# bar sizes & molds



## midkiffsjoy (Feb 27, 2008)

What size is your bars??? What mold do you use??? Is there a "standard" sized bar?


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## MiaBella Farm (Jul 22, 2008)

Mine are 4 oz, round and I use PVC molds...there is really no "standard" sized bar, make what you like and what you think you can market.

Welcome to DGI! :biggrin


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## midkiffsjoy (Feb 27, 2008)

Ive been lurking for years. Never needed to post before. Ive never been able to come up with an original question! *grin*


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## nightskyfarm (Sep 7, 2009)

The only thing I can say about bar sizes is that the bar you choose ought to fit your hand. I get frustrated trying to use a bar too large for me to hold. I make a good effort to keep my bars at 4 ozs more or less and of a comfortable shape. Many molded bars are just not comfortable to hold. You will generally keep your molds for sometime so choose what you want and what will hold up to the temperature extremes of the process. Spend a lot of time researching soap molds on this forum and on the web, you will be happy you did in the end. Jennifer


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## mill-valley (Feb 22, 2008)

I also prefer a slightly smaller bar than some, mine are 4-5 oz and 2.5" highx3.5"widex1" thick. I have very basic wooden molds my dh made, and I line them with freezer paper. They work great, but if I was making more soap I'd want something I didn't have to line.


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## midkiffsjoy (Feb 27, 2008)

I see alot of molds that make a 3.5" x 3.5" bar. I just think that should be uncomfortable to use.


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## Aja-Sammati (Oct 26, 2007)

Try a bar of soap that size and see. It is a matter of personal prefernce. If you decide on cutting smaller bars though, you can get more from a batch, which cuts your cost. If you wanted to use soap boxes, they only come in certain sizes. I haven't figured out why you'd want soap that will fit in a 1" tall box yet, but aparently some people do :lol


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## Faye Farms (Sep 14, 2009)

I probably have about the smallest bars. Mine are 2" x 3 1/2" x 1". They weigh a tad bit under 3.5 oz. My friend built me a bunch of log molds for christmas so that's just the size I went with. This size has worked well for me so I will keep them this way. I like how they fit in my hand and I can sell them at a lower price. I also have an 18 bar Kelsie mold. When I have the money I would like to get a really big one. I like having the artistic option of a slab mold.


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## Kalne (Oct 25, 2007)

When I first started I went around looking at bars of soap at the stores and how they felt in my hand. I ended up with 3.75 x 2.5 x 1 but now I'm changing to 3.5 x 2.5 x 1.125 because I wanted my bars a bit thicker but the same weight. It's easy enough to change my homemade molds to this size and my Kelsei is already 3.5 wide so I'm set to go.


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## Sondra (Oct 25, 2007)

all my bars are 5 oz and more like 6 oz


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## Anita Martin (Dec 26, 2007)

My bars are fairly large. They are a rectangle and are fairly easy to handle, verses the old log molds I used to use. They made a taller, skinnier soap, and it wasn't as comfortable to hold. It made more of a square shape when I got it to the size I wanted...around 5.5 oz. Some people really like how big my bars are and feel they are getting a bargain, some feel they are too big. For myself I do like the rectangle shape verses a round or molded shape, so it certainly is a personal preference. I've thought about changing my size many, many times, and maybe I will one day, but I've invested in four of the large Kelsie molds and so for right now, that will be my size.


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## NubianSoaps.com (Oct 26, 2007)

My bars are big, 6 ounces + but it's what I started with and if I moved to smaller bars I know I would loose business. I am also lucky because I never was OCD about my bars so the rustic appeal of my textured tops is what is expected. Anyone selling molds should be able to send you a bar of the soap it makes, this way you could try the soap before you use it. I know Rita from Kelsie would or she would have one of her girls send you a bar who use her stock molds. Make sure the size of your bars also work between log and slab molds, this way some of your soap can have pretty textured or swirled tops from your slab mold, but also be able to soap in large bulk in your log mold (where the top of our pour is actually the side of the soap). You need to just come over  Vicki


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