[method269]

Hi everyone,

I took a general chem class in college and a chem class in high school, so my chem background is not very strong. 
My goal is to make soaps.  I talked to my friend and he said organic chem teaches you about saponification, so he recommended me to take organic chem.  Should I take it? I don't want to because I prefer making soaps..plus, I'm tired of school and don't want to study so hard ever again. hahah. Anyway, should I take organic chem?

[Arkcon]

More education is always good, for everybody.  That is a very old adage.  But taking a college level course, and paying college tuition, (or worse yet, borrowing for it,) to learn the background of a craft, is kinda silly.  Get an organic textbook for a library or a friend, and check it's glossary for 'saponification' -- you'll find one or two pages, which an instructor would talk about for 5 or 10 minutes, if they feel like it.  There are way more complex topics to dedicate Organic Chemistry classes -- browse our Organic Chemistry sub-forum and see.

[caliheat]

Yeah o-chem will teach you about the saponification reaction and its mechanism, but nothing more. You can probably find a how-to on youtube or somewhere else online if you want to make soap.

Also if you DON'T like to study, o-chem will be your worst nightmare since you need to put 10-20 hours per week studying for that ONE class haha.

[curiouscat]

Making soap needs following a reciepie and being good at handling things generally.

Unless you get into something cutting edge or troubleshooting you won't need OChem.

[Miss Organic]

No. You should not take organic chemistry. Like you, I too want to learn how to make soap. The difference between you and I, is that I have taken organic chemistry and there's only 1 page devoted to soap making and soaponification-nothing more. The worst part is that I've yet to find a professor (including mine) who's willing to teach me about soap making beyond the textbook, or beyond what he/she is being paid to do. There's many books on how to make soap, but they only give recipes. They don't teach you the "chemistry" behind making soap or how to manually calculate the lye, water, oil ratios. Everyone seems to be using a soap "calculator" but I'm more interested in manual soap calculations (how we do in chemistry lab) instead of using a soap calculator. If you find something let me know too!

[billnotgatez]

http://www.cavemanchemistry.com/
you might want to look at this site for a chemistry course that discusss practical uses
it is one of the few college chemistry courses I have found that is down to earth
you might find other sites like this on the web if you search
let us know if you are successful