New Soaps and a New Mold!

So I've been wanting a big 5lb loaf mold for soaping, but the prices are outrageous. Rather than break down and buy one, I convinced my dad to help me make one from scrap wood and a few nuts/bolts from the hardware store. The result works great! I got the basics from Keith Brown's wonderful tutorials on youtube. Go check them out if you're interested in making your own mold. My dad and I edited a few things, stuck washers on the bolts before the wing nuts, etc, but basically kept the same idea. SO without further rambling, pictures!









Both ends are removable. I drilled the holes wrong on one side, so I had to put me an up arrow to know which set of holes to put on the bolt. I spent about $4 to make this between the bolts and screws. All the wood was scrap. I recommend making it the 18" suggested in the videos. That's the perfect length to put Reynolds freezer paper in and not have to cut anything. I just stuck seperate little squares on the end pieces, screwed it down tight and taped down the big middle piece. It worked great, no leaks or anything.

So, the soaps that were made (a few weeks ago now, haven't had time to post this...). I did 3 types: goats milk, shaving soap, and the loaf one. The descriptions are in this post.

Goats Milk:

Still not too fond of the look of this one, but here's the Shaving Soap:

And my favorite of all the one's I've made so far, done in the fancy new loaf mold is the Peppermint Chocolate Swirl:

What do you think, world? :P My picture taking skills haven't improved - these were done by my dad with his  fancy camera he uses to take pictures of deer and stuff when he's hunting.