# thesage.com ?s



## a4patch (Oct 7, 2009)

My fam is sick, so I might as well make good use of my time on this Sunday AM.

I am sorry for all of these questions. I am teetering between..I do not care how it works... and ....I want to understand what is going on here.

I have cut and pasted this from thesage.com

"Directly below the Recipe Title box you will find the Liquids box. In the sample recipe water is listed as the liquid of choice. The Lye Calculator has done a quick analysis of your recipe and recommend a liquid amount. This amount is listed in the Liquids box as well. Please note the amount_* is in a volume measurement, while everything else you do in soap is by weight.*_ We have done this amount by volume so it can be quickly measured while the scale is in use. If you choose, you may weigh the amount listed instead of doing it by volume measure. If you need help understanding specific gravity then please read "Understanding Specific Gravity". This will also help you understand why we use volume here instead of weight. "

"Volume measurement while everything esle you do in soap is by weight".... volume really....I have been weighing my milk and using the soapcalc.com site....Have I messed up? Are these two sites different in how they calculate the recipe?

PSD


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## Kalne (Oct 25, 2007)

I exclusively use soapcalc and have always use the weight for everything. 

Here's what I'd do to find out the answer though. Run the same recipe through each and see what the difference is. I never noticed that about the sage, which is what I used when I first started out.


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## hsmomof4 (Oct 31, 2008)

Thing is, with water, 1 oz by weight is also 1 oz by volume. That is not necessarily true for other liquids (especially oils, since they are so much less dense), but that is why they can do that and it shouldn't make any difference.


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## Kalne (Oct 25, 2007)

The question arises then when you use something other than water as your liquid. Does a cup of milk and water weigh the same? I would guess there's minimal difference....but what if you're using cream? Or the different juices some use? The carrot juice I used yesterday seemed pretty thick and I'd say heavier than water. I always assumed this is why we deal in weight not volume.


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## Sondra (Oct 25, 2007)

to use volume you have to know the gravity of the liquid used thus you would have to do a lot of calculating if say you used mercury as your liquid compared to water


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## a4patch (Oct 7, 2009)

thanks. 
I learned to use soap clalc and most of it makes sense to me now. I will run the recipe through both caluclatores for my information. I will probably just use soap calc. 

Thanks again for your help.


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