Teach Soap

Okay, I just had an interesting thing happen. I made some unscented & uncolored soap yesterday using OO, Palm & Coconut (equal %s of each) - but with a "water discount". In soapcalc, I used 27% Water as a percent of oil weight instead of the default 38%. So the water to lye ratio was 1.85:1.

When I attempted to cut the loaf today using my wire cutter, the loaf was so hard, I was only able to cut part way through because I was afraid of stretching & breaking the wires in the cutter.

Is this because of the water discount? My guess is yes, so this tells me that if I'm going to use a wire cutter, I can't use a water discount.

Anyone have any experience with water discounts and wire cutters??

Here is a picture of the cut soap:


Full recipe from soapcalc in case you want it:
Ingredient Pounds Ounces Grams
Water 1.013 16.2 459.262
Lye - NaOH 0.547 8.752 248.101
# √ Oil/Fat % Pounds Ounces Grams
1 Coconut Oil, 76 deg 33.33 1.25 20 566.99
2 Palm Oil 33.33 1.25 20 566.99
3 Olive Oil 33.33 1.25 20 566.99
Totals 100 3.75 60 1700.97

Yes, it was most likely your water discount that made it hard to cut. I don't use a wire cutter, but when I do a water discount for my 100% olive oil, it's harder to cut.

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Linda
I know the voices in my head aren't real, but they sure have some great ideas!

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Irena
Closed minds are like faulty parachutes; they refuse to open.