making soap from wood ashes
Vložit
- čas přidán 7. 10. 2011
- I made some crude soap from wood ashes and lard It did not look too pretty but it worked and I learned a couple of things about soapmaking the way it was possibly done in the pioneer days.
I only made a very small batch for experimenting but it would be easy enough
to increase the amount produced.
Yes
I totally agree with you. I am a soap crafter and as he said he did not have the right conversions. He is incredible. Soap making is all chemistry, only people who make hot process soap will be able to appreciate this video. Wow, for the conditions that was fantastic.
Cool to see soap made in the old fashioned way like our ancestors did. I've read about it but never seen it in practice. Thank you! :-)
I'm glad you are making your own lye! It's been hard to find other people doing it to learn from!
FYI, when the admixture began to thicken and become more viscous, that was an indication of the emulsification process (i.e."trace"). Because you're using the heating method, you should add salt (even table salt) after saponification and drain the liquid off and voila, bar soap a bit more like what you're used to ; )
Thank you for the positive comments yep I tend to agree about tallow but it is much harder to purchase
and when i do render it down i actually save it for candle making or bullet lube because it does stay harder.
I do want to point out that if you save the bacon drippings to make soap that they are lard not tallow
and contain some salts from the curing process of the bacon which may help firm up the soap.
"not quite sure if i've made soap or not but something's happened with it" lol, that was my favorite part.
Anyhow, good, informative video.
From what Ive read, the water should sit in the ashes for 3 days before you drain to get lye. Another thing Ive read is that lye is highly corrosive, therefore shouldnt be kept in a metal container. Just thought id share that with you. Cool video!
Wow! Thanks for all the little tips, like using rainwater, using cast iron and stainless steel, hardwood ashes, etc!
we always made it in a large kettle. we would stir it with a long wooden homemade stirrer that had holes in it and a long handle. As kids we would end up with enough soap to last all year. we would cut it in slabs and it would get hard as a rock when completely cooled.we would cut shavings off the large piece to use for laundry in the wash shed. It would burn you when initally made, so wear gloves (rubber) when you remove the cut slabs for cooling.
It was a cast iron kettle that sat on a tripod. If filled with water the kettle would probably hold 40-50 gallons. that's also how mom got her go water from. POOR folks POOR ways.
yes, you do.
made wood ash lye in a large kettle or soap?
Thanks so much for this! I remember my Mom making soap just like this!
Cool! I love seeing how things we take for granted today, is actually made. This sort of stuff should be taught in schools. :-)
+Mary - This is taught in schools isn't it? I was taught this in Year 11 Chemistry
ButHow the difference being that in 800 ad, kids would have been taught this at age 9.
+ButHow I guess it depends on the school, or how long ago you went to school. I know the schools I went to, NEVER taught these things at all. :(
I was never taught this stuff in school either. Just an interest of mine.
This is taught to primary school children, just probably don't remember with all the other crap they stuff into ur head after school.
My granny showed us how when we were little. Tallow works better than lard and you want near one part lye to two parts fat for regular house cleaning. less lye to more fat for people washing. If you live somewhere you can get honey and oats, you can make a non-lye based soap for bathing, too. She was born in 1881 and grew up doing it this way.
We were unfortunate to experience the horror of a war during 90'. My grandma made soap like this. I made small lead cell battery pack (diy small cells) with the lead and acid solution from car batteries from scrapyard pack to run the gameboy and play super mario land and tetris. Yes, more we know how to make things more we satisfied we are :). I wish I knew back then how to generate 220v to power washing machine or refrigerator. It sucks to wash manually or to preserve meat in lard (not so tasty after some time). At least we survived those 4 years. But, life is not only about surviving, right? I hope so...
"Not sure if ive made soap or not....", lmao. Change your title to "winging it in the outback!". Thanks for sharing though. Honest effort.
LMFAO !!!
First video I've watched on making soap and its been tested! Great results! Thanks for the inspiration!
THAT is what I call a tutorial! Good on you for going the simple route instead of the "buy this that and the other" route. Much easier to understand than a dude in a white coat.
looked for something like this for so long, thank you so much!
I remember my mother made lye this way, she washed a lot of clothes with an old gasoline powered Maytag with lye soap. Great seeing it's not a lost art.
that was just awesome ... cool idea n application .. imma try it too
Interesting hint on using rain water and why.
do you run it through a couple filters and or boil it first? or straight up rain water ?
Well i imagine the gauls (creators of this recipe) used a running stream as tht was probably thier source of water
I didn't have any problem with the language or such, my five year old son loves your videos! Thank you for them, they teach him what he wants to know!
First Alhamdulilah, then thank you for your kindness of sharing this, bless you!
Thank you for posting this vid. I understood it perfectly.
good video, i always wanted to try this... My grandmother told me how she used to make lye. She said she would put ashes into a barrel/bucket with water, until an egg or a potato would float on the surface, then the lye was ready.. Maybe you could give that a try, i would love to see it! ;)
I NEVER KNEW YOU CAN MAKE SOAP FROM NATURE GOOD STUFF MAN THUMBS UP
It's how our ancestors did it for a millenia.
Heated lye is extremely caustic! Be careful of splashing when pouring & mixing with heated fats & oils.
Thank you. This was a experiment I had water flush available and have had to deal with lye since I was 12. I dont want to belittle your very good advice just want to let you know I will be ok. Thank you again for your reply and concern.
I love this video!
Great video! I'm gonna try this soon.
It's interesting to know that there are ways of making soap that don't require access to store bought chemicals.
this is how soap was originally made.
It is fascinating, that's for sure.
I will try it as soon as I can get some hard wood for a fire.
I remember as a child my grandma cook with charcoal, the charcoal remainder was ash and when it rains you could see suds in the water. awesomeness 😚
talking about the dangerous around kids part, i can account for that. one of my family members (kit carson, related from my grandpa) his son died from falling into a small pit they dug for making soap
Thanks. This helped me with my homework a lot.
real soap typically doesnt make a lot of suds that is something added to commercial soap
Strangely enough if you use coconut oil instead of lard and add coconut milk to the soap, you will get nice thick suds. It depends on what you use and how you use it.
Thank You
Thank you
Bloody good video. Good value, thanx heaps!!!
i enjoyed it this my first time to try it u helped me a lot
Wow!
You are an inspiration! I search all over for antique recipes and hand power artifacts.
Just now I am at the point to start my first home made soap.
Thanks for the efort.
By the way, English is not my mother lenguage, but I had no problem understanding what you explained.
How do you know when you've reached the right strength of lye for soap making?
THANKS FOR THE VIDEO
How little leisure time there must have been when, by necessity , people need to do for themselves. There was procurement of food, household needs like making candle and soap. The list is end
I like seeing people doing things the primitive way. I am from Georgia, deep south, and people dont like my accent either. I just ignore them lol. Great video!!
He meant "Aluminium," which is exactly what he said. Its how they spell it in the UK, and it is as correct there as "Aluminum" is in the US.
Thank you.
that stuff works better than dawn!
It was very good at removing grease from my hands.
Thank you so much! you are awesome!
Thanks for this video!!!!
To clean grease off your hands or dirty oil use clean oil then soap and water.
So interesting!!!
Very useful information and thank you thank you very much
Well done!
so after watching another video, i think the lye might have been stronger if you soaked the wood ashes. also apparently an egg will float in water that has a high enough concentration.
A fresh egg or one that's gone bad? 🤔
@1wicked2008 LOL i do always when camping its great for cooking and can substitute for butter in any recipee, use it for candles and many other uses.
but you ask a good question any other animal or vegetable oil/grease can also be used
with different degrees of success.
here's a quick chemistry tip. if you wanna make seperation from excess, un saponified fat, or excess Hydroxide, add a little salt, either potassium chloride, or sodium, though most people report better results with potassium. It does something wierd to combine with the soap molecules, and it makes it solid, or precipitous. Let it settle a while, then pour off liquid to leave hand soap behind. This way works fine, but just in case you wanna make a bar instead.
You did well, brother! if you don't try, you don't know! Lol. One can only learn from experience!
Good try. Well done.
Hello :)
Thank you for the Video! I red this process a long long time ago and always wanted to try it, but, never had the opportunity (Wood actually) to do so. You make the 2 pages of continuous blah quite understandable now :D! Regards
This is super hardcore! Respect to you for doing it this way. Only way you could make it more hardcore would be for us to see you chop down a tree and kill the hog and render its fat by hand :D
Oh ok, well you will get it man.
Gee thanks.
Do you let the lard cool off a little before adding the lye?
So did you skim off the water from the top and discard the sediment from the bottom of the pot?
thank you.
@1wicked2008 if you need to make your own soap then carrying lard is probably on your list too. in the old west they had cook wagons that carried everything people needed period. also the wild wild west went up into the 1930's and 50's in some places so everything was not as primitive as we are lead to believe.
You can keep pouring the lye water through ashes to make it stronger. It should be strong enough to dissolve a feather. I would let the soap sit for a week or two, so the reaction can take place. If not, the soap can literally take your hide off. Look up some soap calculators. You should be able to figure out a simple recipe.
Cool.
Legendary 👍
Thanks
i am from wisconsin, and we are known as the clearest english speakers around, and I understood everything you said just fine... !
Sean Newbury Is that true ,.. clearest English ah
Very well done! The lye that you made is it not caustic like lye one can get at the hardware store? I assume it is, it's interesting to note how it's made in nature. I do make soap myself so this helps me learn about it's roots. Thanks again.
What a terrific experiment! That was really interesting and informative. You're awesome! I worried about you not using any gloves while pourIng, I expect great great granny even used something like tongs or a ladle to pour the lye solution because a chemical burn would have crippled her ability to work. I don't know what 'accent' people are whinging about, you sound exactly like me! Maybe they're upset that you don't pepper each sentence with 'Crikey' or 'Struth'.
I'm wondering - is it possible to filter the lye water through a couple of cloths/towels instead of using the gravel/straw?
Will the lye burn your skin? How potent is it? Should you be using gloves, perhaps?
Karine T. Knudsen hey so lye will burn you and water will make the chemical burn worse, vinegar will neutralize the chemical burn. You should wear gloves. Filtering with cloth is way better, I suggest you watch some better soap making videos. The soap queen has some good stuff and royal soaps.
Also wear protective glasses! It can hurt your eyes terribly!
Tallow works better then lard for two reasons. One, lard stays soft at room temperature where tallow is more of a solid. And two, you can make tallow in the bush by rendering animal fat. Ever fix bacon for five or six people? That's enough tallow to make a small batch of soap. You can use any vegetable oil to do the same thing if you don't want animal fat. Liked the video. Many different people use different techniques.
@rathersurf from what i read the fine white ash is the best
Awesome
That vid was awesome. Did record another batch, tweaking the formula at all?
Interesting process. I make soap with purchased lye. I have never made my own lye.If you let the soap sit for a few weeks, it would harden. Have you perfected the method?
Question: what do you do with the left over ash from making the lye? What’s safe to do with it. I’m currently making soap.
I use it in the garden compost.
thanks for the tip i think good hardwood ashes would have helped more
from what i have read and done its not the lard fault but rather the lye
sodium hydroxide is commercial lye whereas potasium hydroxide is what i made
from the wood ashes and generally makes soft soap.
Nice video! :)
Nice man just wish i had the patience
Cool Don!
Does whether it's a fine ash or not make a difference?
how many times can you use the leaching pot (straw & stones) Thank you.
i heard vegetable oil washes off car grease too and it saves the trouble
You didn’t evaporator the water out. Your finished Lye should be a thick paste or flakes. Just need to evaporate off more water and you woulda had some serious soap there! But good job!
Thanks yes I think you are correct.
Really , people should not use aluminum pot to do this. My ex- stupid buddy of mine borrowed my aluminum camping pot and totally ruined it . To make a stupid few bucks soap ruined my $60 camping pot and with straight face returned my pot saying my pot sucks . It was the End of that friendship right there.
Many people do not understand how lye will very quickly eat a aluminium pot. On the subject of old dumb friends. My old friend started harvesting oysters with my Gerber MK2 survival knife and it still has the marks in the blade 30 years later.
Hi! There are other recipes for lye making, where they live it with the ashes for a day or more and then add more ashes, let it sit, and then they do a test to know it´s ready. Did you make lye again?
so true
The lime works here in soap works as? Please let me know..thanx
I would agree that steeping the ash in a minimal quantity of (warm) water for a number of hours before filtration would gain the greatest lye concentration from the ash.
This is something I've always wanted to try. Why not take the lye all the way down to it's crystallized form? Was it animal or vegetable lard?
too much heat when you mixed the lye in with the lard. Should be 2 parts lard to 1 part lye solution.
i could understand him perfectly
It will work better if you use cheese cloth to filter the lye water after you decant it.
Wow very good
I think i love you already.lol
Hey i like your accent ( and I'm a new yorker married 30 years to a texan) not hard to follow, just some times the back ground gets a bit distracting..
thanx for and informative vid :)
Do you think this would work with ashes from energy logs? They're basically compressed wood shavings, but I don't know from what type of wood. I've got a lot of ashes.
Hardwood is whats needed to make proper lye.
I always heard that you shouldn't use cast iron to make soap.
this layer that formed on top, is it not possible that it was glycerin?
what is this spooky ambience in the background
i love it
LOL wind turbine powering the homestead.
if there is a use for ashes then what different uses could there be for different trees and there ashes?
its the wood
+320466 its the wood, hard wood is better for lye cause of the potassium concentration then a soft wood
Willow charcoal makes good black powder
You can get down right stone aged with this by cutting animal fat into really tiny pieces, "smushing" it into a paste and using in in lue of the lard.
you can melt any fat and make soap out of it just as easy as lard. You don't need to cut and smoosh just melt any fat.