So today will be spent inside cleaning and making soap. But first I have to prep for soap. Here I took some of my harvested rain water and filtered it twice.
I purchased suet from my local butcher and rendered the first 20 lb into tallow. Warning do this in small batches and if you can do it outside. Filter with stuff you can throw away like layers of cheese cloth. Don't wash it in your sink or washer or you will have a plumbers bill. Tallow takes several boilings in water and then I still melt it and filter it at the end to make sure it is pure. I store it in quart canning jars and cool with the lids off until I am ready to use it.
This is my greasing rod. I used this to grease my pvc soap molds. I used 3 socks that had no matches, in a ball and used an old towel over it and then held it onto the rod with a heavy rubber bands.
I went to my local ACE and purchased 3 inch PVC which they cut into 12 inch lengths. To figure how much soap one will hole it takes a little math.
PI = 3.14 (aprox)
The radius of a 3" PVC pipe is 1.5"
The formula is PI x radius squared x length = volume
In this case 3.14 x 2.25 x 12 = 84.78
Multiply the volume x .4 to get this lb of oil you will need
84.78 x .4 = 33.91 oz of oil for the recipe to fill each of these. Now this is on paper. I haven't actually used this formula yet. I will update at the bottom if it fills or over fills the mold.
Because I hate to waste anything....here are the paper towels I used to wipe out the bowls, pots and pitchers that I used when filtering the tallow. Don't throw these away! I found an old wooden tabogen at a flea market. All it needed is a good waxing. I will use these tallow rags to do just that!
I have also taken an inventory of oils. I have:
16 oz palm oil
16 oz raw cocoa butter
16 oz shea butter
10 lb honey
15 oz coconut oil
1 qt soybean oil
101 oz extra virgin olive oil
4 oz vitamin e oil
1 pint infused calendula oil
1 pint infused comfrey oil
1/3 pint infused tumeric oil
1 lb bees wax
4 oz of kadlin white clay
LOTS of essential oils
And a tired kitty snoring on my shoulder which makes it hard to get up and make soap!
I dedicate my soap making to my wonderful kids, kid in law, and grand kids. They seem to appreciate me like no one else does.
Update; I felt the soap and it was really hard after just a few hours. I was worried that I would not be able to get it out. However my fist fits in the 3" pvc and I just simply shoved it out. This gave me confidence because my second batch of soap failed horrible and I had to dump it out back because it smelled so bad....(note to self...don't fall down the steps in the dark with a scalding hot caudron of oil and lye). Now I am sitting with my sore ankel up. Not sprained just sore. But here is my first loaf tonight. This is orange blossom/mandrin/bergamot. It smells heavenly.
A little raggedy but I will smooth them out in a few days after they cure a little.
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