Process For Basic Soap Making
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There may be several reasons that people are interested in soap making. Some people find that the commercially prepared soaps cause you to have an allergic reaction. Others find the process to be fun and very profitable. Still others like to know what they are using to clean their bodies and clothes. Whatever your reason, you will need a basic recipe for soap making.
Soap is made from fat and lye. Early settlers in the United States extracted the lye from wood ash and used beef tallow or lard to make soap.
Today many soap making hobbyist make soap using these same fats but like to add coconut oil, palm oil, hemp oil or some other vegetable oil.
Lye or sodium hydroxide can be bought prepared, although it is getting harder to find, since it is often used in production of methamphetamine. You may be required to show an ID in order to purchase lye today.
One of the easiest ways to make soap is through the cold process method. Using the cold process method, ingredients must be measured carefully as it is very important to have the correct concentration of lye. If there is too much lye, the soap can burn the skin. With too little lye, it can feel greasy. Cold process soaps must be allowed to cure for several weeks before they can be used.
Both the lye solution and the fats will both need to be at 100 to 110 degrees Fahrenheit when they are mixed. Mixing by hand can take over an hour until the soap reaches a pudding like stage where scents and colors are added into the mixture. Many of the amateur soap makers today use a hand blender to help with the mixing and the process can take as little as five minutes.
The mixture is then poured into molds and wrapped in towels or blankets for insulation. The chemical reaction will continue to give off heat for several hours as the soap continues in converting from fat to soap.
Once the soaps have hardened they are removed from the mold and cut into shape.
Hot process soap is made when the exact amount of lye is unknown. This was the process that the settlers used when making soap from potash. It was hard to know the exact concentration, but the heat ensured that the fats reacted with the available lye to make soap.
In this process the fats and lye are boiled together at just under the boiling point of water until the saponification process takes place. Early soap makers used taste to tell when the soap was ready.
The first settlers would use soap that was in the gel state and simply store it in barrels for use. After salt became less expensive, they would add salt to the mixture to cause the soap to form into a solid.
Hot process soaps may be used immediately upon cooling.
Many people that make their own soap today add many other ingredients to the soap including oatmeal, herbs or botanicals to their soaps.
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