Creating Lye
Lye, fat and water are the three basic ingredients that combine to make soap. In addition to use in soap recipes, lye can be used to clean containers where oil or protein-based deposits have adhered. Many commercial oven cleaning applications use lye. A powerful wood-stripper, lye will often leave the grain of wood raised. Lye dissolves protein and oil — meaning it can degrade soap and hair — making it useful as a drain cleaner.
Chemically, commercial lye and homemade lye are different. Lye made from wood ash is potassium hydroxide. Lye made commercially is sodium hydroxide. These two products are not interchangeable. The amount of lye you use in a recipe varies based on which product you are using.
Homemade lye is best made using ash from hardwoods like maple and oak or by using fruit trees such as apple. Avoid using wood from pine trees or evergreens. A consuming fire with lots of air should be used to produce thin, white papery ash free of charcoal chunks.
You will need enough ashes to fill a lye-safe, waterproof container (non-metal) to within three to four inches of the top rim. The size of this container may vary from five gallons to barrel-sized.
You will need two non-metals containers for your project. One bucket will hold the ash, the other container will catch the runoff. Drill a small hole near the bottom of the ash container. The opening should be small enough that it can be sealed with a toothpick, a piece of corking or a wooden rod — something which is not metal.
In the bottom of the ash container, place a layer of clean river gravel. Top this with a four inch layer of packed hay, grass or straw. Fill the remainder of the bucket with wood ash (stop 3 to 4 inches below the top) and tamp it down firmly.
At least five gallons of soft water will be needed, possibly more. Having only trace amounts of minerals classifies water as soft. This water can be acquired by use of a specialized filter, or from peat or, sandstone or lava rock sources like granite. Another alternative is to distill the water you have. However, the simplest way to acquire soft water is by collecting rainwater.
Put your ash container in a secure location away from high traffic areas or places that children or animals might bump, or knock it over. The drainage can be caught in a glass jar, wooden bucket, or an enamel coated pan. Metal containers will react to the lye which could eat holes in the container. Position the runoff container so that splashing is minimal.
Lye can cause a loss of sight. If swallowed it can be fatal. Potassium hydroxide is a caustic substance that reacts to fats and oil on the skin, causing burns on nearly any surface. The chemical action of lye with fats and oils creates salts which can result in severe burns, permanent injury and scars. Note that lye burns may not hurt right away because the burn may be so severe as to have damaged the nerves (pain receptors) in the skin.
Take safety precautions prior to starting. Don’t work in an enclosed area; make sure you have good air exchange. Look up the contact information for first aid responders and the poison control hotline and keep both nearby. Dress appropriately. Don’t expose your arms and legs by wearing short sleeves or shorts. Protect your eyes with safety glasses and your hands with rubber gloves. Keep vinegar nearby because its application will help neutralize lye burns. Water will make lye burns worse, so don’t use it to wash skin touched by lye.
Use a broom handle or dowel to create an indentation in the packed ashes. Boil one of the gallons of your soft water. Carefully use the full gallon of boiling water to wet the ash. The water will react with the ash by bubbling, spitting and splashing. Add another gallon of water to the ash container when the bubbling diminishes. The ashes may settle to a lower level. Add more ash to the container to keep it filled. Add enough soft water to cover the ashes in the bucket. Place a well-fitting lid on the bucket.
Remove the stopper from the hole at the bottom of the ash bucket and allow the runoff to drip into your catch container. Draining the ash bucket could take as much as 24 hours.
On the second and third day, pour the water that has runoff of the ashes back through again. Your lye will be strengthened by this repetition.
Another option is to leave the container of ash and water sitting. Place the lid on the bucket, leaving it undisturbed for 72 hours. Make sure it is in an area where it can’t get spilled. After this time you should drain the bucket.
The resulting liquid is lye water (potassium hydroxide). To test its strength place a fresh egg (still in its shell) into the liquid. When the proper strength, your lye solution should cause the egg to float with a portion of its shell exposed with a diameter equaling 2 or 2 1/2 cm’s (about the size of a nickel or a quarter). If the egg sinks, the lye water is too weak for soap making. Dilute your lye solution with more rainwater should the egg bob on top of the surfaceindicating that your solution is too strong. Be sure to dispose of the egg after use.
Heating weak lye water will strengthen your solution by reducing the water content. Enamel finished pots have a protective coating that covers the metal, making them safe to use for this purpose, though they may not be utilized again for food preparation. Take care not to scorch lye when heating your solution. If a chicken feather starts to melt when held to the hot liquid, you know your solution is the right strength. Set the pan of lye water aside to cool.
To avoid splashing later, don’t fill storage jars more than two thirds full of lye water. Store the jars (sealed tightly) in a space that is cool and dark, off-limits to children.
The used ashes should be placed in a hole that is dug away from busy areas. When the ashes are cool, the hole may be safely filled.
Should you wish to dry your lye solution into crystals (potash), place it into a lye-safe vessel. You’ll find that glass is a good choice for this project. Left in the sun, uncovered, the water will evaporate and crystals will form. Follow the same storage precautions with potash crystals as you would the lye water.
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