# Self Sufficiency/Living off the Land or Off the Grid > General Homesteading >  DIY: Homemade lye soap

## your_comforting_company

Before I even start, I'd like to let everyone know that this is my very first batch of lye soap. It's a VERY basic recipe using only lard and lye which is very caustic. I hope to get input on this thread and possibly some recipes from anyone else who has used this method to make soap at home. The advantage of this hot-process soapmaking is that you can use the soap as soon as it's hard enough to be cut into bars. Historically home soap makers boiled their solutions in the same way as this is done.

FIRST you need some basic SAFETY equipment. Lye is a very caustic material to work with and severe personal injury can occur!!
safety glasses or goggles or a face shield
rubber gloves
long sleeve shirt
a plastic or pvc apron
vinegar or lemon for any skin contact that might still occur
shoes

Second there are a few items you'll need for the process.
A liquid measuring cup marked in fluid ounces.
A scale that measures dry weight in ounces down to the 1/4 ounce. preferrably with a stainless steel tray. My scale measures down to .01 ounces. Your scale should have a tare function so you can measure directly into a container like a paper cup.
stainless steel, ceramic, or pyrex bowls or other heat safe containers. If there is a doubt of what your materials are made of DON'T USE THEM. No aluminum, cast-iron, tin, etc. These are reactive and will ruin your soap and container.
I used a crock pot and a hot-process recipe. I got a small one from the dollar store for less than $15. I don't remember the size, we've had it a long time, but I could have easily made a batch twice the size as what I made in it with room to spare
phenolphtheylene or litmus strips to test pH
stainless steel, plastic, or wooden stirring utensils
a dedicated candy thermometer. do not use it for any cooking after using it in the lye.
a mold of some sort. I used empty checkbook boxes lined with wax paper.

Thirdly you need the ingredients for your recipe. This recipe uses only lard and lye. I'm not interested in fragrances or aesthetics.. only getting clean. If you wish to add other oils you need to find out the saponification values of those oils. Here's a good reference calculator for other oils. http://www.thesage.com/calcs/lyecalc2.php Lye can be hard to get hold of as it's been used in the manufacture of drugs in recent years. I found it at Ace Hardware up town. I have invested a grand total of $6 in lard and lye so it's really inexpensive. 1lb of lard was less than $2 and the lye was less than $4.

Ok.. the science behind it:
All soap, unless it occurs naturally in a plant which contains saponins, is a result of a chemical reaction between lye and oil of some type. This produces glycerin and "salts" which is a generic term for precipitates which would normally fall to the bottom of a solution. Understand that lye and fat are opposites on the pH scale, fats being acidic and lye being alkaline. To my knowledge, all soap bought from a store contains glycerine which is a product of this chemical reaction. Look at your soap and see if it contains glycerine.

Now the math.
Lard has a saponification value of .138. That is how much lye in ounces it takes for lard (or tallow) to be 100% saponified. Because it is animal fat and all animals are not created equally, it's best to take a discount right off the top. The calculator above, if I remember correctly automatically takes 2% right off. Then you add whatever discount you want to that. I used a 5% lye discount, or fat surplus. You do this JUST IN CASE the fat is a little higher or lower than the supposed value of .138. a 2% discount will set that at .135, and another 5% makes .128 oz lye per 1 oz of lard. Follow me so far?
1 oz of lard will require .128 oz of lye for 93% saponification leaving a 7% margin of error. You'd rather have too much fat than too much lye because lye will take off much more than just the dirt. Got it? Good!
Admittedly 1 oz of soap isn't much worth the trouble or time so we have to convert all this math into something resembling a usable amount.
1 lb of lard is 16 oz.
.128 oz of lye times 16 oz of lard is 2.05 oz of lye.
--16 oz lard and 2.05 oz of lye will give us 93% saponification. 
You also need a medium to dissolve the lye in. Water will be done in fluid (fluid ounces or floz.) measure and you want to use roughly twice as much water as dry weight of lye. that would give us 4.1 fluid ounces of water.. lets give ourselves some margin for error and round up to 5 floz.
The water will be evaporated off later in the hot-process cooking. so if you wanted to use a little extra, that's fine. Just keep in mind, the more you add, the more you'll have to evaporate later. I wouldn't go over 6 floz. for this small of a batch. Put the water in the fridge and get it nice and cold.

Okay.. lets get dirty..errr.. clean... err... we're gonna mess up some dishes and hopefully not get any on us.
Measure out your lye crystals into a paper cup or similar container that can be discarded.
Get your lard measured out.. the can might say 16oz, but my tub of lard easily had 18oz.. that could make a really nasty, greasy soap.. it's best to weigh out all your ingredients to make sure you get it right.
Put it in the crock pot and get it melted and then put it on the low setting. 
While that's melting, go outside with a pyrex or other heat-safe container, add your 5 or 6 floz. of water to the bowl and SLOWLY AND CAREFULLY add the 2.05 oz lye crystals TO the COLD water. Using a stainless steel or plastic spoon, stir it. You want to be outside and avoid breathing in the steam that will form. The lye added to the water will immediately heat to almost boiling. I measured the temp somewhere around 185*F! 
When the lye-water cools to about 110*F it's ready to go into the melted fat. CAREFULLY and SLOWLY, pour the lye-water into the pot AWAY FROM YOU. You don't want this stuff splashing up on you.. the lye is caustic and the fat is hot! Carefully stir with your plastic spoon and you will see an immediate change in the opacity and texture of the fat-lye solution.
Depending on the crock-pot, you may want to turn the setting higher. You don't want it to boil, but you do want it to be hot enough to evaporate the water. It will get noticably thicker instantly.
The hot-process cooking will force the solution to saponify by keeping it in a liquid state so that the ingredients can react freely. It will need to cook for about 3-4 hours. Leave the lid off so water can escape as needed. I went with 4 hours to be certain the reactions were done, and at the end of 4 hours the texture was consistently opaque without stirring. Dip a litmus paper in it and check the pH. It should be somewhere between 6 and 8. Some literature says between 6 and 10 but in my opinion, the more acidic it is, the more harsh. A pH of 7 is neutral, like purified water. At this point you should test the batch to see if the pH is close enough to neutral or if something went wrong. I say anywhere between 6 and 8 is great for general body cleaning.
Give it a good stir anyway and pour it into your molds. It will have to set up for a while to solidify and let any remaining water evaporate. At this point, mine is like a thick paste, reminiscent of the lard itself, but much more yellowish with a soapy feel, rather than greasy.
In a few days, I should be able to unmold it and cut into smaller bars for use in my day pack for camping trips, fish bait, fire-bow socket lube, or washing dishes or the sand out of my crack.
Clean up is simple too.. the lye-dishes can be washed in a sinkful of water like regular.. whatever small amount of residue that is left will be so dilute, that there is no chance of getting burned. The crock pot, you just wait for the residue to congeal, fill it with water, and wash it.. it's already got soap in it! DONT pour uncongealed soap down the drain.. when it cools it will clog the drain and can be a real bugger to get out!
At this point I'd like for anyone who has experience with this to point out any errors or variations in this explanation and possibly post up some simple small-batch recipes for others to try. It is dangerous working with the lye, but common sense, preparation, and careful attention will prevent accidents from happening. You should still wear your PPE because you dont want to be the example of what can happen IF something goes wrong. Carelessness and inattention can get you seriously hurt.

If you DO get some of the lye or lye-water on you, IMMEDIATELY rinse with running water for at least 1 minute, then douse the area with vinegar or lemon juice. They can also be used to clean up any spills that may occur in your kitchen.
I hope I haven't scared anyone away from making their own soap with all this talk of danger, because it really is simple and quite intuitive. I was very afraid at first, and very confused and overwhelmed by the variations in information I was getting. It seemed really complicated and dangerous and I couldn't see how folks in the "old days" could do this at home, but I'm sitting here tonight telling you that it's easy, and not nearly as scary as I thought. I have no scars or wounds, no big messes to clean up. I would not take the chances with moving around with a camera to take pictures on my first try, but I will take some as I get more comfortable with the process and edit this post to include them.
Thanks for taking the time to read this rather lengthy explanation and I hope to hear from more soapmakers in the near future!

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## your_comforting_company

I'd like to thank Nell and Winnie for their invaluable links in figuring out this process, and also Bluexdog and Abstract Youth for their offer of information.
I also have to thank my Mom for getting the book that got me started.

Thanks guys!

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## BENESSE

WOW!!!!
One of these days I'll try it. 
For now it's bookmarked and ready to be committed to memory.

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## crashdive123

Well done YCC.

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## Rick

What a great post, YCC. Cudos and Reputation your way!

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## preachtheWORD

Great job, as always!  I look forward to hearing about your experience with using the soap.  The old timers around here claim that lye soap is harsh on the skin.  I'd like to hear what you have to say once you've used it.

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## nell67

You are very welcome YCC,glad those links were helpful!

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## your_comforting_company

It's now pretty hard but easily dented with your finger. I have purchased lye soap from an old lady a few miles away that makes it with perfumes and stuff before and it's not harsh at all. My wife uses it as her face soap and she likes it.
Perhaps in another day it'll be hard enough to cut into smaller bars for the shower. Washed my hands with a dab of it today and it got them clean. Can't say about harshness because my hands are pretty rough anyway.
I'll let ya know as soon as I get a chance to shower with some of my own batch. I'm kinda excited to try it!  :Big Grin:

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## Rick

If you handed a bar of that soap to most folks and told them it was lye and animal fat they would drop it immediately. The look on their face would be priceless.

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## flandersander

I used to do this with my mom all the time. Something you can try is after you mix the lye crystals with the water, test its ph. Remember this number, or better yet, write it down. Then, whenever you can't find lye, mix hardwood fire ashes (the white powdery ones, not the black coals) with water. Now concentrate the mixture to the same ph as your lye-water mixture, then use the same volume, and the recipe should be the same from here on in. You might want to do a little more research on this, but it works. We also used to add about a T-spoon of fine sand to the liquid soap (more or less depending on your batch) for a little more scrubbing power. Although maybe skip the sand if you're gonna be scrubbing your crotch. Just a thought.

Please note- the ashes/water mixture is just as dangerous as the lye/water mixture. So follow the mentioned safety precautions and please be careful!

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## your_comforting_company

That's a great idea. Winnie suggested something like this. (sorry I was a bit overwhelmed by info at the time to think outside the box) When I get better at this soapmaking bit, I'll give that a try for a more natural soap. I like the idea of not buying ANY of the supplies from the store. I'll be doing much more soapmaking in the future and will definately give this a try. Thanks!
I use hardwood ashes all the time in tanning, so I keep them on hand.

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## flandersander

Oh well thats perfect for you then. The only problem I can see happeing is that you can't bring the ashes mix to the same ph as the lye water. So it might involve some tuning of the recipe, but its a great start!

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## your_comforting_company

So I looked in the molds again today and perhaps I let them get a little too dry, but the soap works GREAT!
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Had a great 10 hour workday and was just as happy as could be getting dirty on a rooftop today. Since it cleaned my hands so well, I tried it in the shower.
Sorry, ladies, there will be no pics of me in the shower.

Can I send a bar to QC?
I'd also like to send a bar to Huntermj for washing his buckskin, if I may?

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## crashdive123

QC will gladly perform a full review.Thanks very much.

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## nell67

Thats awesome YCC!! I see you still have skin left after using the soap,so everything must have worked out just great!

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## Old GI

Reminds me of an old song - Grandma's Lye Soap.  It went something like this:

"...
Brother Herman and Brother Thurman had an aversion to washing thier ears,
Grandma scrubbed them with her lye soap,
THEY HAVEN'T HEARD A WORD IN YEARS!!!!
..." :clap:  :spam:

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## hunter63

Very cool, YCC, another skill. Good job.
Some how I missed this thread till now? Anyway thanks!

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## preachtheWORD

> ... whenever you can't find lye, mix hardwood fire ashes (the white powdery ones, not the black coals) with water.


I remember seing a demonstration when I was a kid where the settlers would produce their own lye by letting water perculate down through a barrel of ashes.  Here are a few links describing the process:
http://journeytoforever.org/biodiesel_ashlye.html
http://www.wikihow.com/Make-Lye
http://www.countryfarm-lifestyles.com/make-lye.html





> We also used to add about a T-spoon of fine sand to the liquid soap ...


One of the local soapmakers where I live adds some coarse cornmeal to the mix to make the soap slightly abrasive.  It works really well and might not be quite as harsh as the sand.

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## your_comforting_company

PTW, I think they call that a lye-seep in one of my books "Back to Basics". I'll get around to building one of those and trying it soon.

Historically, home-made soap was done by cooking, much like I did above so the soap would be ready sooner. It's also historically accurate that most soaps back then were liquid soaps hung by the door in a dish with a ladel. Not very good for transport, but handy around the house.

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## flandersander

I've just kinda been thinking about that gojo hand cleaner. You know? What the heck is in there? I don't think its sand. Pumice maybe? I'm just thinking the coarnmeal will get soggy and be useless. Although I may have been wrong before once. maybe.

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## Winnie

I think maybe PTW meant fine Oatmeal? It's very good in soap, acts as an exfolliant and a skin softener. 
I often put a handful of Oatmeal in a piece of muslin and hang it over the hot tap while it's running so the water runs through the little bag. The resulting "milk" is very good for dry skin.

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## HeritageFarm

> Great job, as always!  I look forward to hearing about your experience with using the soap.  The old timers around here claim that lye soap is harsh on the skin.  I'd like to hear what you have to say once you've used it.


This could be one of the best posts on making soap I've seen...
Actually, it's not necessarily homemade soap that's harsh - it's usually homemade LYE that's the problem. However, I intend to try using homemade lye for myself.

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## your_comforting_company

It won't be much longer before I have to make some more. This time I want to try using a lye-seep and see how the soft soap turns out. Stay tuned for more adventures in "getting clean".

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## Xaishi

Hello, I have a very large house and my own production, so I recently bought myself some Spam. SPAM is very effective and able to cope with the removal of impurities of any complexity now it has become much easier for me to eat in the kitchen on sofas,  furniture, etc. with SPAM..



Even Brussels enjoys the deliciousness of Spam.

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