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Home Cleaners and Buy Lye Soap
| There are so many homemade crafts nowadays, its become the passion of many an entrepenuer to turn handcrafted, homemade recipes and ideas into wonderful new businesses. Homemade pizza and ice cream turn into delicous neighborhood restaurants. Homemade beauty items include soap and lotions and bath salts and more. Some homemade projects even turn children into budding business titans. Here at Granny's Lye Soap our old fashioned way of making soap also started in such a way and we hope we can keep that neighborhood persoanl touch alive for you, our customer. |
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What is lye? Lye is an alkali. An alkali is a basic, ionic salt. Most commonly known as the base that easily disolves in water, alkali and base often used interchangably. They are also defined as compounds with ph levels above 7. Also known as caustic soda it will burn skin on contact. Commonly used as drain openers sodium hydroxide is exothermic, so special protective clothing, gloves and glasses should be used when handling lye. |
Homemade Lye Soap
Technically all cold processed natural soap is lye soap. When someone speaks specifically of lye soap they are describing a soap similar to one their grandparents made. This is why you often hear it referred to as "old fashioned or "grandmas lye soap".
Before the mid 1800's most Americans made their own soap. It was made from hog fat in the fall or from saved drippings from either beef or pork. The process was as inexact as it was grueling. Ash from the hearth was saved in a dry spot until soap making day. Potash and pearlash were lixiviated from the wood ash. They are forms of the potassium based alkali present in plant and wood material. Water was then poured over the ash and allowed to seep through and collected at the bottom of a container, typically a barrel that had small holes or a slit in it that allowed for the water to be collected.
To test to see if enough lye had leached into the water an egg was placed i the water mix and if it sank to thebottom the water may have been poured through the ash mix once again. A floating egg was said to make for an ideal lye water combination.
The fat was then boiled in a large pot in the back yard. The lye water mix was added and the boiling process could last for 24 hours. This was definitely a trial and error method of making soap. Much evaporation occured during the process and lye water was added regularly if it it was determined that the mix was getting too thick. Eventually a salt was formed (yes soap is chemically a salt) and the mix was allowed to cool down and harden into soap. Whenever an acid an alkalie is combined an the right proportion a salt is the result. Saponification is taking place, though the term was not used yet.
This type of soap was lye heavy and was used for every type of cleaning including laundry. This type of soap would be considered much too harsh today. Most people when referring to lye soap are now referring to soap that is made from lard and lye. This is a rich creamy soap that has wonderful cleansing properties.
Why did we decide to start making lye soap?
There was so much misinformation about lye soap. The qualities that made lye soap so attractive to our colonial ancestors still apply today. The main difference is that with modern science we can take the basic idea of mixing lye/water solution with lard and make a spectacular bar soap that is neither harsh to touch nor pungent to smell. Yet we are able to keep all of the soothing properties that make for such an extraordinary bar of soap.
Can you make a bar that is comes from 100% lard.
Yes you can and some soap makers do. We use a recipe that is very heavy on the lardbut also incorporates some vegetable oils for lathering properties.
Lye Soap Folklore
Though there is no medical evidence that old fashioned lye soap cures poison ivy, it is sometimes called poison ivy soap. It has also been clamimed to cure dandruff, psoriasis, itchy skin, acne, eczema, bed bugs, poison oak, moquito bites, mites and head lice. Some settlers would only stir soap mixes with a sassafrass stick. Why? Was rain water better than creek water, many soap makers thought so. In Appalachia it is called the Appalachian cure all. A common cousin of lye soap is pine tar soap that was also made with lye and from the readily available pine tar settlers were using in many ways.
Red Devil Lye Soap
Red devil lye was used for years in the home made soap making process, but has recently been discontinued because the formula is no longer pure sodium hydroxide.
Kettle Soap
Yes another name for lye soap as many a back yard had a large black kettle used for making soap.
Modern Lye Soap
Today most soap makers offer lye soap with essential oils and herbs infused into their soaps as part of their product line to compliment their plain pold fashioned lye soap.
