How much liquid for rebatch?

[MarieJeanette]

Warning, newbie question here!

After weeks and weeks and weeks of reading, research, study and getting up the courage to take the plunge, I made a cp soap (my first) the other day for rebatching using a recipe from TLC Soaps and Sundries that took a 33% water discount. Bold and daring for a newbie, I know, I know. :rolleyes2 Fools rush in, as the saying goes.... don't I know it! Ouch!

Anyway, I just unmolded it yesterday and it was brittle upon cutting, breaking into chunks (probably because of the water discount? It's pretty hard and solid and looks fine, otherwise). Lesson most certainly learned about doing a water discounted recipe for my first try, believe me, but I must say that I was at least careful enough to run the recipe through several lye calculators first and ended up using the weights that SoapCalc estimated for me and followed them to a T.

Anyhoo, before I rebatch it, I'd like to ask if anyone here has ever run into the same dilemma and if so, would you be willing to take pity on a silly newbie and share how you figured out how to calculate how much liquid to add back into a dry, brittle, water discounted batch? I want to rebatch it this week, but am confused as to how much liquid to add back into it when I remelt. I know that many do not add any liquid at all if they are rebatching right away, but what about brittle, water discounted batches? I'd like to remelt a pound at a time. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

TIA,

MarieJeanette

P.S. Here is the recipe I used:

Basic Soap Base for Rebatching:

48 oz. Lard

24 oz. Olive Oil

22 oz. Coconut Oil

13.50 oz. Lye Sodium Hydroxide (approx 2% superfatting)

31 oz. water (33% water for reduced liquid)

[Lorrie]

This batch actually sounds like it may be lye heavey. Did you do the tongue test?

[Linnyeg]

I agree that it could be lye heavy. The average superfat used is 5%. I also like to have my numbers close to 50/50 hard oils to soft oils.

A 33% water discount is 2:1 water:lye, which for you would've been 27oz of water. hth

[Carrie]

Want my newbie, maybe not good advise?

I have rebatched 3 times. The first time I did it exactly like I was told. I didn't add any water. The soap was like marshmallow cream when it was melted and I hated the end result when it was unmolded. Threw it away.

The next rebatch I added distilled water. I don't know how much, I just kept adding water to the melted soap and using the SB until it was like medium trace. It was a beautiful rebatch, it looks and feels just like regular CP, only better looking than the original ugly bar.

My third rebatch was 3 days ago. My SB was at my moms so I used a whisk. I don't advise a whisk. I got suds and more suds. It was ugly. I finally got it un-chunky and poured it into muffin pans. I put it in the freezer the next day to get the soap out and it wasn't coming out. I ended up having to pry it out and now they are not only ugly with dried out suds on the top, there are holes in the sides from the knife I used to pry them out of the mold.

If you have learned anything from this it should be not to take my advise on rebatching anything.

HTH

Carrie

[MarieJeanette]

Thank you so much for the responses!

Carrie - even though you advised me not to take your advise, I think I'm going to try what you did - rebatching with the stickblender. Sounds like it would definitely make for a smoother consistancy. I'll let you know how it turns out. Thanks!

MarieJeanette