Sponiebr

GET THE SL OUT! Yer gonna want SOMETHING to help loosen that mess up. You have my sincerest condolences Candy... (Helpful unsolicited hint: calculate the SF at 0% and then calculate how much oil it would take to get the SF to whatever you would want it to be from the total fat content. Then when you're putting in all of your, erm... magic schtuffs after the cook (like your FO, and SL,) add in the extra fat... I LOVE HP because I can choose what the SF is specifically. GAS MASKS EVERYONE!!! THIS IS NOT A DRILL! I REPEAT! THIS IS NOT A DRILL! SOUND THE KLAXON THE INSTANT YOU SEE THE PINE TAR!!!!! 😱 G'luck! Sponiebr The Executor of Bad Ideas, Sundry Services and Fresh Commentary...

What ended up being the issue with the mold?

oooh! ooooooh! I got a PERFECT name for Pink Sugar: MAGIC Brown. Slainte, Sponiebr THE Executor of Bad Ideas and Sundry Services

If you can wait a bit for the next buy, and then, for them to ship to you, Micas and More has the best neons I've ever seen. http://micasandmore.com/ Cheers, Sponiebr The Executor of Bad Ideas and Sundry Services.

Wunderbar! Fantastisch! EL NEATORIFIC!

THERE THEY ARE!!! Just like McDonald's... "I'm Love'n it!"

That's AWESOME look'n soap!

I'd really just LOVE to avoid that whole additional cost thing BUT, I learned that the sword is an antique circa 1880-1920 and it's actually a really nice sword so I'm MUCH less likely now to just go spray painting all willy-nilly. The leafing is only for the hilt (cross guard) and the pommel and those appear to be some sort of cast yellow metal maybe brass or some sort of light weight bronze, not really sure... Yeah, that's where I went because Michael's is supposed to carry both of those items. However, the LOCAL store manager WILL NOT UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCE take a duplicate "peg" down to add a product that the store would normally carry. I spent time in Post Soviet Russia just after the collapse and I am VERY familiar with the concept of a store shelves stocked as far as the eye can see with 2 brands of products. E.G. pasta "aisle/section/department" (it's hard to describe but trust me it was a massive PITA) stocked with elbow mac in unmarked plastic produce sacks, OR elbow mac in these super low quality spirit duplicator printed chipboard boxes. The other choice was rigatoni in unmarked plastic bags. Cooking oil? 3 brands of identical plastic bottles with different colored same sized labels for sunflower oil. (no... no, no, no olive oil, no corn oil) THAT IS IT. That was your selection. That was your selection EVERYWHERE. Honestly it was fine, because EVERYBODY had this in stock at ALL TIMES (y'know except when there was a financial crisis and the ruble fell out and then you couldn't buy ANY non-perishable foods ANYWHERE). I SWEAR the major store chains in my county are run just about the same way as Post Soviet Russia. 20 pegs at Walmart of identical items, with identical prices, identical SKU's, and USUALLY identical levels of stock, --- all out of stock, NEVER to return, never to be ordered again, and NEVER to be removed. Y'know, I REALLY should suss out some sort of method of recording my trips to these stores so that people can actually see the surreal nightmare of the Flagler County shopping experience. @Kerven if you have some of this adhesive could you describe this stuff for me? What does it smell like (solvents? what kind e.g. smells like Kerosene or like spray paint?) What does it feel like? (maybe you already know what it is?) Thanks for the suggestions folks! Cheers, Sponiebr The Executor of Bad Ideas, BAD attitudes, endless rants on non-Sequitur subjects, and other non-sense as needed.

There are some hot process soaps that will use alcohol in them but... yeah, no... That's just for making your own melt and pour, and you have to add glycerin in there and PG and it's so involved I won't even go there... (and I'm ALL ABOUT the bad ideas...) Sponiebr, The Executor of Bad Ideas and Sundry Services

@TokooTake this as canon. TT, I think this should be pinned. It's the succinct gospel truth. Slainte, Sponiebr

100% Wonderful fat blend! It's a simple, stable, excellent soaping properties, good wearing (you don't use the bar up in a week), and inexpensive get-it-all-at-Walmart-in-one-trip, all-star winner of a soap!

No... I lack the tools. More specifically I lack the LARGE amounts of money it takes to buy the tools, the steel, and the fuel to run the forge... I can't even afford a large hunk of mild steel to use as an anvil... It's EXPENSIVE. Otherwise I'd TOTALLY be out there bang'n out swords and knives left, right, and center... One of these days... Yeah, and they all say use "the special adhesive". Some have been so bold as to explain that ONE of the adhesives is an oil varnish, (I suspect with Japan Drier in it), but that's about as good as I can find. I went by Michael's and they had metal leaf out the WAZZOO! But they did not have any of the "special adhesive" AND (oh this is SO TYPICAL of any store in my County) because they didn't have a "spot" for the adhesive they would NOT order nor would they stock it. The sales woman stated I was the 3rd person that week who had asked for it. I said (and I quote) "Well, that's completely WORTHLESS!" Sales girl (and I quote) "Yeah. Sorry..." (turned on her heel and walked off.) (sighs) My local Walmart won't even order clipboards... I swear if you ask a major retail chain (NOT PUBLIX, Publix is WONDERFUL) in my County to get a product they normally carry, I SWEAR they turn around and remove it from the inventory so it can't be ordered even by mistake. You will truly NEVER see it in the store EVER again. I honestly think that Flagler County is a corporate test bed for customer loyalty on how bad you can actually treat a customer before they end up leaving the store permanently and/or suing the store/chain. Krylon's looking better and better... Sponiebr (You know what I'm in charge of and what I do...)

Thank you for the welcome Coconut... Why does it have to be real silver? I dunno... It makes it more... effective... at dispatching werewolves? It's a Templar sword so it's fairly ornate, and it's hard to get into all the little nooks and crannies. I played with a couple of sheets of silver and used weldwood contact cement, which by the by, AIN'T GONNA work. Apparently the leafing is fairly porous and when wiped with a little naphtha to make sure it was grease free to prepare it for some spray on lacquer the foil and cement wiped off! Next on my list is really thinned out Elmer's White glue... THEN my next step if that doesn't work is: (fanfare) Krylon Chrome spray paint 'cause:

My personal favorite calculator is soapcalc.net but it's probably because I learned on that one and I'm most comfortable with it.

Tokoo, WELCOME! Just reading over your initial questions here I think maybe holding off on jumping right into Cold Process is possibly a safer option for now. Rubbing alcohol in CP soap... No... Alcohols in CP soap is a BAD idea, they accelerate trace and cause soap on a stick... Cooking oils bought from grocery stores are not always the best... Sesame seed oil makes VILE soap, so does peanut oil. Canola is, meh "ok" in very small amounts, but I've had problems with the soap going rancid... Obtaining the oils from your personal pantry is, I think, unwise... Soap making and food making must REALLY be TOTALLY separated... You can make a good first time batch of soap really cheap and with nothing more than Walmart Great Value Shortening (NOT the all Vegetable shortening... The OTHER Shortening...) It really does make a fine soap and it's not gonna surprise you while making it... But! Baby steps... You (I can not stress this enough) really, REALLY need to spend time learning all about the soap making process. I completely agree that Cold Process is what you need to start with so you can learn HOW soap behaves in it's various parts of it's transformation. I'm not gonna pull any punches here, because I really do NOT want you to get injured, and because I really DO want to see you succeed in making soap, but you MUST completely understand the basics of what is going on BEFORE you go mixing lye with cooking oils. Soap making is actually a dangerous operation in which REAL injury can occur. There are some cardinal rules you CAN'T BREAK: You MUST have safety equipment. You MUST WEAR your safety equipment. You MUST have and use an ACCURATE scale. NO PETS OR CHILDREN AROUND WHILE MAKING SOAP. Only add lye to water... Soap cold... ALWAYS USE A LYE CALCULATOR Etc... There's A LOT to learn, and while you don't have to learn all of the fats and their properties to get in and try soap making to see if you like it, you DO need to know enough to keep you from hurting yourself or others. Honestly, (and I truly mean this with gentle kindness), a question like "can you make CP soap with Lard instead of Lye." tells me that you are definitely not prepared to make soap just yet. I would suggest reading and downloading this free Beginner's guide and really dig around on SoapQueen's website to learn more about cold process soap making. https://www.soapqueen.com/bath-and-body-tutorials/cold-process-soap/free-beginners-guide-to-soapmaking-cold-process/ That's a GREAT place to start. We'll be here to assist and guide you but YOU have to learn the fundamentals. That tutorial will give you a solid start. Have fun and best of luck! Sponiebr The Executor of Bad Ideas and Sundry Services.

Hello! I'm a bubble head so I can't really help ya much on the candles BUT... If you wanna know how to burn soap I could probably help ya out with that! Welcome! Slainte, Sponiebr The Executor of Bad Ideas and Sundry Services.

That's ok. TBH: nobody can help me... I think I'm a registered lost cause. (Or I'm lost because I'm registered... I get this confused a lot...) Good to be back though!

So, first... It seems as though I may be back... So that's a good thing, (well, for me, it's a good thing, yanno, for me...) Second, as embarrassed as I am to say this, I am woefully ignorant of gilding methods. I have not a lily to gild but I DO have a dress sword that I have to "freshen-up" a bit in silver... Specifically I have to re-gild the hilt, pommel and the scabbard accents and frog.... And it's gotta be in silver apparently. And... Silver tarnishes... but it's gotta be silver... Soooo.... I have 25 3x3" sheets of transfer type real silver leaf. I have the sword... I also should be able to locate various sable and other very soft bristled brushes to pounce and otherwise apply the leafing into all those crazy little nooks and crannies... (Sounds like a bad porno plot...) I really don't have any concept as to what I should use as the sizing, but I was thinking about maybe making up some spirit gum and using that? Maybe Elmer's rubber cement? Really thin PVA? PVA and spirit gum? Varnish with some Japan Drier? I mentioned this above, but silver TARNISHES... What sort of insane handling requirements are there when leafing with real silver? I would like this to have a shiny finish when done, but really anything would be better than the corroded mess I'm working with now (it's not really that bad, but still there's gonna be some time spent cleaning it up.) No clue... That's why I'm here. Any help would be appreciated! Cheers, Sponiebr The Executor of Bad Ideas and Sundry Services

Oh, my serious "PLEASE-don't-make-me-do-this" scents are The please shoot me NOW group: Sandal wood Opium Nag Champra Menthol Eucalyptus The AVOID-NOPE-CAN'T-MAKE-ME-DON'T-WANNA-NOT-GONNA group: Leather (this one is about as close to a "shoot me" as it gets) Amber (There are a couple I can stand, and one I actually like (TT's) but generally this is a big NOPE for me. Usually my problem with amber is strength of application...) Musk, (this is a weird one for me, sometimes it's fine but most of the time I can't stand it. This is another strength of application scent) Lilac... ( I dunno, I'm just not overly plussed by this stuff.) That's really about it... Generally, I'm not overly fond of super flowery-baby-powder-French-whore scents but meh, once in a while... circumstances permitting, something like that will grab my fancy. (I'm just say'n it happens... SOMETIMES....) Slainte, Sponiebr The Executor of Bad Ideas and Sundry Services

NEW PEOPLE!!! Welcome! Sponiebr The Executor of Bad Ideas and Sundry Services

Yep. I can't tell you how many times I have asked how someone likes a soap and they tell me something to the effect of 'Oh it's still in the car.' I'm thinking about adding a storage statement to my label. Maybe something like: WARNING! To reduce chance of schism formations in long established relationships store in a cool, dry, dimly lit, secret location that only YOU know about...

Yikes! (whew...) $2.60 a pound? That's gonna be hard to find. As little as I use shea and other hard butters I generally find that I can find a decent deal on Amazon because of the shipping rates. I've been getting mine from here: https://www.amazon.com/Unrefined-Ivory-Butter-GRADE-Ghana/dp/B008LEQENE/ref=lp_6367195011_1_4_a_it?srs=6367195011&ie=UTF8&qid=1519302441&sr=8-4 Smellgood as a seller has been good to me (thus far, but I RARELY order butters). My shea was NOT white, it was very yellow, and it needed to be tempered but, I kind of expected all of that. I saw this seller on Amazon just now as well... with Free Shipping on Prime: https://www.amazon.com/afrimports-African-Butter-Natural-White/dp/B06X935FTD/ref=pd_sim_194_4?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=B06X935FTD&pd_rd_r=G39JFEZ2MSQ7HAGBXNS0&pd_rd_w=laapY&pd_rd_wg=INCge&psc=1&refRID=G39JFEZ2MSQ7HAGBXNS0 That's the best price I've seen anywhere so far... You could also go with Soaper's Choice, and they are a very reputable company: https://www.soaperschoice.com/shea-butter-refinedshea-butter-refined-2 HTH... Sponiebr The Executor of Bad (terrible really) Ideas and Sundry Services

Yeah, TYPICALLY, us Irish types don't like Leprechauns... Not_good_critters... BUT this is 'MERICA dammit! And 'Merican's LIKE Leprechauns! Dammit! @Trappeur So I'll take that last one down there... (Free beers with any purchase right? ) My favorite holiday too! (but WHY did we have to have to make the BEST holiday of the year in the MIDDLE OF LENT!?) Sponiebr Yeah, YOU know what I'm in charge of...

Oh wow... Howdy neighbor! I'm in Flagler.