Handmade Soap
June 5:
The idea of making soap started festering a few years ago at a farmer’s market in Carbondale. I was dragged there by a girlfriend to look at the tomatoes. In addition to vegetables, there was a lady there who sold soap. My girlfriend bought a bar and I asked a few questions about the process to the soap lady. If I remember correctly, I went home and looked up soapmaking online, got an idea of how it worked, and then promptly forgot about it until a year or so ago. I got back into it as a “I wonder if we can do this” project with this same girlfriend, but at the time I referred to her as my fiancee. Everything worked out mostly well, but it needed a lot more refinement before I’d tell anyone about it.
Since then, I’ve made numerous batches, some of which I’ve been able to sell to fund the purchase of better equipment for the process. At this point, the soap I make is better, and the same girlfriend, who I now refer to as my wife, provides the inputs I need when questions arise about how this artisanal soap stuff is supposed to look and feel. Everyone who uses it is nice enough to say they like it, too, which is considerate of them. This blend of soap is olive oil, coconut oil and crisco with a few other additives thrown in to make it just a little bit better. There’s plenty of recipes and instructions online if you want to give it a go. Just remember that you don’t have to buy all the expensive stuff. You probably have everything you need. An old blender is an awesome way to whip up a pound of soap. Pyrex beakers are used for mixing the lye and water (tea in this case) together, and a digital scale weighs it all out. One of the reasons I made soap is because I know exactly what's going into it. There's always some
sort of scary news going on about soap additives. The FDA now refuses to allow antibacterial soap in the market unless you can prove that it works. But maybe the most interesting thing about handmade soap is that no government agency requires it to list its ingredients. Soap, when made from oil or fat, is considered a safe substance and is not regulated. The stuff you buy at the store is generally a petroleum-based detergent mixed with some things that make it sudsy and some preservatives to keep it from going bad. This stuff is all watched by the FDA to make sure it's used correctly. In a couple of weeks I'll be making an industrial-ish soap cutter that will make the bars more consistent. A knife works fine for short runs, but the bars get crooked sometimes. I don't think I'll be able to cut this block with the new cutter. It will harden up too quickly. After about 18 hours in the mold, these will be ready to cut into bars. Once they're cut, they'll go onto a wire rack for a month to harden and finish reacting. After that, I'll use it, sell it, or add it to my pile of scraps depending on how it turns out.
