Making Potassium Hydroxide from Ash at Home?

[russellcook]

Hi everyone,

I found this article about making one's own lye (KOH) from hardwood ash:

http://www.motherearthnews.com/home...how-to-make-soap-from-ashes-zmaz72jfzfre.aspx

Has anyone tried this before? If so, any tips about setting it up and afterwards using the lye solution (for example, how do you decide the proportion of lard to go with your KOH solution?)?

I've heard that the KOH tends to produce a liquid rather than solid soap, but adding some NaCl can allow you to make bar soap.

Any help would be great

 

[Susie]

Here you go. I have never done this, and strongly recommend that you use purchased lyes to make soap.

http://www.ehow.com/how_6120618_make-soap-ashes.html

I do know that wood ashes do not give you KOH, but those helpful sciencey types are going to have to step in and give you exactly what is happening. There was a thread on this a while ago....going to look.

Here's some:

http://www.soapmakingforum.com/showthread.php?t=458

http://www.soapmakingforum.com/showthread.php?t=458

Here are videos:

[ame]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PLXuuKj03AI[/ame]

[ame]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0CLhaJjSZK0[/ame]

Google really is your friend.

Watched the second video, and that pan is aluminum. Do not use aluminum to mold soap or handle lye. Also, you need to at least use the egg float test to check the concentration of the lye water.

Also, please do not use anyone's cured cast iron to make soap. I would not want you to get yelled at.

 

[DeeAnna]

This question comes up regularly. I'm with Susie -- use commercial lye unless you're a dyed-in-the-wool homesteader or prepper determined to do it the really super old-fashioned way. Even my grandmother born in the late 1800s didn't use ashes to make lye and there are very good reasons why she didn't.

Use google to actually find stuff on SMF -- type your search key words and then follow that by this term: site:soapmakingforum.com Example: koh ashes site:soapmakingforum.com

See these threads for stuff I wrote awhile back:
http://www.soapmakingforum.com/showthread.php?p=399332
http://www.soapmakingforum.com/showthread.php?p=453322

 

[snappyllama]

I second that!

We inherited my husband's great, great grandparent's cast iron skillet. Actually we rescued it from my idiotic brother-in-law who put it in the dish washer?!?!?! If someone used it for soap or lye-making, I would have to hurt them.

 

[JustBeachy]

I learned to make soap from my grandmother back in the 60's. I remember her telling me a story about how when she was a little girl she had to help her mom make their own lye from ash. She said occasionally, they'd make a batch of soap that was too "strong", as she put it, and they would use it on laundry or cook it down again with more lard. :smile:

Teaching me, she only used store bought lye. I would highly recommend the same. It's just too hard to figure out the purity of the finished lye. And you're always going to be inconsistent. There's better ways to be a prepper.And like another member pointed out, in the event of world catastrophe, being the best smelling person in the woods is going to be the least of your worries.

 

[Susie]

I second that!



We inherited my husband's great, great grandparent's cast iron skillet. Actually we rescued it from my idiotic brother-in-law who put it in the dish washer?!?!?! If someone used it for soap or lye-making, I would have to hurt them.

I was yelling at the computer when I saw them do that in cured cast iron...

 

[DeeAnna]

Oh, yes, I agree about the cast iron. Lye is in some oven cleaners because it can take off all that black baked-on stuff that can be nasty in an oven ... and perfectly wonderful in a cast iron fry pan. It's taken me 15 years to get my fry pan juuuuussssst the way I like it.

 

[russellcook]

Thanks for the replies everyone.

My first batch of soap I made with commercial NaOH and I'll continue with that for now.

Some day I'd like to try using wood ash though - the idea of making the soap entirely from raw materials is very appealing to me.

Does anyone know what would be a good starting point for experimenting with wood ash lye solution and lard? For example, 500g lard to 300g lye solution?

 

[The Efficacious Gentleman]

The solution's strength varies so there is no 'x to y' for it like with bought stuff. But the information in the links above with things like the stick test will get you there.

The variability and pita-ness of it all is why few people do it.

I think it only makes sense if you are killing and butchering the pig yourself, rendering the lard down and so on as well. If you're buying anything at all that will end up in the soap then it is really an exercise in making potash rather than making everything from 'raw' materials.

 

[DeeAnna]

"...Does anyone know what would be a good starting point for experimenting with wood ash lye solution and lard?..."

I agree with the Gent. There are too many variables involved to suggest any kind of starting point. This soapmaking method strongly depends on the strength of the lye you make -- and that depends on the type of plant material burned, the specific method used to produce the ashes, and your expertise in this matter. There is simply no way to know the precise proportions of fat to lye -- the soapmaker basically figures it out during the cook. For that reason, this type of soap cannot be made with a modern CP or HP method -- it requires a "boiled" method. You will start with melted fats, add the lye solution, stir and simmer for a time, check for presence of excess fat or excess lye, adjust by adding more fat or more lye as needed, and continue cook until all the fat is consumed and saponification is complete. Then, depending on whether you want a soft soap or a harder soap, you will either stop there for a paste soap or "salt out" the soap to convert some of it to a firmer sodium soap. A salted soap will not be a hard bar soap like our modern soaps -- it will only be firmer.

 

[russellcook]

Thanks for the replies.

DeeAnna's description in particular was very illuminating - I may give this method a try once I have more experience. For now, I'll stick with NaOH

 

[Susie]

I talked to my uncle(the only person I personally know who watched soap being made from wood ashes), and he said he remembered his mother "tasting" the soap to see how much fat to add. He said she started with the "lye water" being boiled down and added fat until it looked right, then started tasting. I had erroneously assumed that this was done when they butchered a hog, but he told me that it was collected fats from cooking. She added all leftover fats to a can, and every week cleaned those up on wash day(Monday) while the fire was going in the yard by placing them in a pot off to the side and adding water. She then rendered and cooled the fats to remove impurities and be able to can the fat for the soap that she made once a year. And it was "scoopable soap" they kept in jars. He did not remember if she added salt. He said if he hung around too long, she put him to work, so he did not stay in sight.

 

[russellcook]

Cheers Susie.

Valuable information for future experimenting :-D

 

[DeeAnna]

"...his mother "tasting" the soap to see how much fat to add..."

Yep! She was basically doing a zap test on the saponifying soap. There are also visual tests that can indicate whether the soap batter is fat heavy or lye heavy. I'm not any kind of expert on these tests -- I'm just passin' on my book larnin'.

 

[Susie]

Yeah, zap testing for sure. I just let him talk, as he will argue with a fence post .

 

[DeeAnna]

"...he will argue with a fence post..."

Hey, I know a few folks like that too!