I used to post quite actively in r/soapmaking since, well, I’m a soap maker.

My wife and I raised the pigs, rendered the lard, and mixed it with other oils and lye to make soap. You know, soap making.

r/soapmaking was filled with people who bought soap that other people made, melted it, mix in perfume and glitter, poured it into moulds, and sold it. I pointed out that they weren’t actually making soap but were doing arts and crafts with soap that other people make.

They set upon my like a bunch of extremist vegans at a BBQ. I said that there wasn’t anything wrong with doing soap arts and crafts but that it wasn’t really soap making since they didn’t actually make soap.

They called me arrogant for not accepting that not making soap was soap making and banned me. I can’t remember whether it was permanent or temporary but I never went back.

  • SatansMaggotyCumFart
    4•6 months ago

    You shouldn’t gate keep soap making.

    I carve designs in them and I still consider myself a soap maker.

    • Maple EngineerOPM
      4•6 months ago

      You’re doing soap arts and crafts and that’s fine. You’re carving soap that someone else made not making soap. It’s like buying a book that someone else wrote, putting a pretty cover on it, and calling yourself an author.

      • Logi
        10•6 months ago

        That’s called book binding. A perfectly respectable craft.

        • Maple EngineerOPM
          3•6 months ago

          So is soap arts and crafts.

          I make soap. I turn an animal into something you can wash yourself with. If you buy the soap that I made you’re not making the soap, I did.

      • SatansMaggotyCumFart
        3•6 months ago

        I melt the shavings down and turn them into new bars so I definitely make soap.

        • Maple EngineerOPM
          2•6 months ago

          What is the saponification number of the oils that you’re using? Are you using NaOH or KOH?

          • SatansMaggotyCumFart
            3•6 months ago

            What is the saponification number of the oils that you’re using

            The animal fat I use sometimes is 195-200.

            Are you using NaOH or KOH

            That depends on the soap that I make but I prefer a soft soap using caustic potash.

            But these days I’m content with carving the soap, it’s not that easy to get chemicals where I’m living.

            • Maple EngineerOPM
              2•6 months ago

              That’s soap making.

              I have six 40 kg bags of KOH in my storage building that I was given by a lab that was shutting down in a small city near where I live. I have the advantage of having studied chemistry in university so I speak the language and they trusted me. I found when I got home that they had slipped a number of bottles of chemicals that I didn’t ask about into my truck.

              • SatansMaggotyCumFart
                3•6 months ago

                Yeah that’s how I got arrested for methamphetamine production the first time so I hear you.

            • Maple EngineerOPM
              3•6 months ago

              Lye is a natural product. It’s the runoff from water passing through wood ash. When you calculate the saponification properly the lye is completely consumed converting the triglyceride into fatty acid and glycerol. Of course, if you’re old school you can leave some of the lye in and get the real wash your sins away experience.