Making Soap for (almost) free

The question: “hello, i am not sure if you are familiar with the soap making process, however, i have noone else to turn to. to make soap you add lye to fat, its that simple. you need however to have accurate measurments of both lye and fat and the right tempurture and allsorts. i wish to make the lye myself by soaking wood ash in water thus creating lye. the problem is i can’t find information anywhere on how much to add, and seeing as the measurments need to be so presise, and information on how to make soap with homemade lye i’ve hit a stumbling block. you may think why not buy the lye ( sodium hydroxide) from the shops alowing me to create the right measurements, but, why not make it for free. can you help me please?”

The trouble with making your own Lye out of ash is the fact that you will have very little perception how much of anything you are adding. The process of burning is a haphazzard process at best, and it always made poor soaps when made from non-industrial processes using ash. Sodium hydroxide can be buaght for very little, and my plain advice is you need to put a little money in to get anything these days… sadly… If you want good quality soaps which you can sell or use safely, then buy industrial NaOH from your local hardware store. I think I bought some last year for £0.98 (50cents), and it would be enough to make a lot of hard soap. For soft soaps you will need KOH, Potassium Hydroxide, which is a little more difficult to obtain.

On the temperatures, use near boiling water to get the correct temperature. (float your mix in a bowl in boiling water, and it should give you near correct temperatures. If you wish to be pedantic, use a thermometer and make sure you get a reading of 80-100 degrees Celcuis or 176-212 F)

And if in doubt, add the lye slowly to the fat until you get the right texture. If you need to find out what this is at the correct temperature, bring some soap from your bathroom up to the same temperature.