Sponiebr Posted July 1, 2018 Share Posted July 1, 2018 No, I'm not experimenting with BLOW... I'm wanting to know if anyone uses B.L.O. (boiled linseed oil) to season their wood soap molds. See, I'm MASSIVELY persnickety over my precious wooden infinity molds... (I hope to post something about these miraculous inventions here soon) I personally don't see how a soap mold covered in soap from years and years of spills looks "loved". Short of it is I can't stand for my molds to have gunk on them so I clean them each and every single batch WITH WATER, and I dry them immediately. Now I have been using my own little preparation of wood finish made from petrolatum or mineral oil, beeswax, with a smidge of paraffin and stearic acid for my "preservative" and it works ok. But, as you may have noticed my absence I've been rather busy with things not soap related. MANY of these outside tasks were tool restorations, specifically axes and swords...(LONG LONG story) One of the absolute best finishes I can put on my wood handled tools is B.L.O.. However, I have some concerns... BLO works well because it oxidizes to what is effectively a varnish. Which is yes, oxidized vegetable oil... DOS, coincidentally is oxidized oil. MOST of the oxidization for BLO comes from contact with the air, but conceivably it could come from bacteria... I would want to finish the wood with a good drenching in BLO which would be wiped dry. My question is could this potentially promote DOS in my soap? Do any of all y'all use BLO on your wood soap molds? I'm not worried about the mold (fungus) formation, it's a well known and easy enough to prevent issue. Cheers! Sponiebr The Executor of Bad Ideas and Sundry Services Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jcandleattic Posted July 1, 2018 Share Posted July 1, 2018 (edited) Nope, I don't treat mine at all. I use my molds for functionality, not necessarily looks. That's not to say I am purposely sloppy, and/or don't clean them after every batch, but I'm not meticulous about it, and it's usually just a good wipe down with either a paper towel, or damp towel depending on how much soap debri I got on it. I honestly could not care less what they look like (even the very spendy ones I bought) Edited July 11, 2018 by Jcandleattic 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Candybee Posted July 10, 2018 Share Posted July 10, 2018 I don't use anything on my wood molds either. I occasionally clean them with a little water but dry them immediately. But mostly I use my putty knife to scrap off drips and paper towels to blot spilled soap batter. Years of using the molds they still look great to me. The wood looks seasoned and they get easier to clean as they age. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sponiebr Posted July 11, 2018 Author Share Posted July 11, 2018 My molds aren't exactly your average wood mold. They're adjustable to any length within their maximum range down to 0.0 pour space. You can even adjust them as you are actually pouring. Let's say you have too much soap for a particular pour, you can lengthen the mold to accommodate the additional soap in the middle of the pour. Shortening the mold length during a pour is a little more tricky, but it can be done. Anyway, the floating end blocks are particularly susceptible to cracking and I had to keep the end blocks from splitting as they were already starting to crack. I decided I can't afford the DOS risk, so I just made up some more of my mineral oil and beeswax wood sealer. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shari Posted July 11, 2018 Share Posted July 11, 2018 I'm another one who doesn't care what the mold looks like. I do scrape out any spills and give them a quick wipe down before using again, that's it for me. I don't have time to be persnickety about them. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TallTayl Posted July 11, 2018 Share Posted July 11, 2018 I won’t intro anything like that to my molds. Nor will I wash them. Over time the wood seals with soap. Just scrape them off and use again. They’re d up with a nice finish. Mine are going on 10 years. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sponiebr Posted July 12, 2018 Author Share Posted July 12, 2018 In all seriousness I appreciate the input. It appears I have a "personal" problem... (If you can call OCD a personal problem) I will work on this! It's gonna be hard NOT to wash them...I'm flip'n out just thinking about not washing them. XANAX!!! STAT!!!! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TallTayl Posted July 12, 2018 Share Posted July 12, 2018 I wash silicone liners not wood molds. Freezer paper goes into wood molds to enable quick removal and turnover of batches. No need to wash anything. Have made wood molds that that come apart. To those I applied a layer of silicone caulk. That stayed perfectly clean from batch to batch. ETA: the wash of silicone liners is mostly to preheat them. They sit inside flimsy cardboard boxes for support. Those don’t insulate well and I would end up with under sapped corners and edges. Preheating keeps the reaction even across all ends. Don’t seem to have that problem with wood. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pam W Posted July 20, 2018 Share Posted July 20, 2018 Not being a soap maker from scratch, I have to say that you are confusing yourself with too much info. There is so much info on the net that we can get confusioned on our end goal. Sometimes we need to go back to the basics and go from there. There are times when we 'newbies" get ahead of ourselves and then can't figure out what went wrong. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sponiebr Posted July 20, 2018 Author Share Posted July 20, 2018 10 hours ago, Pam W said: Not being a soap maker from scratch, I have to say that you are confusing yourself with too much info. There is so much info on the net that we can get confusioned on our end goal. Sometimes we need to go back to the basics and go from there. There are times when we 'newbies" get ahead of ourselves and then can't figure out what went wrong. I'm not exactly a newbie, but OK, yeah, I am confused... 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jcandleattic Posted July 20, 2018 Share Posted July 20, 2018 7 hours ago, Sponiebr said: I'm not exactly a newbie, but OK, yeah, I am confused... Nick!! I love me some Nick!! I think Ron Swanson is a male version of me incarnate. I loved that character. Yeah, I wouldn't consider you a newbie Sponie, however, I still don't care what my molds look like. LOL As others have said though, the more soap residue you get on them, that does kind of act as a "seal" and makes the wood smooth, however, it can look a bit stained when that happens. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pam W Posted July 25, 2018 Share Posted July 25, 2018 Not being a soap maker from scratch, I am totally confused by this thread but I will watch it for more info down the road..............?????????????? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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