How the pros make soap

[Tony]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1baLzbathvI

Should fit in the shed?

[greasemonkey]

That's pretty fascinating. Doesn't mention anything about curing it though. From what I've read about it. The soap needs to be left to cure for around six weeks, to get all the caustic to be used up, in the saponification (sp)  process. Other wise it will be very alkali. Slightly alkali is good, it improves the cleaning capability. Very alkali is bad, it stings your eyes and drys your skin, like what soap does...........
Gonna try making some, sometime. ( Despite a somewhat grubby appearance, I actually use a lot of it........)

[Tony]

Cleanliness is next to godliness apparently.  Good job I'm not at all religious then really!

They didn't seem to do much curing in the video - unless they cure in the packaging?

[greasemonkey]

I somehow doubt mass produced soap is cured it in the packaging.  It's not a really a high value product, and they wouldn't have it sitting around for six weeks in a warm place. My guess is that with their better machinery, they use less caustic, and get a better reaction than the home maker.
It still shouldn't burn your eyes though, which I find it does, so there is still too much caustic left in it. They reckon old fashioned, hand mad soap doesn't burn, coz it's left to cure properly.

I haven't been to teh source of the info, but just reading on forums and that, it costs about £300 to get a recipe approved for public sale. Someone needs to test your soap bars, then there is public liability. Can't imagine that is a fortune.

Seems just one of those things that would be a sideways step from bio and veg, being as we are in the business anyway. Could be a few quid in it.

[julianf]

I think that one of the problems with us lot flogging soap is that you just dont know what's in it.

I have no idea if the problem things would get carried over, but, what if you flog a bar to someone with one of those full on peanut allergies, and, in a former life, the oil was cooking satayall day line?

[greasemonkey]

Rape seed oil doesn't make nice soap,(apparently, just reciting what I have read, I don't actually know anything about it)
Sunflower is ok for a base, up to around 50%, but olive oil, and another that I can't remember is what makes it good soap.
I guess reclaimed would be ok for workshop soap, dunno if I'd fancy lathering up the lower regions with it in the shower in the morning though. End up stinking like a Chinese take away all day.
Basically, it would have to be new oil.
What got me thinking a bit more about it was some article on Syria. Apparently Syrian soap was highly prized, in the Arab world, and a lot of the rest of it. Now there is a big hole in the supply of quality soap.

[photoman290]

could be that in the video they didn't follow the process sequentially and they may be a curing stage that was missed out to fit the  piece into the time slot.