Homemade Soap

By Rue -Alabams (Guest Post)

I've made homemade soap before. It is quite fun and you can customize it to your liking. A couple of things to consider: DO NOT do this in an aluminum pot aluminum reacts with the base (lye) causing frothing, heat, a nasty smell and ruined soap. Where I am from, US Alabama, lard is quite cheap and so is lye. Due to health concerns with lard for cooking, important concerns I might add, it is not in high demand for cooking. Also, lye is used extensivly in agriculture to adjust soil pH so it is pretty cheap too. A note about lyes reactivness. It is a relatively strong base but certainly not too bad just use as directed an you'll be fine it's not super reactive and has been used in the home for generations for other tasks. I grew up rural and am a chemist so I have researched soap making. Have Fun!

Rue

By Mary (Guest Post)

Last I heard lye is a very dangerous substance that can cause terrible burns. Be careful! It may be more frugal to just buy soap. These days it's not that expensive when you consider your safety!

By

Jo Bodey

Don't you have to store soap after its made to allow it to become less caustic? Just something I read somewhere.........

As an aside - a can of lye is presumably bought. If you have to buy the lye and/or the fat it would be much cheaper to buy household soap. If you are looking to a time when there may be no more shop bought soap, (e.g. through a natural or man made disaster), and you need to make it from scratch you would need to know how to make lye from wood ash.

On the other hand if you are just looking for a bit of fun soap making sounds great - like patchwork - you get all the fun and a useful product at the end!

Regards

Jo

By

Harlean from Arkansas

For anyone who wants to try their hand at making old timey lye soap, along with these great recipes from Robin, they will need to know what to do with this mixture when it begins to set up. It has been many years since I made lye soap, but I believe that I lined large cake pans with a piece of old sheet. Then poured the very thick mixture into this pan. Let stand for at least 24 hours, lift it out of the pan by the edges of the sheet, pull the sheet loose from the soap and cut into bars. If you don't have cake pans handy, or don't want to use them, just use a "beer flat", the shallow boxes that six-packs are in at the liquor store. The stores will usually give them to you free for the asking.
This is great soap for washing work jeans. Just grate the soap and dissolve it in some hot water and use in place of your detergent. These suggestions are from first-hand experience.
Harlean from Arkansas