I ran out of our homestead soap a couple weeks ago. Busy days keep me pulled in other directions it seems frequently. I almost got it done yesterday but got distracted once again. So today was the day to do the deed. I usually get a year or more of soap from each batch but friends and associates like it, so I share a few bars here and there.

This soap was made from rendered Bobcat fat that I melt / filter when I get enough to work it. I add some Peach Cilantro oil to add a nice fresh fragrance to it. Sometimes I willl use our in house beef tallow for the fat or any other animal fat.

The large long brick and small bars need to cure 24 hours or so before I can remove them from the Silicone molds. The smaller molded soap bars are what is left over from the main mold pour batch.

When the soap as fully cured I will rack the large block soap into a jig that has pre measured cuts sort of like a Mitre box and I will slice the block into individual bars.

The soap bars have to air cure for about 3 weeks to ensure the bars will not wear down too quickly. Fresh made soap is very soft and creamy. Nothing like store bought soap. Those that haven't used this kind of soap before are in for a treat.

Very interesting. I’ve often wondered if some castor tincture and allspice would make a good smelling soap.

We have a neighbor who makes goat milk soap. Expensive stuff so I’ve never bought any.

Bob you make good cupcakes but they sure give me the hiccups….
And the runs…

At least it smells peachy....

Smasho the soap is for external use only, it is not recommended for internal use or consumption. I guess you could use it for a mouth wash as a freshener for some.

You can make soap any scent you want it to have. Not sure if I would want to smell like castor but it could be done. It isn't difficult to make. You can whip up a batch pretty quick if you have the ingredients available.

I wouldn’t think a bobcat would have a lot of fat on it to make soap. Pretty cool

You would be surprised how much fat some cats have on them. A few years ago I skinned a few cats that I got almost 4 lbs. of clean fat from them. It needs rendering and straining to prepare it for good soap making.

I’ve been wanting to make some soap. What is your recipe. Do you filter wood ash?

I always wanted to learn how to make soap. But never made the step to do it. But this last hunting season the mature does the family harvested were loaded with tallow. I saved and rendered down quite a bit and stored it in quart mason jar. Found a Amish lady that makes soap and had her make it for me. She needed 9 pound of tallow to make a batch. she made two batches for me one natural and the second with lavender. I ended up with 28 pounds total. It is really good stuff.

Nice Bob,

I'm fortunate enough to be able to purchase goats milk soap from a member's wife on the forum. Best soap ever.

I removed the partially cured soap from the molds after sitting over night. I use silicone molds which allows easy and gentle removal of the forms from the soap.

The soap is still some what soft and creamy feeling at this early stage, so you need to be careful in how rough it is handled at this point. Once the large soap brick has been removed I place it in the cutting box. This allows the soap to be cut into nice individual soap bars of near equal size.

Once the soap has been cut into usable bars and the individual soap molded bars are removed from their molds they must now be set aside for around 3 weeks or so to finish the dry curing period. If the soap is used too soon it will break down much too quickly with use.












I place these bars on a plastic mesh screen to allow good air circulation around them during this process. When I think about it I will rotate the bars and keep them standing on their sides to have more surface area exposed for evaporation to occur more quickly.

If you look closely at the last photo you can see the white looking halo around the interior outside edges of the cut bar soap. This part of the soap has cured, now the interior needs to dry from the inside out to turn to the same color. Then your soap is cured and ready for use. It does take some time.

Once they are cured in about 3 weeks I can once again get to shower.

My old friend Carl spoke of making some "Mountain Man" Beaver Castor / All Spice soap on his post comment. I guess it will be called "Beaverpeeler" soap.

I have never made any of that type of soap previously. However I will head over to our facility this morning and put together a formula for him and make a batch today. I am curious as to how it will look and smell after the saponification process.

Then I would be anxious to see what his wife thinks of his new body fragrance after showing with it and the odor in the bathroom afterwards.

3 weeks between showering is about right.
I want.mine to be scented with "before ".

Ok Carl, we have your formula completed. It has been blended and emulsified. Your soap will definitely have a cocoa color it seems and the odor is quite pleasing to my nose.

The blending of the castor and spices seems to be appearing to be a very nice fragrance. I believe it may have a bit of a pumice texture to it due to the fine castor powder. However it may be absorbed completely and softened due to the chemical process, we shall see.




This is a "first for me" formulation of this type.It doesn't quite smell like I thought it might. It is actually quite mild and carries a woodsy type of fragrance. It has the look of chocolate in the molds. I am anxious to see in the morning how the pour molds have worked out.

The ingredients seemed to stay suspended within the soap nicely. I had thought they may tend to settle to the bottom due to their density and weight factor. I did allow the batch to cool a bit more then usual since it tends to thicken as it cools.

You cannot let your batch cool too much or you will not be able to get a good pour, or be able to measure out the spoons to fill the cute little bar molds nicely.

It will get like taffy and not spread evenly.

Say Bob,
do you have to use any other ingredients in this besides the fat and scent? I thought there had to be lye added or something. It`s been a long time since I have heard of this, but this seems really cool. Is it possible to use beaver fat for this, or is it too soft? I seem to remember this was usually made from hard fats like beef and deer and what not. Thanks for posting this, this is pretty neat.

I have used many of the solid animal fats. I have used beef tallow, bobcat fat, coon fat, pork lard.I haven't used beaver fat I don't know why it couldn't be used if processed down and strained. Most any animal fats can be used as the soap base. The Lye / water mix is what transforms the fat into the soap.

My basic formula is 40 oz. wt. solid fat melted.
5.4 oz wt. of lye crystals dissolved in 13.5 oz of distilled water

Once the ingredients have reached around 100 degrees or cooler they can be blended thoroughly together. I stir by hand for a while to mix all the ingredients well. I then use a stick blender for a few minutes to whip everything until it starts to show signs of thickening. Then it is time to get the soap base poured into your mold(s).

It is not hard to do. Some care must be taken for safety precautions using the lye and water mixture.

This should go in the archives?

Yes