Teach Soap

I've seen a couple of you use ice and then pour the lye over the ice so you don't have to wait as long for the lye water to cool down. My question is, how do you know how much ice to use? I thought ice weighed less than water?

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Sympathetic Soap - Naturally made, naturally good.

I would not use all ice for your water portion. If the lye gets too cold, you could end up with a false trace, or not all of the lye will dissolve. It is much more difficult to warm up the lye water then it is to cool it down. Use minimum water required in your recipe, then weigh the rest as ice. Always go by weight. Frozen water weighs the same as liquid water.

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

Thanks for that - I was thinking ice was less weight and wouldn't weigh out correctly, but my husband helped set me straight on that one. Good to know about using a mix of water and ice.

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Sympathetic Soap - Naturally made, naturally good.

instead of using ice - just use water out of the fridge or you can put the jug in the sink with ice water around it to cool it. The only time I use anything frozen is when I use beer or milk instead of water - I dont think water needs to be ice at all. Also if you are freezing something like beer or milk it should be a slushy mix not solid ice. I over froze my beer once and the lye just froze to it - it took so long to melt down and be able to add it to the oils!

If by "weighs the same" you mean will have the same mass frozen or solid then that's correct, but it will have a different volume. Of course we soapers don't go by volume anyway.

It would be interesting to make a Deuterium soap using heavy water ie, water that has a heavy isotope of hydrogen, and thus has a higher boiling point. Of course it would take longer to cure, and would be prohibitively expensive, and you'd have a UN investigation on your hands, cause it's not something many civilians can get their hands on. >.>

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Just call me "Apo"

I have used ice every time, but what I do is weigh out my distilled water, pour about 1/2 - 2/3 into the lye pitcher, freeze it while refrigerating the remaining water. When I'm ready to soap, I pour the refrigerated water into the frozen water. Then I slowly pour the lye crystals into the now slushy ice water and stir. The lye melts the ice rather quickly. I stir for a full 2 minutes. The lye water is carried in by an adult. What I find is that the lye water becomes 125 degr F. Great temp!