candles or soap?

[archeryrob]

Anyone make either of these? I rendered all the fat off a deer the year before last and still had it sitting around. Once strained it preserves rather well warm in a bag in the basement. I made a batch with Beeswax for bullet lubing and 200 45 Colt bullets and I hardly dented it. I got plenty left to try other things for what to do with more next year.

 

[CIuck]

Anyone make either of these? I rendered all the fat off a deer the year before last and still had it sitting around. Once strained it preserves rather well warm in a bag in the basement. I made a batch with Beeswax for bullet lubing and 200 45 Colt bullets and I hardly dented it. I got plenty left to try other things for what to do with more next year.

I have made candles before, you can also make lip balm with beeswax!

 

[Isellsilkies]

research the internet is very genius

 

[CleaverFox]

I’ve made both, multiple ways. That being said, I have questions regarding the use of deer fat. Most fat used in candle & soap making (at least within our relatively history) is fat from non-animal sources. Nuts, seeds, and the like. But there’s nothing saying you can’t or shouldn’t use animal fat. Animal fats have many good properties for your skin. But, some concerns.
The first identifiable issue would be odor. Even using plant and nut based fats, most are sold in deodorized varieties. This is so it doesn’t effect the end result of your product. Anything you put in them, is going to create the smell that comes out of them. So some are deodorized so as not to effect the final product fragrance and some aren’t to add to it. If you’ve rendered the fat and turned it into tallow, you’re going to want to do it multiple times, extra salt and water. Until you get zero sediment and as much of the smell is gone. It won’t change the fat chemically or remove its properties. Just the other bits.

The second issue involves chemistry. In soap, you need to know a fats melting point and saponification value. Melting is obvious, saponification tells you at what point it chemically turns to soap. As in how much lye you need and what qualities you want the soap to have. Like how some soaps bubble more than others, some are more creamy some are lighter. That kind of thing. These are 2 references I like and use for calculating the chemistry rather than doing it by hand. Though I did a quick check and none have values on venison fat, so you may have to play a bit.

https://www.soapguild.org/
http://soapcalc.net/

For candles you’ll have similar issues. You’ll need to know melt point and flash point. Generically when it melts and when it burns. This is how neat your candle will burn. Meaning not that annoying candle you got that just seemed to burn uneven or straight through the middle. Wasting much of it. Then how clean it will burn. As an FYI, Animal fats burn dirty compared to most commonly used ingredients. This means they throw a lot of smoke. Putting residue and dust in your house. Then there’s how hard or soft the candle will be an so forth. If you’re working with the same tallow you’ve run through multiple times to remove any sediment and impurities as suggested in the soap, it’s easier.
This site has lots of great info on candle making, what different ingredients will do to the properties of the candle and so forth. It also gives you ratios for recipes.

https://candles.org/

This is about what I can get off the top of my head and some quick links for you. Hopefully it gets you started. Your most important thing is going to be ensuring the fat is rendered in water and salt, put through a cheesecloth, cooled and sediment removed...over and over, until it’s as clean and white as possible.