Build a leaching barrel to collect larger volumes of lye water. A leaching barrel holds a lot of ash, allows time for lye extraction, and filters impurities out of the lye water. Concentrate lye water by evaporating off water, boiling off water, or pouring lye water over fresh ashes. In ancient and colonial days, people used simple methods to tell when lye water was concentrated. One method is dropping a fresh egg into the liquid.
The ideal pH is between 12 and The best way to test lye water concentration is with a hydrometer. Most recipes list the ideal specific gravity for the project. Boil lye water in a glass pot to obtain solid potassium hydroxide.
Keep in mind, both potassium hydroxide and sodium hydroxide are hygroscopic , so they readily retain some amount of water. Most sand sold is quartz, so this should be fine.
Next is a layer of rocks. I use river pebbles, about inches across. This layer should be three to four inches deep. Last is your wood ash. Hardwood ash, such as oak or maple, works best, but you can use any type of wood ash. This should fill the bucket almost to the top. Once the bucket is prepped, start pouring in water. Rain water is best since it contains no minerals, but you can use well or tap water that has been filtered. Pour in a bit, then let it settle. Tap the sides to get out any air bubbles, then add some more.
Continue doing this until the bucket is full. Set the cover on it and wait. Check in a few hours to see if it needs more water, then leave it overnight. If the potato sinks, it needs more time. Be sure to remove the potato. Place a plastic pitcher one used only for soap making under the spigot and slowly open the valve. No, but a wooden barrel will be the best choice.
If you must use another material, make sure that it isn't aluminum, as this will react negatively with the lye. We are on a remote copra plantation. Can I use the ash from fallen dried brown coconut palm fronds and coconut shell that is discarded after the copra is extracted to make my lye? The coconut fronds are a good source of potassium. Coconut shells should also yield potassium. Using these as a potash source would yield KOH, potassium hydroxide. It is a substitute for NaOH, sodium hydroxide.
Not Helpful 7 Helpful Wear rubber gloves and eye protection. Never add water to lye, as it will boil and splatter. Not Helpful 4 Helpful Yes, you can. However, clarify it a few times during this process, by boiling then cooling and letting the sediment settle, then pour clearer liquid for use and repeat. Not Helpful 9 Helpful If you boil down the resulting liquid, you should have a white residue.
The liquid itself will probably be the color of whatever you put into it. Any hard wood will work. Softwood doesn't work because there is too much resin and not enough potassium. Not Helpful 15 Helpful You can boil the resulting liquid to get a lye powder. The sodium hydroxide is in solution, and by carefully evaporating the water you can get the pure powder form.
But be careful as sodium hydroxide lye is quite corrosive to aluminum and dangerous to the human body. Not Helpful 16 Helpful If the lye will eat through plastic, will it damage the plastic drain pipes when used for cleaning them? Pipes in your home are poly vinyl chloride PVC , which may be susceptible to lye damage over a long period of time, but this depends on the concentration of lye and the contact time.
When you clean your drains with lye , either they are backed up with water, which dilutes your lye, or they are slow draining, which means the lye does not spend as much time in the drain.
Either way, it is safe for use with PVC drain lines. Not Helpful 2 Helpful Include your email address to get a message when this question is answered. Submit a Tip All tip submissions are carefully reviewed before being published. Related wikiHows How to. How to. About This Article. Co-authored by:. Co-authors: Updated: April 2, Categories: Featured Articles Soap Making. Article Summary X To make lye water, drill 6 small holes in the base of a barrel and place a inch layer of stones on the bottom of the barrel.
Deutsch: Lauge herstellen. Italiano: Fare la Liscivia. Nederlands: Loog maken. Bahasa Indonesia: Membuat Lindi. As stated before, handle with care. I would think that you can use charcoal ashes. Lye may be wierd, but you should be able to. Be careful handling lye, wear gloves and don't splash it all over. Can i use the charcoal ashes to do this? Here is a calculator for fat to lye.
I really hate to burst y'all's bubbles, but if you're wanting hard bars of soap and not mushy or even liquid soaps, you can't use this method to do so. This method produces potash, or potsssium hydroxide aka KOH. It's chemical makeup is much denser than that of actual lye, or sodium hydroxide aka NaOH ; thereby giving you the much denser, yet very malleable soap that our colonial ancestors made and used.
To produce the hard bars that we're all familiar with, sodium hydroxide MUST be used. Now, you can still make your own NaOH at home, using electricity, non-iodized salt, distilled water, etc. So, if you feel comfortable taking that route and are confident, but not overconfident, in your skills to give this a shot, then Have at thee, scoundrels; and best of luck to thee. For thou wouldst have great need of it. Happy soaping!!! As those who discovered this originally found the proportions will vary depending on the type of wood, type of fat, type of water and possible environmental issues such as temperature and humidity levels.
It seem obvious when starting out make very small portions and find the best amounts. Once the ash, and water are collected and after your fat has been rendered you will have all you need for a mini lab.
Since acid rapidly rusts metals the mixing bowl would preferably be plastic. Warming the water and rendered fat will improve the mixing and speed up the process. I am wondering the same thing. What is the general proportion of fat to lye water? I would want to make sure the saponification process completed by using all the lye so the soap isn't dangerous and burn. Nicolas, Lightly offered some great idea. To make them happen, try the website hispanicherbs.
As well as some cool herbalism classes, which can be taken in person or online. Happy New Year! Nicolas, you could also try any well-known herbal community for both soapmaking and an interesting look at traditional ways.
Herbalists and "forest-folk" those who love plants and their wild habitats deeply -- the ones scattered across the United States right now, still practicing old traditions from whatever cultures' grandmothers' passed-down wisdom -- will likely be very happy that someone's taking an interest.
If you can find those that live pretty simply, without many modern trappings woodstove, etc.? Not sure about the east coast.
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