How Does
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Lye is a caustic substance, also known as potassium hydroxide. Lye is used in many household products, including soaps, and can be bought pre-made at many do-it-yourself stores or made at home. Pure lye comes in a solid flake or granular form, but most homemade lye is a concentrated liquid. Lye is a major ingredient in some cleansers due to its ability to dissolve fats and oils, which are the major ingredients in traditional nonchemical soaps and cleansers.
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Making lye can be accomplished by dissolving wood ashes. This can be done by the use of different methods with varying equipment and materials. The ashes used for the lye-making process must come from hard woods such as hickory, sugar maple, beech, ash or buckeye. Soft woods are not adequate for lye-making because the resulting lye will not harden properly. The ash must also be white ash produced by burning the wood at high temperatures. Grey ashes, or ashes with bits of charcoal or foreign objects in the mix, will not result in high-quality lye. The water used in the lye-making process should be soft, such as rain water or spring water, but water from the faucet is adequate.
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Methods vary on the actual processing of ash into lye but most require a wooden barrel or bucket with small holes in the bottom. The ash is placed over gravel and straw filters in the bucket, and the water is poured over the ash to slowly drip into a containment vessel. This ash-saturated water is the basic solution of lye, but it must be boiled down and concentrated so that it is strong enough for use. The boiling time for the lye depends on the size of the batch and other factors. Feathers are often used to test strength. If a feather dipped in the lye solution dissolves, the lye strength is adequate. Alternatively, an egg float test can measure the proper strength. Placing a fresh egg in the lye solution indicates the proper strength of the solution. An egg that sinks means a solution is too weak and requires additional concentration.
eHow Article: How Is Lye Made?
