Soap questions

[tnborn]

I have bars of soap that ar broken and odds and ends that I have saved. I was wondering if I could use the existing soap to make bars of soap. How would I do this. Can I put this in a kettle and mold it , do I need lye?Please help. Any info is appreciated.
thanks,
tnborn

[Mrs_stuart]

I found this info at this link : http://www.colebrothers.com/soap/rebatch.html
Hope it helps!!

Belinda

The Hand Rebatch Method

Hand rebatching is a method by which you can take existing soap or soap scraps, melt them down, pour the melted soap into molds and make new soap. Rebatching is a good time to add essential oils, fragrances and other additives such as herb, oatmeal, etc.. that would have been altered if added during the initial soapmaking stage.

The process is simple, however, there are some steps that can be taken to make the process easier and error free. We highly recommend the oven method because of an ovens unique ability to heat evenly and slowly.

Tips: When rebatching the fresher the soap the better. Soap that is a week old reqiures less added liquid than three week old soap. Also, keep the heat as low as possible to avoid burning the soap.

The steps are as follows:



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Step One - Cut your soap pieces into small chunks or grate your soap with a kitchen grater.

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Step Two - Place the soap chunks or shavings in a stainless steel, enamel coated or glass pot.

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Step Three - For most vegetable oil based soap chunks or shavings pour one cup of milk to every pound of soap into the bottom of the pan. For Olive Oil soap shavings use 1/2 cup milk. For animal fat based soap shavings use a half cup of water or milk per pound. For soap that is less than a week old cut these measurements in half.

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Step Four - Cover the pot and let the soap sit and soak up the milk or water for an hour or two. Stir every half hour.

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Step Five - Heat your oven to its lowest setting. (no more than 170 degrees) Place the pot into the oven and let it heat for an hour or so. Check and stir the mix every 15 minutes.

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Step Six - When the soap smooths out you can stir in any essential oils, fragrances, oatmeal, herbs, cocoa butter, etc that you want.

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Step Seven - Blend the soap. You can either take the soap out of the oven and blend it with a hand mixer in the pot or you can pour it into a blender and mix it. A hand blender may be the quickest and best method. You want to get it blended before it starts to set up.

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Step Eight - Once blended you simply pour it into the molds, let it set up a couple of days, pop it from the molds and let it age a week or two. Thats it.

[Lerxt]

Something I've done before is just to chop up the pieces into 1/2" or so and toss them in a new batch of soap as you pour it into your mold. If they are a different color you get a sort of confetti effect. And it's easy if you were already making soap anyway.

[thedonkeyman]

Why would someone want to have a Soap that would encourage insects. Soaps that have a Smell that attracts those flying BITING BUGS. Wouldn't it be GREAT if someone could figure out a SOAP that would PROTECT us from this. You just might market this product, HUH! I use IRISH SPRING, it really CLEANS . A SOAP that could be used to Wash your Clothes as well.

[tnborn]

Thanks everyone.I am going to try this tomorrow. I will try to let everyone know how my soap making turned out. I am excited.
tnborn

[Lerxt]

I've used homemade soap as laundry soap before. Just grate it up and use it. It works just fine and it's a great use for the trimmings left over from cutting bars out of the big mold. Can use it for dish soap too. It is, after all, soap.

Most "soap" you get in stores, like Irish Spring, is detergent and not actually soap. I think the only major brand that can still be called soap is Ivory. Not saying there's anything wrong with not-soap soaps. Just pointing it out.

I'm sure there's a scent out there that might not attract insects but it might repel people too. Citronella maybe? Yuck though. Just do unscented if you gotta.

[ET1 SS]

Originally Posted by thedonkeyman

... Wouldn't it be GREAT if someone could figure out a SOAP that would PROTECT us from this.

Just add peppermint oil, or citrus oil, or any of the oils that chase away bugs.

Store bought soap? I use generic 'pumus soap'.