# Made another batch of lye.



## crafty2002 (Aug 23, 2006)

Now what do I do, LOL. 
How far will nearly a gallon of home brewed lye that will eat chicken feathers go for making soap????? I am using the same buckets and I set my wheel barrow out in the yard to collect rain water. 
I just cleaned the fireplace out and put the ashes in the top bucket and poured water in it until it looked soaked fairly well and let it set a day. I added a about a half gallon of water two days before it started dripping just a little bit. This morning I had almost a gallon of lye in the catch bucket. I haven't tried floating an egg in it yet but it eats feathers and it has sure cleaned my drains out good. 

I am just storing it in gallon milk jugs, well, one so far, until I get around to learning about making soap. Haven't had the time yet while I felt good enough to do it, but it's just a matter of time. 
It's worth the time it takes just to keep the drains clean. Easiest and cheapest way to clean a drain I ever saw. 
Dennis


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## gardengirl63 (Sep 11, 2007)

I'm curious.........
How do you know what your concentration (ratio) of lye is? When you make soap you need the proper amount of lye to saponify your fats/oils. If you have too high a concetration of lye, you will have what is called a 'lye heavy' batch of soap. If you are planning on making soap you need to know this ratio otherwise you will be eating more than just chicken feathers with any soap that you make.


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## linn (Jul 19, 2005)

Here are instructions for testing lye from the "Journey to Forever" webstie:

To test the strength of the lye you need a saturated solution of salt. Dissolve chemical-free salt in a pint of water until no more salt will dissolve. Take a stick and put a small weight on the end of it and float it in a pint of the salty water. The weight will sink to the bottom, while the top of the stick will float. Make a mark on the stick where it reaches the water line. Then float the stick and weight in a pint of lye. The mark on the stick will probably be above the water mark of the lye. If so, stir in some more rainwater until the mark on the stick is in exactly the same place it was in the salt water. You now have the correct distillation of lye for making soap.

I would make a small test batch using your lye as your would a liquid lye solution.
Here are some instructions on using liquid lye:

http://candleandsoap.about.com/od/tipstricks/ht/liquidlye.htm


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## gardengirl63 (Sep 11, 2007)

That sounds cool, but I would still be paranoid. lol


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## MullersLaneFarm (Jul 23, 2004)

this will be for your own personal use???


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## Vicki McGaugh TX Nubians (May 6, 2002)

You do like our grandmothers did...and some of you youngster's.... your great grandmothers did, it's trial and error. Cooking the soap outside was their version of HP, and you cooked it until when the spoon came out of the pot, and cooled some, to your tongue there was no more zap (just like a battery) no zap, no lye un saponified. I would not use this lye for CP period. If the soap won't harden as it cools on the spoon, off the fire, than it's too much fat and not enough lye, so add more lye and stir some more...pour when the soap on the spoon, cooled slightly, is hardening well, and there is no zap...but pour quickly it hardens fast off the fire. It's actually how I was taught to soap as a girl scout in the mid 70's, ugly soap but it's still wonderful soap. Vicki


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## Liese (Dec 12, 2005)

Around here people talk to me about their grandmothers making soap that way and soapmaking being an ALL day deal with lots and lots of stirring! So have lots of help around. Now I read somewhere (who knows where!) that the lye from ashes can be actually sodium hydroxide or it maybe closer to the other sodium ... which my mind now has lost, argh. Anyway you know the sodium used to make liquid soaps ... so the type of wood ash seems to be important.


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## deaconjim (Oct 31, 2005)

I know nothing about making lye or soap, but couldn't you use ph test strips to check the concentration of your lye?


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## linn (Jul 19, 2005)

Liese said:


> Around here people talk to me about their grandmothers making soap that way and soapmaking being an ALL day deal with lots and lots of stirring! So have lots of help around. Now I read somewhere (who knows where!) that the lye from ashes can be actually sodium hydroxide or it maybe closer to the other sodium ... which my mind now has lost, argh. Anyway you know the sodium used to make liquid soaps ... so the type of wood ash seems to be important.


Why couldn't you just make a cold process soap and when it traces cook it in a crockpot or the oven? That way you wouldn't be stirring all day. What do the rest of you think? Would that work?


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## Vicki McGaugh TX Nubians (May 6, 2002)

The actual putting the soap on the fire and stirring isn't the time consuming part. It was the rendering of the lard. They didn't keep lard around for soap making, other than fats she had saved from cooking. Lard was renedered butchering day. And you know darn well other than the inital killing and the butchering done by the men, our grandmothers not only cut up all the cuts of pork for salting and canning, but they also had the pot going rendering all the fat for her to use all year long in breads etc...but also in her soap. All day, yep! Grandpa was done after he killed the hog. Vicki


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## crafty2002 (Aug 23, 2006)

I have been trying to learn everything I can about being able to live off the land. I am doing one thing at a time and then moving on but trying to learn several things at once so I'll be ready when the time comes. I just started making the lye because I had the ashes, rain water and buckets, along with a stopped up drain that motivated me to get started. 
It worked. Better than the store bought junk. 
Now I am pulling up sites about making soap and yes, back in the old days and probably still today, is an all day job. But in one day the made all the soap they needed for baths, cloths and dishes for a year. 
They rendered the fat they weren't gong to eat, probably already had the lye made from the ashes from the winter, and just went at it. 
It will probably be a week or two before I do it because I am still reading about how to do it, but I am going to buy some lard and try to make a small batch. 
Use some of Steph's old perfume to make it smell good and jus see how it works out. 
I'll keep you posted. 
Dennis


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## MullersLaneFarm (Jul 23, 2004)

Dennis,
perfumes contain alcohol (read flamable) so take extra care.


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## crafty2002 (Aug 23, 2006)

MullersLaneFarm said:


> Dennis,
> perfumes contain alcohol (read flamable) so take extra care.


Thank you very much. I am glad you said that. I can make homemade C-4 explosives and that still never entered my mind. How dumb can a man get in his old age. 
If I don't get hurt once a day, I stayed in bed all day, LOL. 
I can see me now blowing my kitchen up. I think I'll buy some oil for it or do it out side one, LOL. 
On big construction jobs if you drop a tool or whatever you yell as load as you can, "HEAD ACHE" so they will get out of the way.
Thanks for the yell.
Dennis


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## Wisconsin Ann (Feb 27, 2007)

deaconjim said:


> I know nothing about making lye or soap, but couldn't you use ph test strips to check the concentration of your lye?


yes. 

need to have more accurate strips than the generic 1-10. but yes, it works just fine.


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## crafty2002 (Aug 23, 2006)

What happened to being able to float an egg in the lye. Isn't that the way the old timers used to do it. 
I am still just using the feathers. The last batch I did, which I don't think I said anything about yet, I especially made up some good ashes from some wood a man dropped off for fire wood.
He is retired and tears old building down and hauls the mess off for people for extra money. He brought me a truck load of old oak board that had never even been painted. 1 x 8 up to 14" wide. About halve of them are still really good but I cut up what wasn't that good for firewood.
I cleaned out the fireplace real good the other night and only burned those boards that night for the pure oak ashes. 
That is the strongest lye I have made yet. It at up a large chicken feather pretty dang fast. About twice as fast as it had been doing. As soon as it landed in it started bubbling. After I poured it into a jug I wiped the jug off with a old tee shirt where a little bit has spilled over the funnel and I noticed yesterday it had eat holes in the shirt. 
I will be careful with any of it but I marked on it Super caution!!!! Super Strong, LOL. 
I don't want any of that on me for sure. 
I will need to water it down some before I make soap. 
What type of meter could I buy to test it and what do they cost??
Thanks,
Dennis


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## Wisconsin Ann (Feb 27, 2007)

to be useful for soap making, the woodash lye should just start to eat the feather. it should be a slow process. but I bet that stuff cleaned your drains really well. make sure you don't eat your pipes out with it.....

ph meters can be pretty expensive. I got mine for free from the lab when they cleared stuff out.


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## crafty2002 (Aug 23, 2006)

Wisconsin Ann said:


> to be useful for soap making, the woodash lye should just start to eat the feather. it should be a slow process. but I bet that stuff cleaned your drains really well. make sure you don't eat your pipes out with it.....
> 
> ph meters can be pretty expensive. I got mine for free from the lab when they cleared stuff out.


I believe if I put the last jug in the drain pipes it would probably eat the pipes alive, LOL., that's if I just let it set. But when I used it I ran hot water in it for maybe 5 or 10 minutes to flush it all out good. 

What do you mean start to eat the feathers?? Every jug I have made eat the feather down to the core. I am basing mine on how long it takes and this last batch was fast. 
I re-plumbed all the fresh water lines before I fell and we moved in, and didn't think we had trouble with the drains until right after I got out of the hospital. 
Stephanie and some friends moved us in while I was still in the hospital and I didn't even know it until the day I got out. Surprise, LOL. 
They finished all the rest of the painting but there was still a lot to be done. 
But we have had trouble with the drains from dang near day one. The house had set for 12 years before I remodeled it and the drains were really clogged..
I have used Red Devil and Drano in them and opened them up for a month or so but they kept getting clogged again. 
I see no slowing up of the water flow so far after my home made lye. If they do, I have some free lye ready to fix the problem. 
Now I need to learn the art of making soap before spring. I want to plant the right plants to get the oils if I can. But that's another thread unless someone here can help some.
God Bless
Dennis


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## canadiangirl (Jul 25, 2004)

Vicki McGaugh TX Nubians said:


> It's actually how I was taught to soap as a girl scout in the mid 70's, ugly soap but it's still wonderful soap. Vicki


This was how my mother soaped in the 70's too. I don't know about ugly but it was very plain and rough looking. I think it's why I like scent and colour so much now. Mom is quite amazed at the new soap making.


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## Wisconsin Ann (Feb 27, 2007)

Crafty: I mean that it shouldn't eat the feather right as soon as you put it in. or rather, AS you put it in  feather should dissolve but not so fast that you even get it all the way IN before it goes "poof"


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## crafty2002 (Aug 23, 2006)

Wisconsin Ann said:


> Crafty: I mean that it shouldn't eat the feather right as soon as you put it in. or rather, AS you put it in  feather should dissolve but not so fast that you even get it all the way IN before it goes "poof"


Ann, I think if I put the whole chicken in the last batch it would eat it, LOL. I have got holes in two long john shirts and an insulated shirt I had on when I was filling the jug up. All three of them brand new with two brand new holes in each one on the left sleeves. Why it didn't get me is what I wonder. :shrug: 
I'll get some kind of meter before I start making soap and make sure it is right before I use it unless it's for the drain again but so far they are still clear. :hobbyhors 

Dennis


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## Homesteader at Heart (Aug 11, 2003)

I do not know much about soap making, but I read somewhere that wood ash is used to make soft soap, and seaweed ashes can be used to make hard soap. Does anyone know if there is any truth to that?


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## Vicki McGaugh TX Nubians (May 6, 2002)

Have you seen any really old lye soap made from wood ashes, it is hard, I mean really really hard. Vicki


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