Teaching Soap Making

My youngest son is about to turn 14, and it's time for him to learn how to make soap.  I've always said that I don't wish to teach soap making classes, but I can monitor my son's progress as a soap maker over time, which alleviates any of the aforementioned concerns. 

Previously I taught him how to make Laundry Sauce out of homemade caustic soap, and how to melt down the trimmings from previous batches of soap and turn it into a new batch.

For those who don't know, here's the Laundry Sauce recipe.  I like this recipe better than others that we've tried.

http://www.budget101.com/myo-household-items/whipped-cream-super-laundry-soap-3993.html

If you don't know how to rebatch your soap trimmings, here's some great info from Miller's Homemade Soap:

http://www.millersoap.com/re.html


Today, I decided to start with information about PH, soap making safety, and an overview of the soap making process using online tutorials and other online resources.

Later, I may add additional links to this post, for future reference.

We started with a basic discussion about pH, and made our own pH chart, plugging in the numbers for things like the pH of hair, skin, lye, soap, and vinegar.

Here's a good article for kids about pH:

http://www.ducksters.com/science/acids_and_bases.php

A pH chart:

http://www.curlynikki.com/2013/09/ph-and-natural-hair-what-you-need-to.html

A basic explanation of what happens when lye is combined with fats:

http://www.grit.com/departments/how-lye-becomes-soap.aspx#axzz37kYr2CKb

Here's an excellent lab worksheet explaining the saponification process:

http://people.cedarville.edu/employee/gollmers/gsci1020/labs/08g1020lab5.pdf

Soap Queen TV has a really good 4-part beginner series.  I like it because they placed a good emphasis on safety.  We absolutely will not be making soap without strictly following all safety precautions.  As he gets older, he may decide to make soap while barefoot and not wearing safety glasses, but when he makes soap with me, we'll err on the side of caution!


Part 1:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yR6ttCSrLJI    
Part 2:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xP7mvbAdYWc
Part 3:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fHvuWaClMz0
Part 4:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K3NQMzeDMAU

Next, we watched Jan from SudsNSuch, as she made laundry bars similar to the ones we plan to make tomorrow:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JpTCe5jbclw

And then, because we were curious, we watched her 2- part liquid shampoo video:


Making Liquid Shampoo Base:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kRYvVD-dxRI

Making My Finished Shampoo:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KOilzM05_r4

Next, I'll teach him how I set up the work area and prepare to make soap.