making soap from wood ashes

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.

Category:

People & Blogs

Tags:

• lye soap
• soap making
• Soap
• home made soap
• permaculture
• off grid
• pioneer

[1wicked2008]

who carries lard with them

[damocsell]

@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.

[rathersurf]

Cool Don!

Does whether it's a fine ash or not make a difference?



[damocsell]

@rathersurf from what i read the fine white ash is the best

[hirodagger]

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

[IDFgivati]

what do you mean by leach?

[permiepat]

Thank you for this video, good info to know. My Grandmother made soap from wood ash during the depression. They used it for themselves, clothes and dishes.

[ManufacturedLack]

I like this because you don't have to buy anything.

[purity4all]

How do you know when you've reached the right strength of lye for soap making?

[AndrewKFletcher]

Nice video, thanks for uploading. Possibly failed because of using soft wood ash and far too little of it. Nevertheless a useful experiment showing how we used to make soap.

[ATSF1927]

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.

[LeithMusic]

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.