Deer tallow into soap

[29caliber]

Over the past couple of years, I've taken several deer with muzzleloaders ranging from a .45 flintlock to a .62 fusil. I've rendered the fat from these deer into around 5-6 pounds of tallow and want to make soap out of it. Anyone ever do this? I need some advice. Thanks. Tom

 

[bigbore442001]

I made some bear fat soap a while back. I cannot remember the recipes but you have to make sure that the measurements of water, fat and lye are exact. Otherwise saponification will not occur. My soap had too much lye in it and had a white powder on the surface. It would take the paint off the car.

 

[Blizzard of '93]

I can't give an answer but this a good thread, I've wondered if the mountain men and frontiersman/trappers used rendered fat and hardwood ash to make a 'soap' of sorts. :applause:

 

[Trina]

Hi, Are you wanting to just use the deer fat or do you want to add other things to it?

I have never made soap using deer fat.. but I do make ALOT of soap using other oils...

I ran the numbers thru a lye calculator, since they dont have a category for deer I used goat because they eat pretty similiar and built alot the same way... anyhow

for
5 lbs.. of deer fat
10.40 oz of lye or 295 grams
20 to 30 oz of water...

It is VERY important to measure the lye out accuratley that means you need to weigh it out... I change oz to gram and figure it that way....

when mixing the lye make sure you add the lye to the water...and stir this is best done outside because of the fumes...

I dont know what type of soap it would make... lard (pigs fat) is kind of soft... tallow (beef) is hard and brittle...
if you have any questions on the actual process of saop making holler.. have fun.

here is the address to the lye calculator if your interested
[url] http://www.thesage.com/calcs/lyecalc2.php[/url]

 

[29caliber]

Thanks for all of the replies so far. Since I've never made any type of soap before, my first attempt will be very basic, just making plain ol' soap, following the ratios provided. I assume that I can use the tallow:lye:water ratios should I have more tallow than the 5# mentioned. I have scales that will weigh in grams, so that helps. After I've gotten the hang of it, I'd like to add some natural fragrance, like pumpkin, etc. and experiment with it, but I don't know if this will influence the tallow:lye:water ratios. There's a place nearby that raises buffalo and I think I could get quite a bit of fat from there for future efforts. Will buffalo tallow, which I assume would be similar to grass raised beef, differ much from deer in the ratios? Thanks, Tom

 

[Trina]

Hi Tom,
If you have never made soap I would do a search for cold process soapmaking, and read up....

Have you rendered the fat yet?

Once you find out exactly how much fat you have, go to the lye calculator and punch in the number of oz. you have.. it will tell you in oz how much lye you need... I superfat at about 5 or 6 percent.. and it will also tell you how much water you need to use as well... that site also has a measurement calculator that will change the oz to grams. unles your a math wiz, I am not so its a useful tool for me...

as far as fragrances go if you want natural, essential oils do well at adding scent...I add about 1 Tbls per lb of fat. I dont know what something like pumpkin would do to your soap...

 

[renovato]

I tried my hand at soap making a few years back, though not with deer tallow. I found a plethora of recipes and info on the net and there's even a few soapmaking sites. I don't have any urls to pass on, as this was several computers back and they've all been lost. Spend a little time studying the process first, and you'll eliminate most of the causes of failure. My first soaps turned out pretty good, and if I can do it, anyone can.