Eagle Lye

[Jackson]

I came across an old pamphlet from Eagle Lye published in 1931 with interesting recipes for soap making. All give instruction to use a certain number of cans but I don't know how many ounces is in the can. Does anyone know the size of the cans that we got when it was available to buy at the local grocery or hardware store? In this area it would have been Red Devil Lye but I expect it was comparable to what Eagle produced.
I can recall the cans of lye my father used and I expect they were 8 or 10 ounces but that was a lot of years ago and I can't be sure.

 

[Meganmischke]

I think they were 12oz. Hopefully someone knows for sure though.

 

[Susie]

Red Devil Lye sold here was available in 16oz cans, if I recall correctly. However, if I were interested in making soap from a pamphlet that old, I would probably take the oils, and run them through a reputable lye calculator and go with that amount of lye, as there is no way to ascertain the purity of what was available 80+ years ago, and therefore no way to know if you are using more or less than originally called for.

 

[Jackson]

OK I ran a couple of recipes through the calculator and it comes out very close to 12 ounces so when I see specs for one can of lye I will think 12 ounces.

 

[The Efficacious Gentleman]

Jacko, I would still check every single one anyway. Don't just take the recipe at it's word. It's strange to think it, but a lot of times we see people who used recipes where there was a mistake in the text and they have made a harmful soap. That's not even taking in to account the potential for SAP numbers to be refined over time............................

The standard suggestion is ALWAYS calculate the lye using a good calculating tool - it's also why you will rarely see people her give a recipe with the lye amounts in there. We leave it out so that the most important part is the responsibility of the soaper, rather than any typing error we might make

 

[Susie]

^What The Efficacious Gentleman said. Safety first. Every time.

 

[reinbeau]

Is it this pamphlet? Neat, I love the old stuff http://www.lovinsoap.com/2012/01/old-eagle-lye-pamphlet/

 

[Jackson]

No, The booklet I have is 52 pages & probably older since it is all black and white.
I looked for it on the web since it is too delicate to use without possible damage but had no luck.

 

[DeeAnna]

Had to hunt for a bit, but I ~knew~ I'd seen some old lye pamphlets somewhere online. Here they are: http://www.lyedepot.com/

Enjoy!

 

[reinbeau]

Had to hunt for a bit, but I ~knew~ I'd seen some old lye pamphlets somewhere online. Here they are: http://www.lyedepot.com/

Enjoy!

Nice but.....I think they went a little nuts with their stupid watermark.....

 

[DeeAnna]

Yeah, I agree. Offputting.