Hand Milled soapmaking is the fancy way of saying that you take scraps of pre-made soap and melt it down in a small amount of additional liquid. The less fancy way to describe it is "rebatching".

Who rebatches soap?

A cold process soapmaker who has some scraps left over. Rather than throw the scraps out, she may choose to rebatch them into a new bar of soap.

A soapmaker who wants to make a completely and truly natural bar of soap but doesn't want to work with lye.

While the concept is simple, rebatching soap is actually difficult enough that many soapmakers refuse to do it. The main problem is that no soap base is 100% the same batch to batch. Even if made from the same recipe, each batch will have a slightly different moisture content, will be slightly more or less alkaline, etc. So, becoming a successful re-batching soapmaker requires practice! Over time, the diligent soapmaker will develop a keen eye for when to adjust temperatures and moisture content during the rebatching process.

The good news is that a rebatch will never fail completely (unlike Cold Process soap, which can fail). Handmilled soap will always be usable soap. Done well, the results are wonderfully creamy and airy. Done poorly, the results are less visually satisfying: lumpy and uneven. But, as we said, always usable.

Here are the basic instructions: Take one pound of ground up soap, add 1/4 to 1/2 cup liquid, such as water or milk. Heat in a crock pot on low heat or a double boiler for at least an hour. The soap will turn into a thick, gel-like paste. Gently stir in desired additives such as fragrance oils, herbs, colorants, etc. and quickly pour into molds. Allow to cool completely. This soap may require 2 to 3 weeks to become hard enough to use without disolving too quickly. This will depend on the moisture content of the original soap as well as the amount of liquid added during rebatching.