How to Make Lye Soap Using Ashes

You can make your own lye to add to homemade soap recipes.

Soap making is a hobby that is both useful and engaging. Making your own soap is a challenge for an inexperienced soap maker. Once you gain soap-making experience, you can even try your hand at making your own soap-making ingredients. Lye is one ingredient you can make yourself using ashes. Add your homemade lye to your next batch of cold process soap.

Things You'll Need

• Wooden barrel
• Drill
• Concrete blocks
• 2 large glass containers
• Gravel
• Straw
• Hardwood ash (such as maple, elm, oak or beech)
• Rainwater
• Goggles
• Long-sleeved shirt
• Gloves
• Iron pot
• Stove
• 1 egg
• Sea salt
• 1 pt. water
• Stick
• Weight
• Glass mixing bowl
• 2 cups water
• 7 oz. homemade lye
• Cooking thermometer
• 16 oz. each coconut, palm and canola oils
• Large glass mixing bowl
• Microwave
• Wooden spoon or immersion blender
• Soap molds

Instructions

Lye from Ashes

1. Fill a wooden barrel with water and let it sit overnight to ensure it has no leaks. If no leaks are present, empty the barrel and let it dry out completely. Drill holes into the bottom of the barrel.

2. Place the barrel onto concrete blocks. Place a large glass container beneath the barrel and between the blocks.

3. Place a layer of gravel into the bottom of the barrel. Cover the gravel with a layer of straw. Fill the remaining space in the barrel with your choice of hardwood ash (but leave 2 inches of space at the top of the barrel.)

4. Pour enough rainwater into the barrel to fill it to the top. The rainwater will begin to drip into the glass container below. Allow the water to drip through until it stops dripping. Put on your goggles, long-sleeved shirt and gloves.

5. Remove the glass container from beneath the barrel (replace it with a new container in case any more liquid drips from the barrel).

6. Pour the liquid into an iron pot (that you will never use for anything else). Boil the liquid for 10 to 15 minutes. Test the concentration of the liquid by placing a fresh egg into the pot. If the liquid is concentrated enough, the egg will float to the top of the liquid. When this occurs, throw out the egg and remove the liquid from heat.

7. Fill a container with 1 pt. of water. Dissolve salt in the water until no more salt will dissolve in the water. Place a weight on the end of a stick, and put the stick into the water. Make a mark on the stick where the water level stops.

8. Fill the glass container (that caught the liquid originally) with 1 pt. of the lye. Place the stick into the lye. If the water level does not reach the mark you made with the salt solution, pour enough rainwater into the lye to make the level reach the mark. Your lye is ready to use in soap making.

Making Soap from Hardwood Ash Lye

1. Wear your goggles, long-sleeved shirt and gloves. Add the 7 oz. lye to the 2 cups of water in the small glass mixing bowl. Set the mixture aside (in a well-ventilated area or outdoors) until the mixture reaches 110 degrees Fahrenheit.

2. Place your pre-measured oils into the large glass mixing bowl and heat in the microwave one minute at a time until the oils are all liquefied enough to stir with a spoon. (Some oils, like coconut, are solid like butter until heated.) Allow the oils to reach a temperature of 110 degrees Fahrenheit.

3. Carefully pour the lye mixture into the oils mixture. Stir vigorously but carefully until the combined mixture has the consistency of thin pudding. (An immersion blender works well for this.)

4. Pour the soap mixture into soap molds. Allow the soap to harden in the molds for three to five days. Remove the soap from the molds and allow it to cure further in the open air for four to six weeks.

Tips & Warnings

• Be extra careful when working with lye and hot, liquid soap. Both of these things can cause serious skin burns if handled carelessly or improperly.

References

• Journey to Forever: Making Lye From Wood Ash
• TeachSoap.com: Easy Cold Process Soap Recipes