*Hand Milled Soap*
Hand milling your soap will make it much harder and it will last a lot longer then your regular homemade soaps. Hand milling is a lot easier than making the original batch of soap. You don't have to worry about temperatures.
Once your bars of basic soap have dried, use a small grater to grate the soap into shavings. Use a large bowl to catch all of the shavings.
1. Place 16 ounces of grated soap and 12 ounces of water in a stainless or glass pan. You should use a small pan to keep the soap from heating too quickly.
2. Stir gently with a slotted heat resistant plastic spoon just enough to mix, over medium low heat. You don't need to stir continuously just often enough to keep it from sticking. If it seems like it's getting too dry you can add a little water.
3. Continue stiring until the soap liquifies (about twenty minutes or so). Not too hard because you will stir in air.
4. Remove liquified soap from the heat and stir gently as it cools (about ten minutes).
5. Just before pouring the soap into the molds, mix in any other ingredients of your choosing such as oatmeal,cornmeal, fragrances,etc.
6. Pour into your molds and gently tap molds on the counter top to remove any air bubbles.
7. Wait ten minutes and put the molds in the freezer. You don't have to freeze them, but they come out of the molds much easier that way. This step isn't necessary if you make a loaf of soap and cut your own bars.
8. After one hour in the freezer, remove the soap from the molds.
9. Put the bars of soap in a place where they can cure for about four weeks. Make sure they have room to get plenty of air circulation. Your bars should be super hard and last for a very long time.
You have now made a batch of Hand-Milled Soap! Enjoy.
| Grated Soap | Water |
| 12 Oz | 9 Oz |
| 16 Oz | 12 Oz |
| 24 Oz | 18 Oz |
| 32 Oz | 24 Oz |
| 48 Oz | 36 Oz |
www.alpharubicon.com
All materials at this site not otherwise credited are Copyright © 1996 - 2004 Trip Williams. All rights reserved. May be reproduced for personal use only. Use of any material contained herein is subject to stated terms or written permission.