Tonight... We Make Soap!

[FloorPizza]

All NaOH will make a very hard to lather soap. I'd stick with 60% KOH, otherwise you are going to be disappointed. This has been verified experimentally - below 60% KOH you get bubbly, vanishing lather, above 60% you get fine, stable lather.

Try both, but you won't ever use all NaOH again for shaving s

This.
@Danmarx The two batches I made with 100% NaOH aren't shaving soap anymore.. they're bath soap. They were supposed to be shaving soap, but turned out hard. Really hard. Like... seriously hard. Far harder than any soap I've ever seen before. You could use them as building materials.

Keep in mind that even though your bottle of KOH won't have it written anywhere on it, it will be 90% strength KOH. If you can get a manufacturer's analysis for your KOH, even better, as some of them have hit 92%. Not that big of a deal as long as you're super fatting, but can make a difference if you make a 0% super fat batch.

Some soap calcs will default to 90% KOH, others you have to select 90% strength. Regardless, your KOH *will* be 90% unless it specifically says otherwise on the bottle, or you have a manufacturer's certificate of analysis that states otherwise.

It's worth waiting until you get KOH to make your recipe. The way KOH changes the lather and makes the soap softer is well worth the delay.

Edit: I actually think I might try your recipe with 100% NaOH to try as a nice hard bath soap. Going to tweak it to 10% super fat with 2% lanolin.

The base recipe should make for a good shaving soap when made 60/40 KOH/NaOH, although I'd swap percentages of the castor oil and olive oil.

 

[psfred]

The 60% KOH is the ratio of KOH to NaOH, not the KOH strength...... at 60:40 KOH to NaOH I get soaps that are firm by moldable by hand. They lather very nicely indeed.

 

[FloorPizza]

Yeah, I didn't mean to confuse the discussion... use 90% strength KOH at a 60:40 KOH/NaOH ratio.

 

[Danmarx]

Thanks!

 

[Dilbone]

In my soap thread I Chronicle the first at least 3 attempts at shave soap consisting of only locally available ingredients. I used red devil lye which is 100% NaOH and everyone told me I needed KOH...I didn't doubt their assessment but my intent was to see if it is possible to make something even passable as a shave soap from these local ingredients. I concluded it is absolutely not possible...or at least I wasn't willing to continue to make bath soap with various tweaks to my recipes hoping it might produce a stable enough lather to shave with without disappearing 1/3 of the way through a pass. However, I did make some killer bath soap!!!

I will echo once again for anyone following this thread to do yourself a favor and pick up some KOH.

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[Danmarx]

I've never bothered with KOH, but have ordered 1 lb (90% strength) from Amazon, along with a new hand blender, which appears to be the same one JetPilot displayed. I'd burnt out my last one and have been using this Not suitable for small batches.

I'll wait 'till Wednesday when the KOH arrives. I agree with your suggestion to reverse the olive oil and castor oil percentages, tho' I'll prob'ly go with 11% castor and 10% olive.
I did some reading on the differences between NaOH and KOH; nice to have another variable in the arsenal. Thanks guys!

 

[FloorPizza]

In my soap thread I Chronicle the first at least 3 attempts at shave soap consisting of only locally available ingredients. I used red devil lye which is 100% NaOH and everyone told me I needed KOH...I didn't doubt their assessment but my intent was to see if it is possible to make something even passable as a shave soap from these local ingredients. I concluded it is absolutely not possible...or at least I wasn't willing to continue to make bath soap with various tweaks to my recipes hoping it might produce a stable enough lather to shave with without disappearing 1/3 of the way through a pass. However, I did make some killer bath soap!!!

I will echo once again for anyone following this thread to do yourself a favor and pick up some KOH.

Sent from my SM-G960U using Tapatalk

Anyone thinking of making home made shaving soap should give your thread a read, @Dilbone . A ton of very useful information in that thread.

 

[Dilbone]

Anyone thinking of making home made shaving soap should give your thread a read, @Dilbone . A ton of very useful information in that thread.

It seemed like at that time and shortly after there were a ton of great threads started that were very detailed in the process and took the mystery out of it showing that anybody can do it if you've got a little time, some curiosity, and a crockpot!!!!
Before I got going though it seemed like I couldn't find that many threads with pics showing what the stages were supposed to look like during the cook which is why I tried to document that part pretty heavily. I'm glad it ended up providing at least a little bit of what I had hoped it would.

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[Danmarx]

Before I got going though it seemed like I couldn't find that many threads with pics showing what the stages were supposed to look like during the cook which is why I tried to document that part pretty heavily.

Exactly! Thanks! In that regard, when I started 15- 20 years ago, I had no idea what 'gel phase' was, or how it looked. One of the fun things about making soap is watching it change, then cutting it. This is cold process, so the gel phase takes a few hours to form (I showed it beginning in an earlier photo). What follows is full gel phase, then a picture of a cut bar where it changed back to the original color, but now is translucent. My iPad photo does not do justice to its translucence.

 

[Danmarx]

On another note, you can definitely shave with cold process soap. It works fine, does its job being slippery and wet; however, as you can see, tho' the lather looks good on the brush, it definitely gets thin quickly on the face. I'm looking forward to using hot process and dual lye, following your suggestions.

 

[FloorPizza]

Exactly! Thanks! In that regard, when I started 15- 20 years ago, I had no idea what 'gel phase' was, or how it looked. One of the fun things about making soap is watching it change, then cutting it. This is cold process, so the gel phase takes a few hours to form (I showed it beginning in an earlier photo). What follows is full gel phase, then a picture of a cut bar where it changed back to the original color, but now is translucent. My iPad photo does not do justice to its translucence.
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That's a beautiful soap you have there. Very, very nice. Looks like smoooth translucent butter.

 

[PeteVK]

Well, the March Madness challenge is finally over! I promised @Jetpilot I would post an honest review of the soap sample he sent me and here it is, thanks for your patience.

First, the scent is clean and simple, I'm not quite sure what it is, but maybe a light tobacco or something...I'm not very good at that type of stuff. All I can tell you is that it's not a complex scent, it is very approachable and for me a great smelling simple soap scent.

I scooped out a couple of almond sized pieces of the soap and pressed them into my lather/loading bowl and dripped a couple of drops of water over the soap to begin moistening it while I took a shower. My brush was soaking as well in a separate bowl of warm water. The brush being used this morning was an Omega 10066, one I'm very familiar with after using it throughout the entire month of March.

After my shower I applied two pumps of preshave oil and let it soak into my skin while letting the brush and soap soak a bit longer. After about ten minutes of soaking, I was ready to begin shaving. I spent about 45 seconds loading my Omega in the bowl and once I felt I had enough on the brush began to face lather. Now I am not the best face latherer so take that for what it is. I began brushing a pasty, but beautiful smelling soap on my face. I could detect it needed some water so I began dipping my brush and and continuing with the lathering process. The soap seems to take a decent amount of water, but at no time did I get big and rich peaks, it was yogurt in consistency. This could very well be my face lathering technique or lack there of.

I chose my never disappointing Merkur 34C with a Nacete blade with 2 shaves already under its' belt. Three passes including WTG, XTG and ATG. No issues with slickness, the soap felt great, and I certainly wasn't lacking cushion for this mild razor/sharp blade combo. I did one last pick up pass around my jowls and I was BBS. Wow, talk about a great shave. I did have to go back to the loading bowl a little bit for the last two passes to make sure I had enough soap, because I don't think I loaded enough in the beginning.

Post shave I decided not to use alum, no need for it. Instead, I went with a healthy splash of Thayer's unscented followed by Old Spice from India and Cremo face moisturizer. This was an absolutely great shave!

For my next shave, which will be either Sunday night or Monday morning I'll be bowl lathering @Jetpilot 's soap to see if I can get a richer lather. I think I'll also go with one of my badger brushes, perhaps the first use of my Simpson's Chubby 2, what an honor .

At the end of today's shave, I was very happy with the soap overall and honestly cannot wait to get some time to try my hand and making the Silverfox recipe myself.

Thank you again @Jetpilot for sharing a sample of this soap!

 

[Jetpilot]

Thanks for the review Pete! I guess the jury is in. Not a bad soap at all by anybody’s measure. A good easy to make soap that will cost you next to nothing.

Scenting soap is very difficult. The fragrance oil smells much stronger befor mixing it into the soap. I’ve noticed by trial and error that even at 10% (3% is the norm) of the oil weight the scent is light. I fear more fragrance oil will kill the lather or cause skin irritation.

 

[mawashi]

Hey Jetpilot,

Sorry for not replying sooner but the soap you gave me just left my buddy care and is on its way to Singapore.

He did use it and gave it so many thumbs up I had to tell him its not for sale lol. I said its so much better than the green proraso I Xmas gifted him... The turncoat!

The scent, lather and cushioning is excellent!

Once I get it I'll update this thread.

 

[psfred]

Lol, I scent my soaps at about 1 gram per 500 grams of oil, and find some of them too strong even then. They do go almost scentless after a year or so, but that's fine by me as I don't like strong scents of any kind.

All depends on what you like and how sensitive your sense of smell is.

Other than that, just about any reasonable soap recipe will make good shaving soap as long as it has plenty of stearic/palmitic acid and at least 60% KOH.

 

[PeteVK]

@Jetpilot I think the scent strength is fine, again I don't want anything to interfere with my cologne for the day. I thought it was very well balanced, and I did not mean to convey the opposite. I will say that post shave feel from the soap, aftershave and moisturizer was great all day long.

One last thing, is it true you don't remember what the scent was? I love it, and would love to try to replicate when I make my batch.

 

[PeteVK]

Today I used Grooming Dept preshave, plus @Jetpilot 's soap, my Simpson's Chubby 2 (first use) and the same Merkur 34C and Nacet blade (4th use). Had another wonderful shave, I did not bowl lather as I mentioned above, but instead went for another face lather, but this time with my Chubby 2. No issues here, just a great shave followed up with Grooming Dept Post Shave.

I think I still have enough of the almond shaped scoop in my lather/loading bowl left for another shave. For this next shave I'll for sure be bowl loading, perhaps with a synthetic brush this time.

 

[Jetpilot]

Unfortunately I don’t know what the scent was. It was very good! Everyone liked it. I was told that a perfumer could probably replicate the fragrance. I still have a container of the soap. Maybe I will inquire what that would cost.

 

[kingfisher]

Unfortunately I don’t know what the scent was. It was very good! Everyone liked it. I was told that a perfumer could probably replicate the fragrance. I still have a container of the soap. Maybe I will inquire what that would cost.

I guess you never worked in a scientific laboratory, huh?

I don't make soap, but if I were to start, I would undoubtedly fall back on habits I learned working in a basic science lab at Vanderbilt and at Duke. First off, a lab notebook. Every single thing that is done is notated precisely. That way, if it needs to be replicated, or if it needs to be tweaked, it can be done.

If I were making soap, I'd do the same thing with the scent notes as I did with the base recipe. Exactly what and exactly how much of it was put in; mostly because I'd be afraid that first efforts would be bad, and I'd want to be able to go back and tweak it, try it again, and then tweak it again if necessary.

Congratulations on making what sounds like a nice shaving soap.

 

[Jetpilot]

I guess you never worked in a scientific laboratory, huh?

I don't make soap, but if I were to start, I would undoubtedly fall back on habits I learned working in a basic science lab at Vanderbilt and at Duke. First off, a lab notebook. Every single thing that is done is notated precisely. That way, if it needs to be replicated, or if it needs to be tweaked, it can be done.

If I were making soap, I'd do the same thing with the scent notes as I did with the base recipe. Exactly what and exactly how much of it was put in; mostly because I'd be afraid that first efforts would be bad, and I'd want to be able to go back and tweak it, try it again, and then tweak it again if necessary.

Congratulations on making what sounds like a nice shaving soap.

At the time I made this batch of Silverfox I was in it just for that one batch. I didn’t create the recipe just borrowed it so records were not needed. Since that cook I have experinented extensively with my own recipe (25 batches now) trying to create a great shaving soap. Everything has been meticulously recorded... ingredients, methods, cure times etc. As a result of this record keeping I have successfully created a soap that I believe is better than anything available today. I’ve got 4 extra soaps of this new formula left. If anyone wants me to send them one PM me. So yeah I agree definetly keep good records!