Wood ash lye challenge

[RacerSpuffy]

I don't think that the old ways are "lost", just very few people make it that way anymore and those that do probably don't post to internet forums. So I did a google scholar search with a time frame of 1600-1935 and got a lot of results. I haven't read any outside of a cursory glance, but this may be a good start on getting a little more clarity on how it was done: https://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=wood+ash+soap+&hl=en&as_sdt=0,26&as_ylo=1600&as_yhi=1935

Smegmatalogia, or the art of making potashes and soap, and bleaching of linen. By which the industrious farmer is taught to bleach and wash his cloath with the produce of our own country That one has a recipe. From 1736

 

[Ale]

Thank you very much RacerSpuffy! I didn't think about Google Scholar. I'll read them.

 

[Reeniebeany]

Brand new here as of 2 minutes ago.
Wanting to make soap from wood ash is how I got here.
Please forgive my ignorance of previous posts on the subject

Has anyone read John Seymour "Forgotten Household Crafts"?
Under making Lye and soap he references using a weighted stick and notching the float level in a saturated salt brine.
Then you use the stick in your wood ash lye and match the notch for the correct concentration.
One pint of that lye with 2 pounds of fat or oil, simmered gently for 3 hours.
As it is cooling, mix in a pound of salt to harden the soap - the salt settles out.

I have seen reference in other places that if you don't do the salt step, you can only get soft soap.
I would have to go back and check my sources on that. I stumbled on this forum from an "off grid" blog

I have never gotten to the making lye part.
Logically my brain says our pioneer families didn't always have the option of getting ash with the specifics frequently listed.
But maybe that is one of the reasons that wood ash soap has such bad press?

I have also been frustrated by the lack of specifics when it comes to recipes.
I rarely cook with a recipe, nor did my mom or grandma. So why do I expect my great grandma to have left me a soap recipe...

 

[desiredcreations]

I remember something about floating an egg in the solution to test its strength??

Just watched a couple of YT vids mentioning testing the potash water concentration by floating a potato or an egg. I assume that crude buoyancy test works for any chemical in solution, but I'm not sure yet.

 

[mishmish]

When I lived in Italy, I taught English to a group of older women who were young teens during WWII. They told me of how when there was no soap to be had, wood ash was saved and soaked in a bucket of water to be used, as was, to scrub the floors or boiled with clothes to clean them. They didn't recall anyone using it to make soap but that doesn't mean that is wasn't done somewhere in the mountain villages.

 

[szaza]

Just watched a couple of YT vids mentioning testing the potash water concentration by floating a potato or an egg. I assume that crude buoyancy test works for any chemical in solution, but I'm not sure yet.

IIRC this test only tells you that there is a minimum amount of potash in your water, not the exact amount (it's a yes/no test or float/doesn't float, not a 'how much does it float/how concentrated is the solution' test. Although it's often touted as the latter). If that makes sense..

 

[earlene]

I thought I would share this if anyone wants to learn more about making your own lye from wood ash. There is an HSCG certified instructor (Kerri Mixon) who teaches a class about this, that I just ran across a few days ago. I have no experience with her or her classes, but it's a topic that comes up here at SMF periodically, so it makes sense to include resources when they become available. See below for links to her class this year and some other links:

Class provided online or in-person in Sept 2022: Soapmaking Studio, Soap from Ashes - Old-Fashioned Soap Made without Lye

Making wood ash & the best (tree-wood) producers of lye: How to Make Lye from Ashes – Mother Earth News

Also there are so many threads here on SMF on this topic, so here's a couple of links:

https://www.soapmakingforum.com/search/1241702/?q=Wood+ash&t=post&c[title_only]=1&o=relevance
https://www.soapmakingforum.com/threads/wood-ash-lye-and-soaping.56235/
https://www.soapmakingforum.com/threads/making-and-using-wood-ash-lye-crystals.56403/