Soapmaking from Scratch: Woodash Lye

Comments · 1.2K

• PH

  @philliphall5198 · 2 years ago

  I watched my grandma make soap every 4 weeks and we used it plus she bought chicken feed with the money <br>She died at 98 and I miss her loving smile

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• RE

  @reprosser · 2 years ago

  I have made woodash lye soap a number of times. I filter the ashes, put them in a 5 gallon bucket, fill with water and let sit for a week (sometimes longer if I forget). When I drain the liquid, I have always had the egg float high to indicate a strong solution for soap making.

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• DA

  @darkprince56 · 3 years ago

  In a post-apocalyptic world, I think soap making is one of the things I think would be very useful to a community. Hygiene is important!

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• JI

  @jirup · 3 years ago

  Eggs are the most frugal hydrometers. An egg rolls of the table and the dog gets a meal while I walk down to the henhouse for a new egg. While if a glass hydrometer rolls off the table, I have a mess and I &apos;m out $30 for a new hydrometer. Looking forward to the next instalment, Sally.

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• LA

  @lachouette_et_le_phoque · 3 years ago

  I would recommend using lab goggles instead of just glasses because liquid can splash behind the glasses easily, and you really don&apos;t want to mess around with something that could blind you. When I worked in a lab, I got quite careless about regular lye/acids on my hands because it takes a while to sting and can be washed off easily; your eyes do not have the same protection and damage happens quickly. Lab goggles can be bought to be wearable over regular glasses too and are cheap.

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• DE

  @deborahdanhauer8525 · 3 years ago

  Hands down, your videos are the best out there for actually doing a thing. You show the entire process start to finish, and explain WHY you’re doing it that way as you go. Unlike others, you don’t assume a level of knowledge the rest of us don’t have. Thank you so much!❤️🐝🤗

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• KE

  @KenJohnsonUSA · 2 years ago

  Interesting how y&apos;all do things across the pond. One thing my ancestors did differently is they sieved the ashes to get only the powder and virtually no solids This was said to be one of the most critical steps for a good result. My Cherokee ancestors used to make hominy by putting dried corn in ash-filled pots, with water, next to a fire overnight. Many of my, now deceased, relatives said they&apos;d wash their wooden floors with lye water made from wood ash and then they&apos;d make soap from wood ash. The way they did it was they put the ashes in a cloth bag hung from a dowel rod by a thick rope. Over the bag was a metal tin, syrup bucket, pot or pan with a open bottom wood support holding it up. Basically any thin metal container that held a lot of water would do. They&apos;d then have a tiny nail hole in the bottom of the metal container so the water would drip onto the rope and down into the bag. Below the bag was a crock. Usually this was done on a support post for a shed or porch with the dowel also being used later to hang souse or for other purposes. The idea behind this drip method was the extraction happened best because of the slow drip allowing time for a reaction to take place. The extracted water would then be capped off in the crock and taken to the creek to chill...sometimes for days (depending of the desired use of the lye watet). This is what we homebrewers call &quot;cold crashing&quot; or &quot;cold racking&quot; since the cold causes particles to floculate. They&apos;d then pour off the good water into another pot and pour out the sediment in the bottom. For floors, this lye water was fine. For soap, they&apos;d do the cold racking 2-4 times and then sieve it through clean clothes a few times. Afterwards, they&apos;d then boil the lye water until just over half the original volume was boiled away. After it was cooled, they&apos;d do the egg trick. The fats used varied. Some said beef fat was best for soaps used for household cleaning while others used old, used lard. All seemed to agree pork fat was best. I&apos;m actually doing a contemporary demonstration of making hominy using an electric crock pot and sieved oak wood ash. We have an invasive tree here called Chinese tallow. It was brought here to make soap and candles. Most people are allergic to it. I like to smoke meats with the wood. I&apos;m hoping to see if it has enough potassium in the ash to make lye water for future projects I have in mind

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• MA

  @madladpjl · 3 years ago

  my mammy told &nbsp;me and my &nbsp;sister when we where kids that my granny use to make &nbsp;soap like that &nbsp;in the 40`s and 50`s and she had this huge terracotta pot the size of a dust bin for it .

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• HA

  @hannahbrown2728 · 3 years ago

  This was perfectly timed, Ive been thinking about soap production lately(You watch one post apoclypse show and suddenly youre not watching and youre pondering survival logistics). I look forward to the rest of the series

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• GR

  @grottybt5006 · 3 years ago

  When I first got my wood stove I couldn&apos;t get rid of the ashes quick enough, now I don&apos;t produce enough ashes for the things I need.

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• MI

  @MichaelSmithson-j8t · 3 years ago (edited)

  Rather than using a bung, I would recommend using a spigot/tap as a safer option. Brewers’ supply stores usually carry them for use on plastic fermenters, so it shouldn’t be any harder to find than the bung, and it would allow a controlled flow pointed downward rather than the gush you experienced. Love your vids, looking forward to more in this series.

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• UN

  @uncletiggermclaren7592 · 1 year ago

  The spade bit drill you used, is 100% the perfect drill for the job. Just a note to anyone else trying &nbsp;something similar who might not have experienced drilling with one before, when the bit emerges &nbsp;through the other side of the work, you always get a very strong jamming, counter-rotation.<br>You need firm footing, and both hands on the drill with a strong grip, and it would be good if you have the work piece held firmly in place, which with something that size, you could do by taking several turns of a rope around both it and something like a table leg.

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