Soap Production

[Katie]

Hi all!

I don't have any current pictures of me making soap, but can show you part of the end of the process. Our soaps are made in smaller batches, about 9 lbs at a time. The soap is poured into a larger mold and comes out like this:



The little purple bar of soap is there to help show dimension.

Each slab is then cut into thirds:



And finally cut into bars:



We have a soap room upstairs with walls of drying racks. After cutting the soaps are dried for a few weeks, then placed in large boxes until needed. We usually have 1000 to 2000 bars in stock.

I'll try to get some decent pics of the soapmaking process and share those as well.

[Mom2boys]

wow Katie! Thanks for sharing that. I am going to have some of our homeschoolers come and check it out. I bet that the soap room smells divine!

[Mom2boys]

one more question. How do you cut the soap? It's pretty hard. Do you use an electric knife?

[DaiseyMama]

Wow..It's beautiful....I can almost smellllllll them through my computer screen!

[Katie]

I have to admit our house does smell pretty good.

My dh built a soap cutter for me. I was going to describe it with only words, but a picture is easier. Essentially it is a piece of countertop, sliced down the middle, held together with 2 x 4's. There is an adjustable wire that runs down the slice in the middle. I tied a ribbon on the wire as it wasn't very visible. I just set it at whatever thickness I need and slice away! It weighs a TON! It's overall size is about 30 x 45 inches.

Here's what it looks like. (My dh strayed into the picture. He's looking over his extensive music collection. I figured since he built it, I wouldn't crop him out.