# soap making question



## sugar bandit #2 (Oct 4, 2003)

Hello,
I was wanting to make soap this winter and was told that animal fat based oils and vegetable based oils will go rancid given enough time while a soap-makingbook that I was reading said a lye soap (with the same oils) just gets better with age. Can someone explain this?


----------



## sugar bandit #2 (Oct 4, 2003)

*soap mold question*

In a goat supply magizine I saw they were selling a goatsmilk soap that had a fluted/ridges along the broad side of the bars (love the idea). Does anyone know how these are made and where this type of mold can be purchased. I guesing it might be a pre-waxed ridged paper/ cardboard liner for the wooden box-type molds. Was also wonder if this would be hard to remove and peel off after the soap has cured? 
Thanks


----------



## iddee (Jun 21, 2005)

Lye and oils go through a chemical reaction called saponification, to make an entirely different substance. When the soap is done, it contains neither lye nor oils in their original form, so therefore will not go rancid.


----------



## HVH (Feb 20, 2008)

sugar bandit #2 said:


> Hello,
> I was wanting to make soap this winter and was told that animal fat based oils and vegetable based oils will go rancid given enough time while a soap-makingbook that I was reading said a lye soap (with the same oils) just gets better with age. Can someone explain this?


Most soaps are made with 5-10% less lye than is needed to fully react with the oil. This insures that there is no free lye to burn your skin. The remaining oil can go rancid depending on environmental conditions, the types of oils used and any preservatives added.


----------



## Bizzybee (Jan 29, 2006)

I'm not sure what your book may be saying about soap? But it takes two things to make soap. Lye and fat, anything else isn't soap. Fat can come from animal fats or vegetable/plant oils. I have heard of animal fat soaps going rancid but I've never personally had it happen before.

Regardless of where the fat comes from, when soap is made you are adding enough lye to consume the fat in the oils. The byproduct of the process is soap. If you add to much lye then there will some of it left over at the end of the sap process and you'll have something kinda like grandma made which would take a layer of skin along with the suds when you rinse it away. It will tingle a bit because it will be a bit on the alkaline side of basic. 

That's not typically what you are going to be looking for. Most often you will put in a bit less lye that is required to consume the fats. This has been coined "superfatting". That means that there will be no lye left over, instead you will have a nice mild soap with fats left over in the soap. Those fats (in the case of nice plant oils) are whats going to condition and lubricate the skin. Unfortunately they are fats still and I suppose in the case of some animal fats, will go rancid given enough time. There is also the argument that animal fats will clog skin pores. True or not, I don't subscribe to it either way? I use other oils because of there various skin healing and or conditioning properties. None of which I'm aware of offered by animal fats?

I do still make lard soaps for hand soaps and non-superfatted soaps to grind up for laundry soap. Works great and cheap. I like cheap.  But I have had it around for as long a year and a half without any problems. My other soaps don't stand a chance of lasting that long. What I don't use myself is sold or given to friends as gifts.

Good luck!! I'm sure you'll enjoy making it once you get the hang of it! There's nothing better than using your own soap, kinda like eating your own honey.


----------



## LusciousHoney (Jan 8, 2008)

sugar bandit #2 said:


> In a goat supply magizine I saw they were selling a goatsmilk soap that had a fluted/ridges along the broad side of the bars (love the idea). Does anyone know how these are made and where this type of mold can be purchased. I guesing it might be a pre-waxed ridged paper/ cardboard liner for the wooden box-type molds. Was also wonder if this would be hard to remove and peel off after the soap has cured?
> Thanks


My guess is that the soap is made in a regular loaf mold and then cut with a wavy cutter... http://www.pvsoap.com/wavy_soap_cutter.asp gives you a picture. Just do a web search for "wavy soap cutter" and you will get all sorts of hits.
Petra


----------

