Soap making tonight

I realized we were just about out of our homemade soap a few days ago. I usually get about 2 years from each batch that I make.

Here are some photos taken just before mixing the ingredients, after blending the batch and the mold forms that I have. I made more fancy molded soap the last time around but it takes more time to dip and finish them.

This time I used one of our soap loaf pans for the bulk and had just enough time to form 3 oval bars. Those that have never made soap, once it starts to set up and cure a bit you have to get things done quickly or you will run out of time to work it.

You have to let your fresh poured soap cure about 24 hours. After that time frame you can pop it out of the molds and cut the brick into cakes of your size preference. The fancy molded soap just pops right out of the silicone mold forms. Once the soap is cut or formed to your desired size they must sit out for 2-3 weeks to complete the curing process before using.

Very cool Bob! I've been thinking about trying that.

Do you save much money making your own soap?

I remember my mother made homemade soap, it wasn't for personal use, I think it had a lot of lye in it and was used to wash clothes. As I recall it was pretty wicked stuff. I think a cake was kept handy for washing very dirty greasy hands.

Thats cool….Nevah made soap before. Might have to get the recipe from yah

Great idea!

As far as the price goes comparing to store bought I think it is more economical. If I don't have folks ask for any of our stock for themselves to use we get near 2 years of soap. Plus I have all the many tallow fats from my business as the base materials. I think you all should try your hand at soap making. Its fun and rewarding as well as a daily use item.

All I need to buy is the powdered lye and distilled water. You only need 5.4 oz. of Lye per batch. I can get 6 batches of soap from a 2# container of Lye. Distilled water is about a dollar a gallon.
Use caution when working with the lye and water combination. It can burn you as it can get near 200 degrees once blended together. It then slowly cools down.

Wear goggles or face shield, keep the kids and pets away, don't let them help.

I add some essential oil from our vast ingredient selection for a scented touch to the soap and some food grade dye for a soft color shade to the soap. The last two batches were peach scented.

Our soap is very creamy, it suds up nicely and, leaves a nice smooth feel to your skin. Nothing harsh or extra chemicals that you will find in commercial soap. I use rendered bobcat fat, bear grease, beef tallow, coon fat etc. What ever fat or lard you use it does need to be rendered into a liquid and strained. Then it can be stored until its needed for soap making.

I make large pails of each fat to save for our soap making. Some use coconut oil and other fatty oils instead of lard.

The rendered bobcat fat is my favorite and a select tallow fat in my opinion. It is very easy to make after your first time batch. Keep your soap formula some place handy to find again.

You must weigh each ingredient accurately. Pay attention to your temps before you blend the melted fat and lye/water mix together.

I use a digital lazer thermometer that I use for making my wax dirt.

I have one of those long necked hand blenders to whip and stir the mix until it begins to thicken slightly. Then its ready to dump out or to deposit into silicon soap molds to cool.

I have helped the wife make soap in the past , the immersion blender

there are a number of online soap calculators you need to not over do the Lye a good scale is a must


she had us put wax paper over the forms and then cover in towles to slow the cool that helped avode pll away or cracking

the other thing some people who get into shaped soaps or like a really dense soap is milling the basically cut it into chunks and run it in a meat grinder then re-melt and pour into molds some repeat that process which makes a more dense bar , but it is a little like lead if you don't like the mold you got you can just recycle it.

there is a or was some soap charity that collected the soaps form hotels and re-milled it into bars to send to 3rd world countries.

Ivory is an example of a very not dense soap it floats because it has air stirred into it not bad if you are bathing in a lake but the bar is gone much faster than the home made soap

a little sugar is sometimes added to soap as it creates more lather

My soap cured hard enough over night to cut this morning. I just had to pop the small soap bars from the mold and slice the brick loaf.

Averaged just under 4 # of finished soap.

The trough I use cuts the bars to 5-6 oz. bars. Good man sized soap for the shower. The smaller molded soap bars are 3 oz. each. The larger bars last a long time. You fellas that prefer bar soap with a rope can drill the soap. Then you can just wrap the rope loop around your wrist so you won't have to bend over to pick it up.








This is some rendered bobcat fat I just strained and is cooling for a few hours. This cat fat had already broken down through sun rendering for the last 2 years. It makes some very creamy soap.

Thanks for sharing Bob

neat, will start saving the cat-fat, I have some original Tonquin that I love the smell will put a drop or two in!?