Questions about making soap

[Cquence]

I've produced my own wood ash lye.
I've used a stainless steel bucket, filled it with ashes then put some boiling rainwater over it and let it rest. Next I scooped off the lye water again using a stainless steel cup, and filtered out the remaining particles, using a funnel and a paper coffee filter in it. I put this onto a glass jar, where I stored my lye.

I still need to boil it to get it more strong.
I'm going to test it with the floating potato method.
In the afternoon I'm going to buy a small gas stove I can use outside, I've found a store in our neighborhood that has it in stock for a reasonable price!

Then I'm trying to make soap with some vegetable oils. So exited. But I still have some questions.

Question 1) How do I know if I have enough oil versus lye in my soap? Is there a way I can easily calculate/test it? Or do I see/feel it when boiling the soap so I can add oil or lye when necessary?

Question 2) Also what is the best way to cure soap? I was thinking about a glass container. Since I suspect it is going to produce a more soft soap, it wouldn't make any sense to try to cut the soap into bars or having the need for flexible container to get the soap out. Or am I wrong about this? I also like a reusable container (for the environment, glass is completely recyclable) that is inert, I know some plastic containers can leak some chemical stuff into water, I suspect that with a chemical product like soap, this might even be more so. Is it actually a good idea to use a glass container to cure a soft soap? Not 100% sure, but I think it is.

Question 3) But then does this container needs a lid or does it need some air to "breathe"? I guess I can find cheap glass containers, but they all have a plastic lid. But since the soap doesn't touch the lid if I leave enough room at the top, I guess it won't be much of a problem...

 

[shunt2011]

You would need to know the strength of your lye and then run it through a lye calculator and adjust the numbers until you have the appropriate oils:lye. Your soap will be soft not a hard bar as ashes makes KOH not NAOH

 

[earlene]

I've produced my own wood ash lye.
I've used a stainless steel bucket, filled it with ashes then put some boiling rainwater over it and let it rest. Next I scooped off the lye water again using a stainless steel cup, and filtered out the remaining particles, using a funnel and a paper coffee filter in it. I put this onto a glass jar, where I stored my lye.

I still need to boil it to get it more strong.
I'm going to test it with the floating potato method.
In the afternoon I'm going to buy a small gas stove I can use outside, I've found a store in our neighborhood that has it in stock for a reasonable price!

Then I'm trying to make soap with some vegetable oils. So exited. But I still have some questions.

Question 1) How do I know if I have enough oil versus lye in my soap? Is there a way I can easily calculate/test it? Or do I see/feel it when boiling the soap so I can add oil or lye when necessary?

Question 2) Also what is the best way to cure soap? I was thinking about a glass container. Since I suspect it is going to produce a more soft soap, it wouldn't make any sense to try to cut the soap into bars or having the need for flexible container to get the soap out. Or am I wrong about this? I also like a reusable container (for the environment, glass is completely recyclable) that is inert, I know some plastic containers can leak some chemical stuff into water, I suspect that with a chemical product like soap, this might even be more so. Is it actually a good idea to use a glass container to cure a soft soap? Not 100% sure, but I think it is.

Question 3) But then does this container needs a lid or does it need some air to "breathe"? I guess I can find cheap glass containers, but they all have a plastic lid. But since the soap doesn't touch the lid if I leave enough room at the top, I guess it won't be much of a problem...

Cquense, I cannot answer question #1 as I have no real knowledge on that subject. When I tried to get some answers, just out of curiosity (no desire to do it myself, really) I could no find definitive answers.

However, if you are in the US, I suggest contacting the national soapmaker's guild for more guidance. They have recently added certification step that requires making soap with ashes. The guild's website:
https://www.soapguild.org/
Their toll-free telephone number is listed at the top of the page, if you can't find what you are looking for on the site. Someone can, at least give you a reference point of where to start looking.

Regarding question #2: What kind of soap do you plan to cure? One tends to cure bars of solid soap out and open to the air, not inside enclosed spaces. So on shelves or racks that ensure no contact with metals, in a room that allows free air flow and out of direct sunlight. If you are talking about liquid soap, which is more likely what you will get with lye made from ashes (potash), then curing I think is not what it is called, I think; I believe the word is 'sequester' when used for LS, unless I am mistaken. I have only made LS once, so am not the best person to address answers related to LS questions.

Regarding question #3: In reference to question #2, again I think this is in regards to LS, so I am not very experienced, but a covered container is suggested, from what I have read. I keep my LS paste in a plastic container with an airtight lid. Without a lid the paste could dry out and eventually possibly become hard as a rock and I don't think that's what one wants to happen. Keeping it a moistish paste until ready to be constituted (or is it re-constituted?) with water, is what one is after, I believe.

I am sure someone with more experience in these matters will come along to clarify.

 

[Cquence]

Hi, I'm not in the U.S. I'm from Belgium. So I'm not sure if I can join a U.S. guild. So I'm not a native speaker either, so terminology is somewhat more difficult for me. I know that the saponification process does need some time. Not sure how long for potash lye soap. I got some glass containers from the store today that have plastic airtight lids, however not sure if I need to put them on or not. If not I need to find a way to let it breathe and keep the dust of, maybe with some cloth I can put over the container or something alike. I do find that even though making potash soap is a technique that has been used a lot throughout history, there is not very much accurate info around (or at least, I haven't found it yet).

 

[earlene]

Is there a soapmaker's guild in Belgium?

 

[Cquence]

No, not that I'm aware of...

 

[Lion Of Judah]

Hi Cquence and welcome to the forum

I see that you have jumped into the far side of the pool in terms of making soap with Potash. I have a few links in my notes that may be of some help to you , as far as how to know when your lye is strong enough to soap . Good Luck and Happy soap making .

http://journeytoforever.org/biodiesel_ashlye.html

https://www.ehow.com/how_6208188_make-soap-indoors-potash.html

 

[Kamahido]

Perhaps it would be wise to learn the current, easier, and safer way of soap making before diving head first into Master level challenges.

 

[Diana Smith]

Reading up on the making of soap from potash. I have a few bits of knowledge to add.
Ashes, I may need to reburn them, many were black charcoal instead of actual white/gray ash I have no idea how hot they burned for a time, probably in 30 - 60 minute intervals at temps to cook most foods. I also have a friend who burns hardwoods in his wood-fired furnace to heat his garage and he's promised me the ashes, I have no idea what temp he would be burning at. While I have a single 16 oz bag of ashes, I suspect I'll want more than that for liquid soap making. It's a nice start. Going to need a bucket.

Found a few resources that mentioned the thought of letting rainwater pour into a bucket, stirring it whenever one remembers and then instead of all that fussing, allow the ashes to settle down and drain off the lye water into a steel pot and check it for buoyancy with an egg. If the egg drifts to the bottom use tongs, remove egg, and boil at 30 minute intervals outside over a fire until a fresh egg floats.

Can make your own 'soft water' with a 0.2 micron Sawyer brand water filtration device. Costs around $60 so you don't have to wait around for rainwater and you can take it from a source like a natural lake, muddy pool, or a stream filled with little swimmy creatures. Luckily, a friend of mine has a huge 30 gal barrel for collecting rainwater in his yard and he hasn't been using it. I expect to be 'set'.

 

[DeeAnna]

A 0.2 micron filter can indeed remove particles and some microogranisms, yes that is true, but this filter isn't nearly fine enough to "soften" water by removing the "hard water" ions (calcium and magnesium).

Calcium ions have a diameter of something around 100-125 pm according to a quick google search. A picometer (pm) is 1 x 10-12 meter -- in other words, it's way, way smaller than a micron (1 x 10-6 m).