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I'm in the middle of making soap, and have got a bit stuck! I'm following mel's recipe, and added the 4 1/2oz sodium hydroxide (crystals) to 13oz water (by weight), expecting it to slowly warm to the required 55 degress. What it actually did was shoot over 60 in a few seconds and explode my thermometer! Have I mis-read the instructions somehow?

I'm off out to get a new thermometer (that read to higher temps!) - any help greatly appreciated!

You probably added the sodium hydroxide too quickly :) I use it at work and if you add it too fast you can boil water

I think you mat be right there :)

I've tried again and it's going ok so far - waiting for trace at the moment..

G'day John,

a little hint is to add the NaOH to ice rather than water, it helps to keep it under control!

Nev

Hello. Ooh, someone actually tried my instructions. Yes, the NaOH heats up the water very quickly. If the water was at all warm to start with it can easily boil if you add all the NaOH at once. Wombat's suggestion of using ice water isn't a bad idea.

You're not doing anything wrong, but make sure the water starts off fairly cold, and add the NaOH gradually if you can. Was your thermometer a jam thermometer, designed to cope with higher temperatures?

Apart from that, how did it work out? It should be cured by now, have you tried it yet? What essential oils did you use? Can you post a picture?

Hello folks
I 've just started making soap and am wondering if I can add fresh aloe vera from my plant and if so, at what stage would I add it?

Mel: i used your insructions too and made wonderful soap! Thanks for your really great tutorial!

I think you can add the aloe vera either at trace, or as part of the liquid. Generally, you substitue some of the liquid allowance for aloe vera, keep the alo back until trace is reached, and then mix it in.

I think

I'll have an ask on another forum - there's people who make aloe soap on there!!

Thanks Fee

I'll try it and see

Can someone point me in the right direction for chickpea's soap making instructions pretty please.

just an interesting note; i have been working inour local Mitre10 hardware store for about 3 weeks now and have had multiple (ladies) come in and ask for sodium hydroxide or (that stuff you use to make soap you know?) several of whom have been astonished that i knwem it would be for soap making!

have found we do sell the 100% pure powder as drain cleaner, so next time dad slaughters one of our fat, fat sheep im rendering it (outside) and then gunna make me some home grown soap!
Any one got a recipie that uses tallow . . .

Ooh, go for it!

Tallow is supposed to make the creamiest soap. I just don't like using it because i don't like the smell as it melts

Have a look on google for Tallow Soap Recipe, and there should be some somewhere. You might want to add some essential/fragrance oils...

ta Fee. found this:

"Tallow Blend Soap (Kathy Miller)

44 oz. beef tallow
20 oz. olive oil
20 oz. coconut oil
12 oz. lye crystals
32 oz. cold water

Temps 110-115

If I were rendering tallow from scratch again like I used to, this would be my recipe of choice. You can make soap with straight tallow or a blend of tallow and lard, but for the best of all worlds, adding coconut for sudsing and olive for its mildness does a lot for a tallow soap. If you want your bars a bit softer for cutting or are going to be using a fragrance oil with unpredictable results, you can increase the water by two ounces."

Warning - "War story" coming.

Back whan I was a young chemist, I was doing some research on wool scouring soaps. We had to use the cheapest and nastiest ingredients to try and compete with detergents (didn't work!). Anyway I had to go to the Riverstone Meat Works to pick up a 20 litre pail of tallow. The room was huge and absolutely rotten with the stench of molten tallow. Here I am, waiting to collect the sample and trying desperately not to Ralph, when one of the workers comes down the stairs eating his morning tea - a pie!

Nev

Kathy Miller is a soap-making Star, so that recipe should be great. She has a weaalth of experience behind her, and is a very friendly approachable person if you get stuck as well.

Nev: that's horrible!! I used Lard in a soap and that was enough to turn me off!