Hey, Felix!!

[Jim]

What temperature does Ivory soap melt at?

[Ricochet]

I think it's pretty near the same temperature Ivory soap freezes at.

[felix]

Yeah, freezing and melting are at the approx same temp but you would never know it. Soap when made with water, sodium hydroxide, gobs of different fats, greases, waxes, etc. freezes when the water evaporates and gets taken in as a "solid". This occurs after about 4 hours in a home humidity and temp environment. After the soap has completely cured naked within the inside air, say 60 percent humidity at 74 degrees after two months, and then melted and mixed into other lube ingredients, we could say the melting/freezing temp of the lube is 20 degrees higher than without the addition of "sodium stearate". The lube temp will increase or decrease, depending on the metal component of the stearate. Aluminum stearate lowers the melting temp of lube while plain ol' stearate (stearic acid) does not alter the lube temp, but hardens it instead. Aluminum stearate causes the lube to quickly get a non-tacky coating and that would seem desirable. However, as a consequence the ph of the lube goes significantly lower making the powder and copper unsafe while sitting in loaded rounds for more than a month or so. Calcium stearate gives a chalky bore, which is OK for tall land guns, but not for micro-grooves. It also hides any leading which might be occuring, and makes it hard to decipher a fix when accuracy goes sour. Magnesium stearate plays havoc with some of the other ingredients, and will make tar out of any alox product, assuming an aluminum composition. Pros and cons everwhere. ... felix

[Calamity Jake]

I think it desolves more than it melts, I burnt some trying to melt it alone in a pan.
If your making FL, make the Ivery soap slivers as small as possible ad add a little at time while sturing , it will desolve, it just takes time.

[anachronism]

Try a fine cheesegrater. It appears to me that the smaller the particle, the quicker it would melt.

[dubber123]

The BEST thing I did for making lube was to buy one of those hand held blenders they use for making drinks. I got a new, good quality one off Fleebay for 7$.

It took the addition of the Ivory ingredient from a major chore, that often left some small particles, to a 1 minute deal that really mixes the ingredients well.

[felix]

Who wadda' thunk it! Clever. Before melt, or after? ... felix

[dubber123]

I add the Ivory last, so all the other ingredients are melted. One word of caution, my blender came with 2 mixing heads, a metal blade with a cover to keep it from contacting the container sides, and a long wand with a little wavy plastic disc on the end, that you wouldn't THINK would mix well at all.

The metal blade gizmo works great. The little plastic disc will instantly waterproof the inside of your shop with lube....