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:
Step One - Cut your soap pieces
into small chunks or grate your soap with a kitchen grater. Step Two - Place the soap chunks
or shavings in a stainless steel, enamel coated or glass pot. 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. 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. 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. Step Six - When the soap smooths
out you can stir in any essential oils, fragrances, oatmeal, herbs, cocoa
butter, etc that you want. 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. 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.
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