Homemade Soap Cutter

It all started with a couple sketches on a dry erase board. I guess they didn't look much like a soap cutter, but that's how it started. And then my husband looked at some soap cutters online and began creating.

He gathered some wood and a long hinge and then ordered some 6-in-a-line guitar key tuner parts and guitar strings.

There are 2 U-shaped wooden pieces on either end connected with 4 wooden bars. The front bar has guitar key tuning pieces that are used to tighten the cutting wire (guitar strings). It's hinged at the back and the guitar strings are stretched between the front and back bars.

Attached to the bottom platform is a piece of 2x4 screwed to a taller piece of wood to make an L-shape. It acts as a lip so the soap loaf doesn't slide when the bars are cut. 

You might enjoy watching the video we made showing the structure and dimensions of the soap cutter. It's not as polished as the expensive ones offered online, but it didn't cost much to make and it works great!

Tallow Soap Dough recipe

I've been playing around with soap dough recipes and created this one using beef tallow. I really did not expect the soap to be pliable since beef tallow makes a very hard, if not somewhat brittle, bar of soap. 


The roses shown to the right were some of my earlier attempts. They are not difficult to form, but do require practice and patience.




Most of the ingredients are commonly found in a soap maker's studio.

Beef Tallow, fat from cows, is a solid white fat at room temperature. The best tallow comes from the fat found around the kidneys, but with a little effort, you can save the fat when you fry ground beef, Just strain it, refrigerate it and separate the solid fat from any water. Your local butcher may sell tallow or the raw beef fat for you to render. If you need to purchase tallow for the recipe below, compare prices on Essential Depot and Amazon.


Coconut Oil can be found locally at many grocery stores these days. I try to buy non-food grade, 76 degree coconut oil. The "76 degree" means that the oil melts at 76 degrees Fahrenheit. If your local grocery store doesn't carry coconut oil, check out these links on Amazon  and Essential Depot.


Palm Oil, a common soap-making ingredient, is a bit controversial these days as some think palm tree farmers are destroying forests and gorilla habitats. To be safe, you may want to purchase sustainably harvested palm oil like this one: Palm Oil RBD Organic Carrier Cold Pressed Pure 32 oz



Babassu Oil, derived from the South American Babassu palm, looks a lot like coconut oil -- a whitish solid oil at room temperature that melts easily. When I melted some on my skin, it felt silky and not greasy. 




Sunflower Oil- Is it just me or did sunflower oil become more of a "specialty" oil in recent years. I used to see large bottles at the grocery store and now the best I could do locally was a $4 glass bottle of sunflower oil at Aldi. I believe the sunflower oil in this recipe makes the dough a little softer.

Castor Oil - When I first started making soap and ran out of castor oil, I found a 6 oz bottle for $6 at the local drug store. I think it was located near the laxatives. You can usually find it cheaper than $1 an ounce online. Both Amazon and Essential Depot carry it. 

Making Cold Process Soap with Lavender Essential Oil

Nighttime, it's when I soap.

The littles are asleep. The house is mostly quiet. And it's peaceful.

Tonight, I created a cold process soap using essential oils. And I'm in a generous mood, so I'm sharing my recipe. Please run your own lye calculations though a soap calculator to confirm. 

Oils/Fats:
20 oz beef tallow
18 oz coconut oil
18 oz palm oil
4 oz castor oil

17.51 oz distilled water
8.76 oz sodium hydroxide (lye)

2.25 oz fragrance oil or essential oil

1. Follow all safety precautions for working with lye. At a minimum, that means wearing gloves and goggles and keeping pets and people (especially children) away from the working area. Work in a well ventilated area or open a window while mixing the lye as it emits fumes.
2. Weigh the oils and melt to combine.
3. Weigh the distilled water and place in a suitable container (I use a Pyrex glass batter bowl, but a stainless steel and some plastic containers are acceptable.) Don't use aluminum.
4. Weigh the lye and add it to the distilled water. Stir briefly with a stainless steel spoon or silicone spatula.  Never pour water onto the lye. Remember the expression "it snows on the lake" -- the white lye flakes fall into the water.
5. Wait for the lye water to cool and turn clear. 
6. Add the lye solution to the melted oils.
7. Mix with a stick blender until it looks like thin pudding.
8. Add the fragrance of your choice and stir.
9. Pour into your mold(s).
10. Spray top with 91% rubbing alcohol to prevent the formation of white soda ash on the top. 
11. Next day: remove soap from mold and cut into slices.
12. Place soap on a non-aluminum surface to cure for 3-6 weeks.

Here's a video of the soap I made tonight:

This soap will be available for sale in about a month. (2/15/17)
Click here to go to Nancy's Garden Soap Co on Etsy.

To Shrink Wrap or Not Shrink Wrap Hand Crafted Soap

After spending time making, cutting and curing our hand crafted soaps, I'd wrap them with a cigar-band style label and place them on a shelf or in a box. However, the soaps would continue to shrink as they cured, and the cigar band would slip off. Sometimes the soap would fall off the shelf and become dented. I needed a better way to label soaps and protect them from damage. I bought some 4" x 6" shrink wrap bags and some labels... pulled out the hair dryer and began sealing soap!

Pros:

• shrink wrap bags are inexpensive (less than 3 cents each)
• can shrink 40% of the bag's size (fit many sizes of soaps)
• can be cut for even smaller soaps or a tighter fit
• heat can be applied with a hair dryer or craft heat gun
• protects soap from dents and damage
• protects soap from germs (craft show fingers and noses)
• fragrances do not spread from one soap to another (different soaps can be stored in the same box or shelf)
• soaps can be stored on metal shelving (soaps placed on metal are more likely to develop DOS - dreaded orange spots)
• labels stick to shrink wrap
• shrink wrapped soap looks "professional"
• shrink wrapping is fun

Cons:

• soaps continue to shrink after wrapping and may need to be "tightened up" with more heat prior to selling/shipping
• it's difficult to smell soap through the shrink wrap
• wrappers can rip if overheated or the soap has a sharp edge
• corners of the wrapper can be sharp if not properly pushed down
• not as environmentally friendly as other wrapping methods
• your cat may try to eat shrink wrap wrappers (mine does)
• customers may have difficulty unwrapping the soap

If you need a better way to protect your soaps for gift giving or resale, you might want to consider shrink wrapping them. Here's a quick tutorial:

Do you shrink wrap your soaps? Do you shrink wrap any other items? Let me know in the comments below!