any one know how to make lye

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we have this cool recipie book,but it recommends red devil lye,any one know how to make lye?something about ashes and water,I think,no,I just don't know

-- zoobie (zoobiezoob@yahoo.com), May 08, 1999

Answers

Yes.Got go now so I'll look it up & post tomorrow if nobody else answers before.

-- Chris (griffen@globalnet.co.uk), May 08, 1999.

Lye no good......you tell truth.......

-- Craig (craig@ccinet.ab.ca), May 08, 1999.

Basically, to make lye you run water through wood ashes.

There are detailed directions for doing so as well as pictures and instructions about how to make the necessary equipment in the first of the Foxfire books. It should be available at your local library or in a Barnes & Noble or Waldenbooks, etc.

In addition to the other excellent "how-to" information in that volume, there is a clear explanation of how to use that lye to make soap.

-- Hardliner (searcher@internet.com), May 08, 1999.


Hardliner,

Yup, you can make soap with it -- but anyone who's not used to bathing with that stuff will feel like they've sanded themselves with medium-grit paper. The ladies, in particular, will find it a poor substitute for Dove(tm) or Caress(tm)[g].

Actually, I would think that if you're putting aside a year's worth of groceries and lantern gas, a year's supply of bath soap and kitchen detergents would be in order, too.

-- Stephen M. Poole, CET (smpoole7@bellsouth.net), May 08, 1999.


Stephen M. Poole, CET,

Actually, the ladies around here treasure the local product (which the lady who makes it scents with lavender) and would gladly use it to the exclusion of anything else if they could get enough of it. Most of it is used as gifts for Christmas, etc. and is highly prized and frequently "saved" for special occasions.

I haven't a clue what you've used that caused such a judgment, but it sure wasn't the same as this soap! It sounds more like you got a hold of some of the Navy's "salt water soap"!

-- Hardliner (searcher@internet.com), May 08, 1999.



Just remember that if you are using the lye in something like olive making, where the strength of the lye mixture is a critical factor, it might be better to lay in the Red Devil....be sure the purchased lye is only that....some other products are mixed with other stuff....and always ALWAYS add the lye to the water, not vice versa.

The wood ash method was pouring water thru wood stove ashes, but doesn;t it have to be hardwood? Like they grow in the Foxfire area?

-- Mary (CAgdma@homenoaddress.com), May 08, 1999.


I would have to say Poole is right on this one. Our ancestors learned to do this over generations. The ones that did it wrong died. The ones who didn't reached reproductive age. It would be wise to not try to reproduce generations of experiments in one year. Best wishes.

Z1X4Y7

-- Z1X4Y7 (Z1X4Y7@aol.com), May 08, 1999.


Hardliner,

I grew up in the rural South, and plenty of people used and made lye soap when I was a kid. The effect was as described. :)

Maybe that lavender stuff wouldn't be so bad .. .. ... ... ..

-- Stephen M. Poole, CET (smpoole7@bellsouth.net), May 08, 1999.


I've been told that when you make Lye soap, you have to let it sit for a few days so the lye can mostly evaporate out of the end product -- if you don't, it's very hard on the skin. Sounds like some of these people making it didn't know how to do it quite right.

PJ in TX

-- PJ Gaenir (fire@firedocs.com), May 08, 1999.


We make and use our own LYE soap now. Not some years in the past on a planet far far away. Now, here, today, everyday, to wash bodies, faces, hair, arms, .....maybe even Mr Poole gets the idea now.

I don't have any idea what anyone else has used or how it was made. We make a soap from lard, RedDevil LYE, and soaponification root. The recipe is straight out of Carla Emerys "The Encyclopedia of Country Living". Not only has no one in our family ever experience even slightly negative results, most PREFER the soap.

PJ is correct the soap must cure a while before is it ready. However, not all the lye is gone or the soap wouldn't have any effect. It is the lye that cut the oil off you skin. Lye disolves oil. That's one of the reasons it's used to clean drains. Which is, BTW, wher you find it in the store - in the drain cleaner section. Around here in N TX a large can sells for about $2-$3. Pretty easy to put up a few cans for future use.

-Greybear

-- Got Truth?

-- Greybear (greybear@home.com), May 08, 1999.



PJ:

The lye you are talking about is potassium hydroxide. It doesn't evaporate. The curing part is correct. The only problem I've found is that it will make your bear grey. That's the truth. GOT TRUTH! The concern is that people will try this for the first time and injure themselves.

Z1X4Y

-- Z1X4Y7 (Z1X4Y7@aol.com), May 09, 1999.


Hi Greybear!

What sort of store sells soaponification root (which is something I've never hear of)?

-- GA Russell (garussell@russellga.com), May 09, 1999.


We got our soaponification root from a friend who got it through a health food store.

All this ingredient does is to make the soap more bubbly. We made a batch about a year ago and forgot the soaponification root and the soap worked just fine it just didn't foam as much.

BTW, in one of the other batches we made we adde Oil of Camphor. It made the soap smell a lot like one of the brand name soaps that is 99.xx% pure and floats. Mom especially liked that batch.

-- Greybear (greybear@home.com), May 10, 1999.


I've been planning to get one of Cavitch's books on soap-making.

I guess I'll give it a try.

That Red Devil lye sounds like a barter item.

-- GA Russell (garussell@russellga.com), May 10, 1999.


Be very careful of solid alkali metal hydroxides (lye). As a previous poster pointed out, the addition of water to lye is a big NO-NO. In physical chemistry terms, this is a highly exothermic reaction (gives off loads of heat). One can actually make exploding (boiling water) lye by doing it wrong. Be sure to use really good rubber gloves, eye protection, and add the solid hydroxide pellets to water SLOWLY, with constant stirring. Do not add the next aliquot (portion) of pellets until the previous are all dissolved. By the way, the reason home-made soap is much preferred by those who use it is that commercial soap has the glycerol removed (to make explosives), and the homemade kind has all the glycerol left in (a natural by-product of the saponification reaction). The glycerol is hydgroscopic (loves to gind water) and thus helps to keep the skin soft and moist after washing with home-made soap.

-- Tennessean (holladayl@aol.com), May 10, 1999.


Greybear,

Did you get my EMail yet? I sent it last Tuesday!

-- Hardliner (searcher@internet.com), May 10, 1999.


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