Make Soap at Home with your own Lye

You probably know you could make soap at home and reduce your dependency on corporate cleaning products. However, you probably also know that you need Lye to make homemade soap. You don’t have it, you can’t make soap. And if you go about buying commercial Lye from a store, that would defeat the whole purpose, wouldn’t it. Therefore, you also need to be able to make your own Lye, and then to use it for making your soap according to your preference.

Lets see how can you go about doing that:

Homemade Soap Lye

The main ingredient for making home made soap is lye from the ashes of wood.

Step 1

For a substantial amount of lye, used in the process of making homemade soap, you may want to use an entire five gallon bucket full of white ashes, preferably from hardwoods. Such as: apple, (fruitwoods), oak, walnut, maple, etc.

Step 2

Another five gallon bucket is needed for the leaching process, hollow a small hole on the side of the bucket about the width of a toothpick, that way you can use a toothpick as a stopper.

Step 3

Fill the bucket almost full of ashes; leave about four inches from the top for water. Use two or three gallons of boiled rainwater or tap, whichever you prefer. Smash and pack the ashes tightly down, and add more ashes for a tightly packed bucket.

Step 4

Place the ash bucket in an elevated position over another plastic container to collect the lye from the drain hole. You can place your ash bucket on blocks or a step ladder, whatever you choose. Be careful not to damage the areas surrounding the lye container with splashes when it drips from the bucket. A short distance from the drain hole to the lye container will be best.

*It might take days before any of the lye emerges from the bucket.

Step 5

Wear protection on your eyes and hands when you handle the lye water. Next, in an enameled pan, heat the lye water to a boiling temperature, and very carefully pour back on top of the ashes. Be sure your catch pan is beneath the bucket and you will have a stronger solution of lye than before. This process can be repeated over and over again to come out with the strongest form of lye desirable.

Step 6

After you achieved making the strongest form of the lye solution you want, then you can dry it to a crystal form. Put your lye water out in the sun, and allow for the contents to slowly evaporate, but remember that lye is a very caustic substance and if there was ever a burn you can use vinegar to neutralize it.

Step 7

Now your lye is ready for soap making!

Use the lye you have produced with your favorite soap making method to get your fully home made soap!