Lye for Soap Making

In today's times, not many people have the time and the patience to make soap at home. Moreover, it is actually easy to buy a commercial soap rather than spending one's precious time, making one. However, in earlier times, people had no other alternative than making soap on their own. Also, there was a special day allotted for this, which was called the 'soap making day' where people came together and made soaps for their families. Though art of making soaps at home has decreased today, there are many people who still prefer to make their own soaps. People who are used to make homemade soaps will surely know how important it is to use lye. The lye is what helps in making the soap, firm and hard. However, lye is an alkali which is formed from the chemical reaction between calcium hydroxide, sodium carbonate and lime, and it is important to take extra care while making soap with lye. So, if you are planning to make soaps at home, it is extremely crucial for you to know about the exact uses of lye.

How to Use Lye in Soaps

Lye can be easily found in chemical supply houses or may be at your local hardware store. If you are an expert in soap making, it would be better to buy lye in bulk. However, lye is very dangerous to handle and can cause accidents, if not handled properly. If you are buying lye in bulk, make sure that you store it in an air tight container and keep it in a place where it cannot be reached by children as well as pets. Nevertheless, if you are making soap for the first time, it would be better for you to buy a small container of lye. One very important thing that you have to check before buying lye is whether the label reads 100% lye, because there are many manufacturers who sell lye which is not 100% pure. This can affect the soap making process and hence, it is better that you buy the lye from a reliable manufacturer after researching well about him.

Though lye is something easily available in the market these days, it was not the same earlier. In those times, people had to make lye, before they started the process of making soap. People in those times, saved the ashes in a bin outside their house, throughout the year and when they had to start the soap making process, they would add water to the ashes and take out the by-product which is called the liquid lye. This lye is then combined with the lard to make soap. However, making lye on your own means extra work and if you want to skip this step, it would be a good idea to invest in good quality lye soap making kits.

Lye Soap Making Instructions

Once you have get hold of the lye, either by buying it from the store or making it on your own, the next thing that you have to know is the process of making lye soap. Though there are many lye soap making recipes, here we will take a look at the recipe of making the basic lye soap. So, here are the instructions that you can follow to make lye soap. Read more on homemade lye soap recipe.

Things Needed to Make Lye Soap

• 2.48 kg or 5 lbs lard
• 1 can 100% lye
• 605 grams ice-cold water
• 4-6 quart plastic bowl or cast iron pot
• 1-2 quart oven ware bowl
• 1 shallow cardboard box which is lined with plastic thrash bag
• 1 wooden or plastic spoon
• 1 pair of rubber gloves

Instructions to Make Lye Soap

• Take ½ of the freezing water and convert it into ice cubes. Once the cubes are ready, take the water as well as the ice cubes in the 1-2 quart oven ware bowl.
• After this, wear your rubber gloves and slowly add lye into this water. One important thing that you have to remember is that you should never pour water over the lye as this may cause the lye to explode.
• Once you add the lye, make sure that you are stirring the contents in the oven ware bowl till the lye is completely dissolved and then, cover the bowl with a lid. Allow the mixture to stay in the bowl, till it reaches 85 degrees F.
• While the lye is being warmed, take the lard in the plastic bowl and melt it by keeping it in a water bath. When the lard is completely melted, cool it till it reaches the temperature of 95 degrees F.
• When both the lye and the lard reach the correct temperatures, pour the lye water into the container which holds the lard. Blend these ingredients vigorously in a circular pattern till the mixture becomes thick.
• Though the mixture becomes thick in a few minutes, you have to keep on stirring till it goes through a variety of stages and finally will look like a hot cooked pudding. The whole process can take anywhere between 10 to 45 minutes and will depend upon factors like the climatic condition, temperature, etc.
• The final step in the lye soap making process is to pour the mixture into the lined box. This has to be done very carefully and one should not forget to wear the rubber gloves while doing this. Allow the mixture to remain there for 3-5 hours and once it hardens, one can start cutting them into bars with a table knife.
• However, one cannot start using the soap as soon as it is made. Rather, place the soap in a box to cure for 1-2 weeks before breaking it and at least a month before using it.

I hope that you will find this article useful as well as informative. There are many more lye soap recipes where you can make soaps of different colors, shapes and fragrances. As you now have enough information on lye, try making lye soap at home. Nevertheless, take all the necessary precautions while handling lye to prevent any kind of accidents.