have enough volume in the batch itself to compensate if you happen to overmeasure on the lye a tad. With the smaller batches, the error of margin is so tiny that it's easy to end up with a batch so lye-heavy it can only be laundry soap.

my 2 cents 

The Other Bethany In Washington


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## MELOC (Sep 26, 2005)

Betho said:


> One thing to mention is that this probably happened because diet scales aren't quite accurate enough to measure small batches like blender soap. I had that happen to me a few times too! Instead of making the soap in a blender, make a couple pounds at a time and use a stick blender. You can usually find them real cheap at garage sales or thrift stores. That way the soap traces quickly but you have enough volume in the batch itself to compensate if you happen to overmeasure on the lye a tad. With the smaller batches, the error of margin is so tiny that it's easy to end up with a batch so lye-heavy it can only be laundry soap.
> 
> my 2 cents
> 
> The Other Bethany In Washington



a good point. an example of that would be the margin of error in the accuracy of my digital postal scales. on a 4 lb. batch of soap, the amount of error while measuring the lye could mean my soap is 5% superfatted or it is 0% superfatted. i was not comfortable with that so i bought manual scientific scales to measure the lye with.

the other way of looking at it is if i doubled my batch size and used the old scales, it could be 5% SF to 2.5% SF. if i quadruple the batch, the discrepency may only be 1%. i always assumed the error to be on the side of weighing too much lye. to be safe is one reason and i just feel that is the way the digital scales work is another. it may read 1 oz. for example, but it may really be 1.4 oz. and not register 2 ounces until it has 2.2. you get the idea.


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## MullersLaneFarm (Jul 23, 2004)

MELOC said:


> to be safe is one reason and i just feel that is the way the digital scales work is another. it may read 1 oz. for example, but it may really be 1.4 oz. and not register 2 ounces until it has 2.2. you get the idea.


My scale weigh to the thousandths (sp?) of an ounce (i.e. 1.23).

For any small batches (3# & under), I switch to grams.


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## kidsngarden (Mar 24, 2006)

MELOC said:


> i think borax is a base so it will not neutralize the lye. that said, i personally would feel it is safe to use for laundry. the extra lye dissolved in many gallons of water will probably be safe enough for clothes. lye is often used industrially as a cleaner.


Ok, so I had to google it because people always refer to making a borax solution to "nuetralize" liquid soap. PH is base - a little above 9. So I'm not really getting it. when my LS is done it's about 7.5 - 8...very interesting.

Bethany


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## MELOC (Sep 26, 2005)

MullersLaneFarm said:


> My scale weigh to the thousandths (sp?) of an ounce (i.e. 1.23).
> 
> For any small batches (3# & under), I switch to grams.



the postal scales i used were accurate to .2 oz or 2 gm...i think. the bad part was that when measuring grams, they increased in 5 gm increments. when measuring in oz., it would read tenths of an oz., but it was only accurate to 2 tenths of an ounce...i think, lol. i put that behind me as i now use a triple beam scientific balance for the lye weight. i am not too concerned for a .2 oz. error in fat weight, but for a small batch of soap, .2 oz. error in lye weight is a big difference.

my only beef with my postal scales used for fats is the problem with them shutting off. :flame: if they are left idle for too long, or even if they have been on for some time and are still in use, they can shut off. to prevent having residual fats left in containers by measuring fats individually, i normally place my melting pot on the scales and set the tare weight...the scales now read "0" with the pot sitting there. then i weigh each oil or fat as i put it in the melting pot. the oils get mixed, so if the scale goes off during the middle of an addition, i am in trouble as i lose track of that particular oil's weight. there is no way to unmix those oils, lol. i do this because i don't like the idea of having oils sticking to the side of several containers and not getting an accurate weight of the ingredients.


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## MullersLaneFarm (Jul 23, 2004)

I got the KD 7000 from OldWillKnott

http://www.oldwillknottscales.com/index.asp?PageAction=VIEWPROD&ProdID=284

Mode: Capacity: Resolution: 
Pounds/Ounces 15 lb, 7 oz 0.1 oz 
Pounds 15.450 lb 0.002 lb 
Ounces 246.9 oz 0.05 oz 
Grams 7,000 g 1 g 
Kilograms 7.000 kg 0.001 kg 




> PROGRAMMABLE AUTO-OFF
> Have ya' ever been weighing your package, and your dang scale shuts off on ya'? Well... ya' don't have to worry about THAT pain in the rear anymore if ya' buy this scale! You can tell it to EITHER "auto-shut-off" automatically after 2 minutes or 5 minutes (your choice), OR to always stay on until ya' turn it off!
> 
> BLUE BACKLIT DISPLAY
> ...


It also comes with an optional AC adapter for under $5


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## MELOC (Sep 26, 2005)

nice


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## MullersLaneFarm (Jul 23, 2004)

Thanks - I went 7 years with an Escali scale that I paid a lot more than what I gave for the KD7000 (about $50 with the adapter)


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## a1cowmilker (Jun 14, 2005)

Thank you so much for the advice on using a stick blender and making larger thant 1 pound batches. That is the perfect solution for me at the moment. I didn't want to spend the money on making a huge batch when I was just starting out. But I could certainly make a larger batch with a stick blender that I happened to pick up at a garage sale this spring.

I am excited to try this, but I do have a new respect for soap makers. It just isn't for the faint of heart now, is it?

THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!

Oh, almost forgot, for those of you that bought an electric scale, do you use if for anything else or is it totally dedicated to soap making?

Thanks, A1cowlover


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## MullersLaneFarm (Jul 23, 2004)

I use it for anything I need to weigh - from boxes needing shipped, to fiber for dyeing, dye materials, et al.

One bit of advice I'll give you that has worked wonders for me in keeping my scales to last so long. Keep it in a see through bag, _especially_ when you are weighing something on it.

Lye, essential oil, base oils, etc WILL spill - better safe than sorry.


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## Chickadee_42us (Jan 24, 2003)

Cyndi - I have that scale but it kept shutting off automatically and as stated being my first time I kept getting confused as to where was I on adding the oil weight. 

How do I get it to stay on until I turn it off?


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## linn (Jul 19, 2005)

I think you can shred it and melt it in an old crockpot and add some fat to it. You can figure how much to add using a lye calculator. After adding the extra fat, run it through the blender again and pour it into the molds. You won't lose much by trying to rebatch. I have rebatched soap twice and it turned out fine. I always add about 1/4 cup powdered milk to the melted soap. It makes it smooth. I got this hint from the internet.


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