How do you make your own lye?

[Boogity]

I have saved a 5 gal. bucket of fresh ashes from our wood stove. I would like to try to make my own lye from it for making soap. Can anyone dive me instructions on how this is done? Thanks.

 

[ThrottleJockey]

Google has given me tons of info and instructions but I'm tagging this thread for interest. Someones first hand experience may give more pointers than the web pages give.

 

[Denim Deb]

I've never made lye, but this is from the book, Back To Basics. Just a note, according to this book, soap made w/lye from ashes won't harden like soap made from commercial lye. It will have a jellied consistency. W/that being said, here's the instructions.

To make lye, you'll need the following: a large wooden tub w/a hole drilled near the bottom. Either a ceramic or enamel crock. Something to use as a support for your wooden tub, either cinder blocks or something you've made. Straw. Ashes. Rainwater.

1. Place the wooden tub on your support. It should be on an angle w/the hole at the lowest point to allow the lye to seep out.
2. Place your crock under the hole to catch your lye solution.
3. Place straw at the bottom of the tub. This will strain the ashes out of your lye solution.
4. Place your ashes in the tub.
5. Make a depression in the ashes, boil your rainwater, and pour it in the depression.
6. When all the water has all seeped away, add more. It may take a few days B4 you even see anything in your crock. Do not hurry the process by adding extra water too soon. It needs time.

You can either make soap from this right away, or you can heat the solution in either an enamel or stainless steel pot. Eventually, a grayish-white potash will form.

 

[Marianne]

The old timers would dip a feather into the lye. If it dissolved the feather, the lye was strong enough to use.

Weak lye would result in soap that was pasty and wouldn't harden.

 

[ThrottleJockey]

From my reading, it should be a chicken feather (don't know why yet) and if the lye is too weak you can pour it back through the ashes again. There are claims that the straw will discolor the lye at first but after it's been used several times it will be bleached out and the discoloration will cease...They also claim that hardwood ashes work better than ashes from poplar or other soft woods and only the completely burned white ashes should be used...

 

[Joel_BC]

The info in Deb's post (post #3, above) is probably good in general. My only reservation: I've used commercially made lye to unclog kitchen drains, and what was clogging them usually has been vegetable matter. It's amazing how fast half a tablespoon of lye dissolves stuff! So I have a very hard time believing straw can function for long (in the bottom of a tub) to strain the lye water. ????

 

[ThrottleJockey]

The info in Deb's post (post #3, above) is probably good in general. My only reservation: I've used commercially made lye to unclog kitchen drains, and what was clogging them usually has been vegetable matter. It's amazing how fast half a tablespoon of lye dissolves stuff! So I have a very hard time believing straw can function for long (in the bottom of a tub) to strain the lye water. ????

I agree, it is some pretty powerful stuff! There are apparently some major differences between what is available and used commercially and what you will make at home. Several resources online claim the straw method is effective. Everything I'm reading seems adamant about using a plastic, stoneware or ceramic container (it seems like wood would work well also) as the caustic soda you are making WILL eat through metal and to NEVER let it come into contact with aluminum.
From http://www.lifeunplugged.net/everythingelse/make-lye-from-wood-ash.aspx

Lye is a powerful base (alkali) that can be created using rain water and wood ashes. Lye created from wood ash is potassium hydroxide (KOH) whereas commercial lye is composed of sodium hydroxide (NaOH). Modern chemical engineering has all but replaced the traditional method of producing lye. For many homestead applications the difference in chemical formulae are inconsequential, but there are exceptions.

The process seems to be outlined the same in all the links I am looking at here are a few. The first one is my favorite and outlines a more effective way of determining strength utilizing an egg rather than a feather. Another link claims a potato works the same way an egg does. It also explains a little more about using straw.
http://www.lifeunplugged.net/everythingelse/make-lye-from-wood-ash.aspx
http://www.soap-made-easy.com/make-lye.html
http://www.ehow.com/how_2078908_make-lye.html
http://www.ehow.com/how_2078908_make-lye.html

 

[ThrottleJockey]

Here is a link to the Foxfire book vol.1 in .pdf if it will help. The soapmaking starts on page 151. I have 9 of these books downloaded because everyone swears by them. I reference them occasionally but have yet to take the time to read them completely.
http://www.outpost-of-freedom.com/library/FoxfireVol1.pdf

 

[Boogity]

Thanks everyone. Your info. is pretty much the same info. I found.

ThrottleJocky - your link does not work for me.

If the homebrew lye does not make bar soap hard, then how did our predecessors do it before commercial lye was available?

Lye based drain cleaner usually has aluminum shavings in it. When the lye and alum. get wet the chemical reaction is what breaks down the fats in the drain line. At least that's what I remember from chemistry class.

 

[ThrottleJockey]

Thanks everyone. Your info. is pretty much the same info. I found.

ThrottleJocky - your link does not work for me.

If the homebrew lye does not make bar soap hard, then how did our predecessors do it before commercial lye was available?

Lye based drain cleaner usually has aluminum shavings in it. When the lye and alum. get wet the chemical reaction is what breaks down the fats in the drain line. At least that's what I remember from chemistry class.

There I fixed them. In the links you will learn that the greater the lye concentration or the stronger the lye, the harder the soap will be. If your lye is too weak, you will get gelatin like soap.