First time soap making.hot process-shave soap

[FloorPizza]

Floorpizza.... one thing about finding a supply of suet from a local butcher... butchers aren’t buthchers anymore. They get primal butchered cuts from processing plants. The processing plants have the suet. Butchers... good luck.

Oh man, you're right. :/

I should be able to get some venison tallow come October. There's a guy here that processes deer taken during the hunting season. I'd bet I can get him to save me the kidney fat. Venison tallow.... hmmm... new Artisan soap? I'm just kidding, mods!

 

[Dilbone]

My 4th shave with the lanolin batch and I gotta say. It's slicker and a better post shave feel than I've had.

The last 2 days I've had some post shave itching at the jawline and neck and I was afraid it was the lanolin or something that was disagreeing with me but it must have been the edge and the residual shea butter from my hands I normally rub on my face about 30min post shave. No shea butter today and took it a little less aggressively with the blade today and zero AS burn on head or face.

After the head shave I typically hit the crown area to clean up after wetting my hand and rubbing the area to slicken it up. It felt like I still had a thin layer of lather up there...so slick and protective.

A 2pass face shave followed and was fantastic. This is the lather squeeze out from my brush post head and 2pass face shave...still glossy and thick. Did I mention I'm cheap?

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[Danmarx]

I'm having a "why didn't I think of that?" moment here. I've just been tearing my Pring.. er... I mean molds off from around the soap, making my molds a one-use-only deal. Man, this will cut down on my Pringle's consumption.

Yeah, I bought a case because I thought might have to tear them off, but the combination of HP and liner oil made removal much easier than I thought. Now for gifts, I have the classic combination of soap & chips.

And +1 on the tallow, soy wax, and lanolin. Knowing the difference between tallow and rendered fat may cure me of my animal fat aversion. Thanks for the recipe ideas.

 

[FloorPizza]

Did I mention I'm cheap?

Me too, man... me too. Great picture.

Now for gifts, I have the classic combination of soap & chips.

My wife is going to love her Christmas gift!

Man, you guys take great photos.

 

[FloorPizza]

Tallow fats soaps can get DOS quicker than suet soaps and have a much stronger "meaty" smell that is detectable in the final soap. Tallow soaps are not as white as suet soaps.
Suet soaps are harder and a lot whiter, have very little smell by comparison and generally last longer."

The tallow I have has no detectable smell. My daughter says she can smell something, but I can't. Regardless, the soaps I make with tallow end up having zero "meaty" smell at all. I haven't scented any of them, and no one in my family can detect anything other than normal soap smell.

As for DOS, I do use Tetrasodium EDTA, but primarily because we have really hard water. I do also have BHT, and the combination of EDTA at 0.5% and BHT at 0.1% (both based on PPO) is supposed to be great at DOS prevention. I haven't bothered with the BHT yet, as I don't plan on having these soaps long term.

 

[psfred]

I use EDTA, BHT and citric acid -- takes me six months to use one of those pucks, longer if I cut bigger ones, and they will certainly get DOS eventually. Cheap, easy fix.

My tallow has no odor either -- the trick is to never get it above 212F. If it gets hot enough to actually brown meat (rather than just turn it grey), it will smell like a hamburger off the grill. Not bad if you are hungry, but rather a distraction when shaving, or attempting to get it to smell like something else.

I collect it with water still present from ground beef and render fat on top of boiling water (steam extraction). May lose a little, but it's pretty much free and it doesn't smell like cooked beef.

Same applies to pork fat -- don't brown the meat and you won't get cooked meat smell. I can't smell lard at all, although other soapers cannot stand it. All goes to show how variable the sense of smell is.

 

[FloorPizza]

I use EDTA, BHT and citric acid -- takes me six months to use one of those pucks, longer if I cut bigger ones, and they will certainly get DOS eventually. Cheap, easy fix.

How old is your oldest soap? Still no DOS in it?

I've been reading up on what Kevin Dunn says about preservatives, and your solution is what Dr. Dunn says is the absolute best for long term DOS prevention.

 

[Jetpilot]

I don’t think the major issue with using intramuscular fat has to do with smell. It has different ratios of saturated/unsaturated fats which saponify differently. Tallow from suet is also a solid a solid at room temperature.

 

[psfred]

Oldest soap is about two years old, it started getting "sparky" at about 8 months, but the shaving soaps have just turned brown from the cocoa butter -- it almost always gets brown. Some off odor in the second batch, but it's not objectionable. The bath soaps turned dark orange and stink....

The two types of beef fat have slightly different fatty acid contents, which accounts for the difference in solidity at room temp, although suet is not rock hard at room temp unless you are in a log cabin where "room temp" is strictly dependent upon how far you are from the fire, and can be just above freezing. Suet will be firm at 70 F and fully melted at body temp.

 

[Dilbone]

Today became Tabac Tuesday. I finally took a break from a week of shaves with my new recipe with Lanolin. I'm still struck with how similar my soap is to Tabac. If not for the scent I would be hard pressed to be able to distinguish between them.

I'm glad I picked up the Tabac though, it was a great shave. I used an old GD that I outfitted with bone scales a while back on half of my face and a wester brothers "Manganese" steel blade on the other.

My GD had been finished previously on my coti on water then most likely crox on cotton a while back and wasn't the most comfortable the last time I used it. The Wester Bros. was honed on my Kiita koppa jnat using the axmethod and was ok but not fantastic. Last night then I took the GD and hit the coti with water for 60light laps then took both blades to the coti with baby oil for 50 or 60 laps which has become my final finishing procedure with fantastic results. This morning's shave with both blades and Tabac was great.

Now I just need a few more small batches with different scents that I can bounce between every morning. Currently I only have bergamot rosewood, mahogany woods, and cedar and spice of my soap and only the bergamot rosewood is my new formula. Time to pick up more stearic acid and get to cooking.

 

[FloorPizza]

Time to pick up more stearic acid and get to cooking.

Silver Fox outlined his difficulty in finding pure stearic acid on his web site. I documented my experience trying to do the same on smf. Long story short: You will NOT find pure stearic acid on the internet right now. Anywhere. At all. Like I said, it's a long story, but what literally EVERYONE is selling is an approximately 50/50 stearic/palmitic blend.

The best way to get the highest stearic right now is to substitute soy wax 415, which is 87% stearic and 11% palmitic (2% unsaponifiables). "Pure" stearic is 90%, so you're only shorting yourself 3% stearic over the real stuff, but you're getting much more stearic over the 50/50 "stearic acid". I'm using soy wax instead of stearic and I love it.

It makes its own glycerin, so cut back the amount you normally add by half if you use it. It also doesn't saponify instantly like stearic does.

Get a sample of "The Perfect Man" fragrance oil from Cierra Candles and see what you think. My wife and daughter love it!

I thought the soaps I've been making were pretty good until I bought WK recently. Mine aren't even close! But I'm still cooking.

 

[FloorPizza]

Oh, btw.... the soapcalc and soapee soap calculators have the correct saponification numbers in them if you select "soy wax" in them for soy wax 415.

 

[FloorPizza]

@Dilbone btw, I have a "Le Verte" coticule, (a couple of pictures of it here) that is a particularly nice finisher. Let me know if you'd ever like to sample an edge from it.

 

[psfred]

The differences between stearic and palmitic acids in terms of shaving soap are insignificant, both make good, dense lather. The difference in saponification number is small as well, and will actually give you more superfat that pure stearic, so no worries there either. Soy wax is better if you want mostly stearic, but I suspect you cannot tell the difference in the finished soap. I see far more difference with lard vs tallow than "stearic" vs soy wax.

I don't obsess over it, it's just soap.

 

[Dilbone]

I just use the stearic acid from Hobby Lobby(assuming 50/50 variety). That's what I had available locally when I started and the cost is more than reasonable with the 40% off coupon.

I liked my lard recipe for shave soap if it weren't for the "pork rind" smell that came through. Performance was more than fine IMO.

I'd like to try tallow at some point but I'm in no hurry. My vegetable shortening is giving me great shaves and at less than $1 a lb I'm good with it for now.

I even made some bath soap with it(the shortening that is) the other night. 75% shortening 20% coconut oil and 5% shea butter. It's pretty nice too. Not drying and lathers up really nicely.

A little "cool water" scent and I'm liking it.

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[Zidane]

My 4th shave with the lanolin batch and I gotta say. It's slicker and a better post shave feel than I've had......

Did I mention I'm cheap?

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Wonderfull!!!! Look like «crème chantilly» Or costard cream! I actualy working to make my self shaving soap!

 

[Zidane]

well, I just found out from another thread that stearic acid can be bought from hobby lobby...
...

I allredy make my formula on «calcsoap» after 3 days off reaserch and I would like to put this formula on the tread but I don't know how !!!