lye soap

[washerboy]

Has anyone ever made lye soap? I have family on the Kentucky/Tennesse line. I always go into Ky. and buy soap, jelly and produce from the Amish. The lye soap is wonderful...does'nt dry my skin out plus scrubs away all the body funk (that sounded gross did'nt it?). Anyway I got a receipe off the internet...there were several one kind you cooked on the stove the other was a cold water method. Thinking about tring the cold water method. I'm concerned about the cureing time. I know the lye disapates; however if you dont let it cure long enough you run the risk of scrubbing yourself with Red Devil Lye. I would appreciate anyone's comments that's made, or knows about making lye soap/thanks guys!!!

 

[gansky1]

I can't speak to the individual formulas, my grandmother made lye soap nearly her entire life. It was the best for scrubbing work clothes and coveralls of my grandfathers.

My mother has talked about remembering the hog fat being rendered (boiled & strained) after butchering, then cooking the soap mixture with the lye. Ugh. I'm sure there's a better way now!

 

[toggleswitch]

These types of basic "un-refined" nautural soaps are available in many of the local ethnic shops that import these things. They truly are amazing!

 

[peterh770]

When making soap for hands and body parts, you use less lye than it take to saponify all the fat. This leaves the soap "superfatted" and does not dry your skin out completely. There is also something they call a "lye discount" which is basically the same thing -- more fat to lye ratio.

When making lye soap for laundry and kitchen use, you do not want any excess fat in the soap, so you need to use as much lye as necessary to saponify all the fat.

As you do your reseach, you will learn about all kinds of fats to use in different amounts, combinations and ratios. Read as much as you can.

The "cold method" sounds like the best way to me. By the time the mixture of fat and lye makes it to "soft trace" stage, most of the saponification has occurred. The curing time varies and can take a month or two depending on the recipe used.

Remember: while it is a hobby and can be an industry, it is pure CHEMISTRY. It can be dangerous at worst, and can be a big waste of money if you are not careful.

My understanding from a number of soapers' websites is that Red Devil lye is getting harder and harder to come by. Apparently, that company is no longer making it for general retail sales.

The Soap Dish forum
http://www.soapdishforum.com/forum/index.php?s=3e3110e42303a0104d12c53ea16e5b15&showforum=4
A lye calculator
http://recipes.herbalsoapsbyrj.com/calculators/lye-calc2.php
Ingredients
http://sci-toys.com/ingredients/ingredients.html
Soap making
http://www.washbasinwonders.com/
More soap making
http://waltonfeed.com/old/soaphome.html

 

[toggleswitch]

... and remember you Greco-philes. *SAPONIFICATION* is a big-fancy word whose Greek root *SAPOUNI* means "soap"

What are they using it to mean in English other than the perhaps all-too-easy to assume "becomes soap"?

 

[maytagbear]

Do you have to?

I really am not trying to curb your enthusiasm, however......

Lye is such a potentially dangerous chemical.

If you do, I strongly urge wearing a long sleeved shirt, long pants, and goggles and rubber gloves.

Lawrence/Maytagbear

 

[washerboy]

thanks guys!!!!!!!I appreciate all the info/mark

 

[launderess]

Red Devil Lye

Remember reading on the back of cans how to make soap in my youth, didn't know they took the directions away. Probably a legal liablity issue, if not "Homeland Security".

 

[peterh770]

Lawrence,

That goes without saying. Like I said, this is CHEMISTRY.

 

[maytagbear]

Peter---

A casual aquaintence had a severe, though ultimately temporary, eye injury from lye during soapmaking at home. Took her a long time to be back to normal.

I just don't want what happened to Eymmi to happen to anyone else.

Lawrence/Maytagbear

 

[gmmcnair]

Why Lye is Getting Hard to Find

Lye is one of the chemicals used in making meth, so it's getting rare as hen's teeth nowadays....off topic, but the same thing for the pseudoephedrine (Sudafed)...can't get that over the counter in Oregon anymore either.

 

[launderess]

Pseudoephedrine

By Federal law cannot be sold over the counter anywhere. Items containing the substance are required to be behind the counter, and one must ask the clerk. There are signs in every store one has been to saying this/directing customers to speak with the manager/clerks if looking for those products.

Ingredients to make "Meth" have become so hard to come by in the United States, much of the drug consumed in the United States now comes from Mexico (surprise), where drug lords have added Meth production to their shoplist besides herion, cocaine, pot and god only knows what else.

L.

 

[gmmcnair]

Launderess...

They've taken it another step here in Oregon...you cannot get pseudoephedrine without a prescription since July.

 

[peterh770]

Thank heavens pot is still legal...

 

[gansky1]

Good thing, look what's been spotted in Paris Hilton's handbag!

 

[tomturbomatic]

That soap making method called the cold method might mean that it does not have to be cooked, but when the lye (sodium hydroxide) and water meet, they give off a whole lotta heat.

Toggle, we are not just using the Greek word for soap, but also the Latin facere "to make", so don't feel like we are mining Greek any deeper than Latin.

The old time way of making lye water was pouring water through wood ashes to extract the potash or potassium carbonate. Naturally, coming from wood, carbon would be attached and potassium is right under sodium in the Periodic Table, so it would be right active in making soap. I think some oven cleaners still have sodium hydroxide or other strong alkali in them. Actually cleaning the oven with chemical oven cleaner is soap making. One manufacturer even said something like, turns hard baked-on grease into soft brown soap.

From one of the top 30 songs of 1952 titled "It's In The Book," by Johnny Standley, we have these fitting words:

Do you remember grandma's lye soap
Good for everything in the home
And the secret was in the scrubbing
It wouldn't suds and couldn't foam.

Then let us all sing right out for grandma's lye soap
Used for, for everything
Everything on the place
For pots and kettles
The dirty dishes
And for your hands and for your face.

Little Herman and brother Thurman
Had an aversion to washing their ears
Grandma scrubbed them with the lye soap
And they haven't heard a word in years.

 

[lederstiefel1]

self-made soap

Hy folks!
I made my own soap for years - all kind of!
It was the best for my skin! Never had dry or harsh skin even in hard water areas!
The difference between hot and cold making is really the cooking! When you boil the mixture, soap is ready between two to six hours, depending on the kind of fat you use. The cold method is also warm, but compared to the boiling it is more cold than hot! With this you mix both lye and fat (some oils like olive and animal fats give the most gentle soaps I've ever made - there's nothing to say against animal fat - why should there?) at about body-temperature (36-45°C) and leave it in a warm place for two days to "set". The difference to the cold made soap is that usually you put salt to the boiling soap-broth when the soap is ready, to seperate the soap and the lye-glycerine-liquid. The soap is floating on top then and lye-glycerine-water underneath. The soap you get with this is bar-soap, good for hand-washing and washing cloths. With the cold method all glycerine will stay in the soap and, as already mentioned by one of you further above, you have a superfatted soap, too - that makes it extra-mild to the skin! Better than any shower gel! After this first "milling" you do it again with some water and let the soap set a second time overnight to get any sharpness out. The third milling adds additives like fragrances, oils, herbal essences and other stuff to it. Afterwards it needs a thorough drying out for several weeks in a warm, dry place to harden completely through.
I used to make big batches of 20 pounds or more for 1-2 years. These soaps are very cheap, absolutely fantastic and mild and non-toxic! And you can add what ever you like and leave away all stuff you do not whish to have in them!
I have several books from the states and the UK of home making soap and also have old recepies for soft-soap and very strong black-soap (for cleaning and disinfecting arround the house!) from the 19th century. As soon we have moved to a bigger place, I will start again with all that stuff!
Ralf

 

[gyrafoam]

Back in the 1970's I used to know a guy whose grandparents lived in "Cabbagetown"----an Atlanta neighborhood populated by Appalachin mountain folks who used to work in the old cotton mill.

Anyway, his grandmother used to make large cakes of lye soap. She cooked it all up in a large black cast iron kettle over a fire in the back yard. She had old wooden moulds she would pour the molten soap into and it would solidify as it cooled.She would turn them out and wrap the cakes of soap in wax paper, or cut up brown grocery bags.

It did not smell like "Cashmere Bouquet" but it sure would clean!