# Anyone here make soap from wood ashes



## crafty2002 (Aug 23, 2006)

I burn wood for heat and have all the ashes I would ever need but don't know exactly how to do it. 
I have read Lord knows how many articles on line just to get into it far enough to realize it is another one about buying everything you need to make your own soap. 
I know you leach the lye from the ashes and use fat or oil but so far I haven't found a site that explains it in detail.
I also want to make liquid dish washing and laundry detergent. That's really what I am after. I want to make the bar soap too but considering what the two liquids cost and as much of it as we use, I figure it would be worth making it. We a lot of potatoes and fries and change the oil right often and from what I have read so far, I think that oil would be ok to use for the soaps I want to make. 
Anyone know of a good site about making it from ashes.
Thanks
Dennis


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## Wisconsin Ann (Feb 27, 2007)

Grandma used to just put the woodashes (hardwoods only please!) in a big bucket that had a thick layer of gravel on the bottom. then she'd poor water into the bucket. she'd pull the water out the bottom thru the tap (oh, forgot to say the bucket had a hole near the bottom which had a spigot/tap in it)

I've found a couple of sites online that detail leeching woodash lye....let me see if I can find 'em again. I'm on my way out in a few minutes, so if I don't put the sites on here..google for sites about "lye ash leeching" or look for sites about biodiesel. (they use lye to make biodiesel, too)


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## Wisconsin Ann (Feb 27, 2007)

found a couple of sites with details on leaching:
http://journeytoforever.org/biodiesel_ashlye.html 
http://www.motherearthnews.com/DIY/1972-01-01/Soap-Making-in-the-Bush.aspx 

leaching lye is NOT a good thing to do if you have animals running around the area, or kids. Lye is EXTREMELY dangerous. so...be careful. I've done it, it's not hard to do...just...be careful

You'll have to do some experimenting to get a good feel for how much lye and how much fat for the types of fat you use. also, the lye you make yourself will vary in intensity, so some batches may be too soft.

as to laundry soap....homemade soap is just not that good for laundry. yes, it works. but the modern stuff you buy at the store (cheer, tide, etc) will clean MUCH better. If you're making laundry soap because you think it will clean better...you're going to be disappointed I'm afraid 

dish soap...that's basically a liquid version of your castille soap. should be some recipes for it on millersoap.com or elswhere on the net.


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## crafty2002 (Aug 23, 2006)

Thanks Ann, Stephanie is going to buy the cheap laundry and dish detergent anyway, regardless of what I say. I have a feeling I can make some that will do a better job than what she buys. I think Dawn for dishes and Gain for cloths is the best you can get, but the only time we get any around here is when I go to the store, LOL. 
I did find a couple of links that helped some. I have already been looking at the top site you posted and will check out the MEN's site in a little while. Our washing machine just flooded the floor and I set down to take a short break. Steph started a load of cloths and all of a sudden my feet got wet. That's an eye opener. :Bawling: 
Steph is sweep it out of the laundry room through the door, Stacy is sweeping it across the room and I am pushing it out the back door. :shrug: 
If it isn't one thing it's something else. You rekon the washing machine is made because I was going to make my own detergent??  It sure got me side tracked but we got it all up. The floors are cleaner than they have been in a while, LOL. 
Thanks again.
Dennis


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## crafty2002 (Aug 23, 2006)

The Mother Earth News article. Looks like every thing else is 20 or 30 times that long and says the same thing mostly.
I have found that nearly any subject can be explained to where I, the dum dum, can understand it, if it is explained in short order and then with working at it a little, I can figure out how to do it well. 
The drawn out by junk in the way gets me confused to the point I just give up. I think my brain is like a hard drive on a computer that's full and I have to delete something to enter something else, and It's a small hard drive, LOL.  
Thanks once again. That's getting to be a regular routine, LOL.
Dennis


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## kesoaps (Dec 18, 2004)

Dennis, do you garden? Those ashes would be great to add to the soil. Much easier than trying to make your own lye. If you do a search here you'll see a few threads on the subject that might help.


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## crafty2002 (Aug 23, 2006)

kesoaps said:


> Dennis, do you garden? Those ashes would be great to add to the soil. Much easier than trying to make your own lye. If you do a search here you'll see a few threads on the subject that might help.


I put all my ashes in the garden every winter but from what I understand they are nearly as good for the garden after you leach them for the lye as before.
I am disabled. I can work a little but not a lot. Anything I can do to save money that's easy on the body is the same as earning extra money the way I see it, and my check sure needs a boost. 
We go through a bottle of dish liquid and big bottle of washing detergent a week or close to it. I have been saving the bottles for some time now. From what I understand two people can make way more than a years supply in a couple of days. That's close to $300 worth of spending I don't have to do. Plus if I could make two years supply, I can sell it to my family. They have to buy it somewhere. 
I hate to sale to my family, but it's lite my sister said, I'm down and they are up and they have to buy things somewhere. I already have them waiting on eggs, and they bought a few veggies from me, and would have bought a lot more if the deer and the ground hogs hadn't moved in. 
At $645 a month you do whatever you can to earn some more money or save what you can. I am picking the easiest ways on my broke down body I can find.


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## crafty2002 (Aug 23, 2006)

I have been having drain problems and was just wondering if the lye from ashes is ok to clean pipes out also.
Thanks
Dennis


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## crafty2002 (Aug 23, 2006)

crafty2002 said:


> I have been having drain problems and was just wondering if the lye from ashes is ok to clean pipes out also.
> Thanks
> Dennis


I take that for a no, but I will let you know in a while if it works. 
Dennis


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## crafty2002 (Aug 23, 2006)

that cleaning out a stopped up drain is as easy as 1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9
1-- drill 3/16" holes in bottom of 5 gal. bucket.
2-- put 1" of gravel in bucket.
3-- put 2" hay or grass clipping s into bucket.
4-- fill bucket with wood ashes.
5-- set bucket into second bucket to collect lye.
6-- slowly pour about 3 gallons of rain water into bucket.
7-- let set over night to drain.
8-- pour into sink and wait. 
9-- Rinse sink out good with hot water. 
My kitchen sink hasn't flowed water as well since I re-plumbed the house. It kept getting worse and worse. We used drain cleaner and I have had to use a snake a couple of times but after thinking about making soap I thought about making lye for the sink also. 
I did what I listed above, pretty much as outlined in some sites about making soap and it cleaned it out good. I let the buckets set overnight and then I put a chicken feather in the drainage this morning on the way to feed and water the chickens and the feather was all but gone when I came back up. So I brought it in and poured it in the sink. It started boiling as soon as I poured it in there and sudsing up from the drain. 
It took it about an hour or maybe two hours but it cleaned it out.
It's a wonder what you can do so easily some times. 
Just thought I would share this with you all.


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## Wisconsin Ann (Feb 27, 2007)

Excellent info Dennis. Glad you've found a good way to produce the lye. and doubly glad to know it works well on drains.


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## akhomesteader (Jan 5, 2006)

On our site in the June issue, there's an article a fellow write about doing that. Click the link at the top for "Magazine". He's having an article in the November issue (to be published November 15th) on actually making the soap.

Very good information there  

Jenny
Frontier Freedom Online Magazine


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## crafty2002 (Aug 23, 2006)

I try to get all the hair out of the sink in the bathroom when I trim my beard but some always gets down the drain. You know how hair in the drain is, even my wife and daughters hair get in there so it isn't all my fault, LOL. 
It had started slowing up on dumping the water also so I made another batch of lye from the same ashes and poured it into the bathroom sink. I cut the hot water on and let it run slowly for a few minutes and then turned it up a bit and them full blast and then the cold water too. 
It eat that junk out like you wouldn't believe. I have bought Red Devil Lye several times and it don't work like home made lye does. 
Just thought I would give you an up date on a bit of success I had. Not much has been happening right lately but this did. 
I just took a few minutes to call around and see what lye cost. Best Price I could find was $4.71 for a 10 oz. bottle of liquid. 
I have bought several bottles trying to get rid of the problem and never even looked to see the price. I just bought the Red Devil because daddy always said it was the best you can get.
It has never got the job done for me as well as my homemade lye did. 
And everyone says only use hardwood. My ashes was mixed between hardwood, pine and a lot of paper and cardboard. 
When I fire up the fire I use a bag of news paper. Then I put soft wood that burns fast and hot and then the hardwood. 
They say only use hard wood.
The ashes I used was as I said and it works. What else do you want????? 
Dennis


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## crafty2002 (Aug 23, 2006)

akhomesteader said:


> On our site in the June issue, there's an article a fellow write about doing that. Click the link at the top for "Magazine". He's having an article in the November issue (to be published November 15th) on actually making the soap.
> 
> Very good information there
> 
> ...


Thanks for that site. I have been reading some of it and it looks pretty good. I will keep up with it. 
Dennis


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## akhomesteader (Jan 5, 2006)

Thank you very much, Dennis. Glad you like it. We're a little late with the publication of the November/December issue ----- we'll try to get it online by Nov. 10th, (but at the very latest by the 15th). We've been away quite a bit this fall, and were having some computer problems, which have now been resolved (thankfully!) This issue will, of course, have another article on making soap from the lye from wood ashes, as well as articles on trapping (trapping in snow, and proper fur handling to increase profits), care of cast iron skillets, a section on delicious gluten-free recipes and follow-up/continuations of articles and stories from previous issues. One is a series from a woman about her life growing up during the Great Depression. Another is about Wall Tents (he'll do another series starting in Jan. on survival skills and putting together a survival kit), and reloading. 

We're trying to have an online magazine that is encouraging to folks and that helps people learn skills that will serve them well if/when they have to simply make do with what they have. Soap is one of the things that is very useful, and although it can get fancy (and expensive), making it the old fashioned way is a skill that very few of us have (like lots of things). 

Anyway, didn't mean to elaborate. I am glad you like the site, and hope you find more useful information there  

Jenny
*Frontier Freedom Online Magazine*


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## crafty2002 (Aug 23, 2006)

Thanks to you Jenny. From what little I read on your site, you are doing a wonderful job and a great service to the people that need it. I might be able to throw my 2 coppers in on construction of whatever if you would like, but right now I am trying to learn the things my grandmother knew when the depression was on. It's coming again and people can't see the writing on the wall. 
I DO SEE IT COMING, and trying to prepare for it. Funny thing. Gandma seen it coming. Lived through it and feed many a lonely person on a small plot of land. You just need to be ready and I am not ready yet. But I am working on it as fast as I can. It is 4:08 Am and I have been up for a half hour because one of my roosters said it was time to get up. The little jerk comes straight to my bedroom window and starts crowing. I am roasting him. I have one two many roosters in the hen house, LOL.
I am going back to bed and forget the crowing, 
Dennis





akhomesteader said:


> Thank you very much, Dennis. Glad you like it. We're a little late with the publication of the November/December issue ----- we'll try to get it online by Nov. 10th, (but at the very latest by the 15th). We've been away quite a bit this fall, and were having some computer problems, which have now been resolved (thankfully!) This issue will, of course, have another article on making soap from the lye from wood ashes, as well as articles on trapping (trapping in snow, and proper fur handling to increase profits), care of cast iron skillets, a section on delicious gluten-free recipes and follow-up/continuations of articles and stories from previous issues. One is a series from a woman about her life growing up during the Great Depression. Another is about Wall Tents (he'll do another series starting in Jan. on survival skills and putting together a survival kit), and reloading.
> 
> We're trying to have an online magazine that is encouraging to folks and that helps people learn skills that will serve them well if/when they have to simply make do with what they have. Soap is one of the things that is very useful, and although it can get fancy (and expensive), making it the old fashioned way is a skill that very few of us have (like lots of things).
> 
> ...


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## crafty2002 (Aug 23, 2006)

I said the wood I burned was mixed, which it was. Paper, pine and hard wood and what I thought was rotten wood. 
Something just came to my attention. I have a pile of old, old, old, oak that was piled up by the dump truck loads probably 5 or 6 years ago. We moved in 3 years ago and the wood looked rotten. I started cleaning it up this year because it is in the way of next years garden. The outside of all of it just falls apart, but what doesn't fall off is solid at a rock. I had picked a few pieces and burned them sense we moved in but but the briers kept me at bay. 
I went out today and got a trailer load to burn tonight. It's 36* here now and I have burnt 5 pieces of that wood so far and it's still setting in there blowing heat out like crazy. 
That may be why my ashes were so good for the lye. 
I don't know. As you are, I am just starting to learn, and I just don't know. 
I do know I put about 2 more gallons of water into the same ashes that I started with, which had already cleaned out two drains very well, this evening and I just put another chicken feather it there and it's gone. I put it in there about, maybe a half hour ago now and just before I started this post, it , it's completely gone. It just isn't there. I would be scared to put an egg in there. It might blow up, LOL. 
I don't know whether this old wood had anything to do with anything or not. 
I am just telling you what happened. 

And as a site I read today said, I should make a disclaimer, so here's mine. I have a good little burn on my left forearm, for the last batch of lye, because I was careless. It will be OK. I washed it off with milk as soon as it dawned on my dumb head that it was burning me. 
I might should add this bit of info. I learned years ago that milk will dilute acid from batteries better than anything. An X soldier in the Army was there when a battery blew up in my face. Faster than whatever you want to call fast is, he was back outside with two gallons of milk pouring all over my face. 
The doctors said he saved my eyes, my skin and all. 
So as a word of advice from someone that has been there and done that, if you are going to make your own lye, have some milk around. Close by. I made a mess in the kitchen floor. I got the mess up, but the lye will burn you and you don't know it until it starts doing so. By then it's doing it's thing. 
I am what I call hard skinned. I was a welder, and still am a half butt welder, but you learn to ignore the pain of a hot bead getting down your shirt because you have got to finish that weld and make it right. 
That's the dumb thought's hit my head when I started burning. And then it dawned on me, this ain't welding. THIS IS ACID. THE STUFF THAT WILL EAT AN ALUMINUM POT UP. 
Yep. I have a nice burn. About a half inch by two inches. 
Please be careful with this s*** because it's not a toy. As what I said before, this homemade lye worked wonders on drains that Red Devil Lye didn't hardly touch. 
It does work. BUT PLEASE BE CAREFUL. And PLEASE keep milk around just in case of a mishap. 
Milk has worked for me twice now. Never leave the milk at home, LOL. 
that is just my opinion and I am sure I will get shot down, so, Start shooting. The lye didn't get me. It tried but failed, LOL'
Dennis


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