Teach Soap

I've been using a mitre box and taping/drywall knife to cut my soaps. But I'm starting to eye the wire cutters.....
What are the drawbacks to the wire cutters, besides not being able to adjust the bar width (well, I know on some you can, but not by small increments)?
I read some people mention about "bumps" on the cut surface of the soap from these. Do all wire cutters do this?

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Carrie
Wife to my Best Friend and Homeschool mom to 7 beautiful gifts

I need consistent size and weight of my bars. I bought the Tank as an investment. Money extremely well spent. It's from ForCraftSake. Yes it costs more, but the time saved is invaluable. http://www.forcraftssake.com/shop/index ... ex&cPath=7

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

I use BB's Multi-bar Cutter and love it.

The key for your cutter is to make sure you know what thickness you want before you buy one. Some folks use 1". I like the 1 1/16" inch thickness on the BB cutter better after previously using a 1" thick mold/mitre box cutter. I think the best thickness is personal preference based on what size bar you like to hold in your hand. Consider cutting a couple of bars at the various thicknesses manually so you can compare them.

The other consideration is whether a cutter will accommodate long logs. That's why you'll see an upside-down U-shape on many cutters. It's so there aren't edges to the frame that would run into a longer log. Most molds make logs that are longer than a cutter.

I've never had bumps produced by any cutter. If you have additives on your tops like glitter or lavender buds, then you want to rotate the log before cutting so you don't drag any glitter or lavender buds or...whatever through the soap by cutting it top down. Some people say turn the log upside down - so your additive top is now the bottom. Others, and I'm part of this crowd, turn the log on its side so the additives top is pointed away from the hinge of the cutter. So the bottom of the log is what the wires hit first, the top last. That way, you don't crush the top, and the wire pulls through cleanly for the most part. There is still a little bit of drag through with it on its side, but it's what works for me.

If I had purchased any single piece of equipment sooner, it would have been a cutter. OMG it will save you so much time and the soap looks so much better.

Great! Thank you, Irena & Robert, for your valued input....I appreciate it!

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Carrie
Wife to my Best Friend and Homeschool mom to 7 beautiful gifts

Are there any particular differences between the wire cutters (beside the obvious price variance)? Do they all result in the same "quality" of cut? I'm specifically thinking of The Tank, Bud Haffman's cutter, and the ones from Soap Equipment.

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Carrie
Wife to my Best Friend and Homeschool mom to 7 beautiful gifts

I like the Tank because it's metal construction. I could see if you get a wooden one wet and it might warp.

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

Good point.

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Carrie
Wife to my Best Friend and Homeschool mom to 7 beautiful gifts

Is there any such thing as a "Crinkle Cut" big cutter? I love the crinkle cut look, but after 5000 bars of soap, well, I graciously accepted a one time offer of help and a friend of a friend cut a whole bunch of logs for me!

Jill

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

Hey. Guess what. I was watching soap videos on Youtube the other night and there was a girl making beautiful swirled soaps. I got the impression she sold on Etsy. She did a nice job on the videos............informative but not boring. Anyway she was cutting with a wire cheese cutter. They come attached to a cutting board so they swing down. I am sure you could mark the board so you sizes were pretty uniform. I know this won't work for commercial soapers but for us hobbiests it would be fine. I ordered one on Amazon for about $13.

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