Teach Soap

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Debbie

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The Soapinatrix! *whip-crack*
- Posting the trials and tribulations of my Soaping Journey!

Right back at you.

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

LOL soap porn? Is that what our picture thread is? =P

We lubs you too Coolah!

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~~Heather~~
Mad [soaping] Scientist

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Debbie

QUESTION

In this video, towards the end after she has poured her soap in, played with the top etc... why does she run the knife around? I assume to give it a 'clean' edge? If that's the reason, do you only do it around the top? Or do you take the knife all the way to the bottom of the mold?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=pl ... 8IM#t=335s

Video will start right before she does the knife part...

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The Soapinatrix! *whip-crack*
- Posting the trials and tribulations of my Soaping Journey!

I don't see what purpose the knife does except maybe clean up the sides a bit or let out any air bubbles since her soap is thick.

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

Hrm okies, thanks. I wasn't sure if it was something that might help when un-molding and not getting those cracks I get when my soap tries to hang on...

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The Soapinatrix! *whip-crack*
- Posting the trials and tribulations of my Soaping Journey!

I'm stumped about the knife as well. I don't do it, and I've never seen anybody else do it.

And you're certainly welcome, Coolah.

Anita

Coolah, now you are "off to the races". I am patiently waiting to see those cut bars. It has been awhile since I made all that Christmas soap.... so I live vicariously thru everyone on the forum. As soon as I get the soapmaker program all up and running I will start again.

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Susie
Sometimes A Mistake is so much fun, You just have to do it again!

So happy for you! Aren't you glad you didn't quit? Can't wait to see it when you've cut it.

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

I can't wait to see it cut either!! Even though it came out of the mold easily, it's still a bit soft around the edges. I'm assuming that's because I didn't gel though. I'm learning this patience thing... slowly. Me and my 4 yr old... learning it together.

I keep gently touching the corners to wait for those to be hard. Definitely better this morning. I'm hoping maybe this afternoon or tomorrow some time it will be ready to cut.

And yes, I'm so glad you guys didn't LET me quit!! I would have without you. The best thing to come out of all the hassles though, is how much I've learned. I mean, I learned a lot through reading, but I find I retain information better when I experience it first hand. It's like you can read how to be an acrobat for years, but until you start doing those flips and understand how it feels, you can never really know. Before I started soaping, I read my books from cover to cover, nodding over all the 'what happens if' parts, etc. But it wasn't until I was having those happen, that I really sat down and knew what it was talking about. And now the information not only makes sense, but has also stuck.

I may even break out the lard now that I am aware it will have to sit much, much longer than my palm recipe!

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The Soapinatrix! *whip-crack*
- Posting the trials and tribulations of my Soaping Journey!

It's that patience thing.... I'm glad you didn't quit. I knew you could do it!

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

Was hoping I wouldn't have to reply to this thread again, but, well here I am. lol.

I cut up the orange soap this morning. Was quite surprised at just how soft it was inside still - and to a certain degree, the outside could be 'pushed' if I pressed too hard. The differences between this batch and the plain batch that came out great was:
[*]I added colour
[*]I added fragrance
[*]I didn't gel

Out of the 3 above, I'm going to assume not gelling is what is giving me such soft soap. While this one came out of the mold beautifully, that was because it was frozen solid and kind of had no choice. I left it sit out for 2.5 days before cutting and it was still soft enough that the orange peel pieces were pushes right through the soap by the cutter.





Very soft!

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The Soapinatrix! *whip-crack*
- Posting the trials and tribulations of my Soaping Journey!

Bummer! But, the colors are very nice!

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