Miba

Thanks, all of you. I guess it does make that much a difference. I will use the scale from now on. It's actually my mom's scale, but she doesn't really use it much and is coming into town today and will bring it to me. It's a postal scale, and she only used it for seeing how much to charge for shipping on things she sold on ebay. And I messed around with that Soap Calc thing, looking at different things, and it was really neat. I guess I'm still more of a newbie than I thought, though at least, like LuminousBoutique said, I've got the process right, now I just need right technique. Oh, and in answer to your question, I was using Crisco All-Vegetable for this last batch, but I was using Kroger brand before that. And in response to Jonsie, I wait until both the lye and fats are around 100-110 before mixing.

I have actually never used a soap calculator. I found one that included shortening on it and the ounces it came out with were different than mine, if only slightly. Also, maybe I should try cutting back on the shortening, then? I'm not attached to that idea, but it would make sense since that is one of the things that's the same about all my batches. I should try to make it more balanced between hard and liquid fats? I'll wait until the scale gets here before I try again, though.

My soap always crumbles when I cut it, it doesn't matter what recipe I use, it always happens. Straight shortening. Shortening and olive oil. Shortening, olive, peanut. Shortening, olive, peanut, coconut. It all crumbles. I always use more shortening than anything else, because I figured that would give it a strong base? I've never followed a recipe exactly, I always branch off and do my own thing using the MMS calculator. I live in a very high altitude area and it's very dry here. This last batch I made I let it stay in the mold overnight and cut it this morning (as opposed to waiting three days) and it still crumbled. So my theory that it might just be the dry air is out. Maybe it's the knife? What kind of knife should I use? I hear some people use wire or fishing line? Is there a certain technique used in cutting? Do you saw or push straight down? I've used a few variety of knives and I saw. I always use the MMS calculator. I don't have a scale of any kind, though I will be getting one very soon here. I use the "ounces" mark on the pyrex I use as a guide for the water and lye, and then I use an "ounces to cups" chart to know how much fats to put in. My soap's quality has always been great, I love the quality, so I thought whatever little difference there is between how I measure and how you're supposed to measure wasn't bad. But could there be that much of a difference and that's why my soap splits apart? Here's a picture of my current failure at cutting, and this is the same kind of crumbling I always get. These two are the worst of this batch, and I don't always make round soap. I used to make it in a bread pan and then cut into rectangles... or rather I tried to cut them into rectangles. And it has gotten better, my first attempts at rectangles turned them more into semi-triangles. http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_oW6rbDnbQnI/TURV-5CVhXI/AAAAAAAAAPI/IMdaGGuoqd0/s1600/100_1004.JPG