Making Wood Ash Lye from Ash to Crystals
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- Опубликовано: 13 сен 2024
- Here's the method I use to make wood ash lye. I gained an interest for this while reading the Laura Ingalls books to my daughters a couple of years ago. I decided to make soap like they did, and started saving my ash. With the help of the internet, I have made a successful batch of soap! I thought the soap would be merely sufficient, and I’d heard that wood ash lye soap was greasy. Well, the soap I made feels wonderful and I’m still waiting for the bars to cure. Later, I intend to make a video showing how I make the soap using the lye made in this video. I hope it's helpful.
If you add a bit of water to the bucket before adding the ash it will help prevent a whole bunch of dry ash clumping at the bottom.
Also hot water helps get a higher yield.
Ill place this under the top comment. If you redissolve the final product in a minimal amount of hot water and let it set in a cold environment you could precipitate out clear crystals.
You people are so smart. Good pro tips👍
my question is this...does it matter what kind of wood we get the ashes from?
@@MrUhnonimess ty
Thank you . From an old man who used to make soap with his Grandmother over 60 years ago. All the best.
There is something satisfying about making things from basic ingredients from nature.
Absolutely right!
Perhaps our world has getting unnecessarily off track and the basics are still valuable. It seems to me, that some of the basics should always be in style, like non-polluting products, such as soap, garden food, and good.
I was laughing my *** off towards the end. I can remember how many times I used kitchen utensils to make my chemical concoctions. From mom yelling at me for destroying her pans to my wife yelling at me for dissolving pots/spoons/knives.
Seeing you break down the crystals at the end with the serving spoons reminded me of those times.
Cool video though! And the Merciful Time Lapse was appreciated. (especially when the final bit was evaporating from the pan at the end)
I'm a chemist (as well as a "survivalist") and this is a great video.
Very well done Countercommie.
what do you think about my run off hypothesis i posted as a comment here?
mr. SparkyMcBiff Hello. who better to ask a question of this nature than a chemist. Is this the kind of lye people used in the old days to cure olives? about a decade ago my dad cured some olive with lye from the store. They came out excellent. Was curious if this was the same form. kind of like vitamins there is edible chromium but one wouldn't want to lick a bumper for daily nutrition. you know? lol look forward to your reply.
when he's boiling the lye water.... are the fumes toxic or is it just vaporized water? I've always seen people boil the lye water outside... is that necessary? 💖🌞🌵😷🎅
@@suzisaintjames i don't think there should be any minerals in that vapor
@@suzisaintjames I'm pretty sure the steam is not caustic, because people are constantly stirring, and as someone else said, the caustic minerals shouldn't evaporate, being too heavy. However, many people have said that making wood ash lye is an incredibly stinky process, which would very much explain why many people do it out of doors.
My Dad was a Nebraska farm boy. He said Saturday was wash day. Grandma Josie would make soap sometimes. Dad said she's cook it outdoors and it was smelly. She'd stir a big pot until the soap was set. I suppose she used ash lye as she was on a budget during the depression. So now, I get to carry on the tradition. I've bought sodium hydroxide and made soap, but since hubby has taken to cooking outside the ashes have built up. I have collected all the grease and animal fat from our food. I have a whole freezer full, so there will be a lot of soap coming out of this!
That awesome but NaOH, sodium hydroxide, is different from KOH, potassium hydroxide. Potassium hydroxide is from wood ashes, usually hardwood ashes. Potassium hydroxide generally makes soft/liquid soaps. Just keep that in mind.
@@jhan1217 You can convert the potassium hydroxide from wood ashes to sodium hydroxide by adding table salt(sodium chloride). The chloride ion in the table salt switches places with the chloride ion in the potassium hydroxide. You end up with sodium hydroxide and potassium chloride.
what measurements do you use? By that, I mean: how much lye and how much fat?
@@charlesaanonson3954 Well now... never thought high school chemistry would come in handy! Thank you
@Peter Kropotkin There's probably another element that can be added to the solution that will bond to the Potassium Chloride making it heavier/lighter than the Sodium solution separating the two in a jar at which point you can pour off one of the solutions.
Only 50 seconds in, but I already want to comment to thank you for talking about the science as you go on. I've always been chemistry-illiterate and now that my wife and I are starting to look at making our own bathroom products I'm trying to learn more about the chemistry and natural processes behind what people have been doing for millenia.
chemistry and physics are too fun
See nilered channel, a very indepth breakdown of chemical change process, proper terminology and over educational. Its important to note that this "lye" is really kco3. Koh is far more caustic.
If you get any lye solution on your skin you want to rinse thoroughly with water first. You always want to flush with water first when dealing with skin because if you just pour vinegar on there the exothermic reaction can cause a very nasty burn and since that's what we are trying to avoid....flush with water. Only use vinegar on surfaces or after lots of flushing with water to neutralize any remaining lye that might react.
Good advice, thanks!
A@@
One can sieve the ashes, first, too: makes the slurry more refined and easier to stir, and saves a step or two.
When you boil the mixture place a spoon or glass rod in the pan. This will prevent super heating, super heating is what causes the splatter. Lye is much more active at high temps you do not want that stuff splattering on you when your boiling it. Also use 2 5 gallon buckets with same amount of ash and a lot more water, hot water and stir for 2minutes every 10 minutes for an hour then let it sit for 12 hours minimum and the potassium and sodium carbonates will still be in solution while the insolubles will have settled the the bottom. Siphon the water off and it’s much much cleaner and the final product will shine. And one last thing. Get a terra cotta, glass or steel vessel to mix it in as it will react to plastic and contaminate your potash.
Thanks, this was a great video! You give a nice layout of going from dry ash to dry lye in a way that seems like just about anyone with patience and care could do it. Truly timeless content!
Wow, thanks! *blush*
I remember watching my mom make lye soap this way back during the depression, just lye and any fat or oil. She collected the ashes from the fire she had outside under the kettle she boiled the laundry in. This was in the late 1930s. Things were different then.
That's impressive
Different or better? Or both?
I've been wondering if I could use the bacon grease I've been saving in the fridge. Even if it worked, I'm guessing the soap would smell like bacon, but am not sure.
@@peterson6824 Use coffee or tea for the lye water solution.
You have a great sense of humor. The time lapse comments made me laugh. Thank you for sharing this video. I wanted to learn how to do this. Thanks again.
You're quite welcome... and thank you! It can be done more cleanly than I did it by filtering or letting the sediment settle out more completely but I just wanted to "get it done" to demonstrate the process. Either way, the result will make soap, clean hides or clean drains! For soap recipes you'll have to experiment with the lye quantity because its strength will vary. I hope you give it a try and have success!
Thank you! One of the best and most useful videos I have ever watched! I just wish you showed us how did you make soap out of it.
Thanks for the DIY; I almost feel guilty for buying my lye crystals now. I will certainly be acquiring some assistance from my mate to try this one. [ side note: He whistles while he teaches as well. Love it ]
If you take these crystals and mix them with Lemon juice, green dye, finely ground black pepper and a 50/50 of butter and lard you will have a big freaking mess.
schlaznger Haha, I got a nice laugh
LMAO!
lmaaooo
Lmao
I laughed so hard at this, too funny
letting this set for several hours at each step would allow the reaction to fully take place and the solids to settle and make filtration easier.
If that was hard wood ashes that you used to make your lye from, when you threw out the solids, you threw out perfectly good charcoal. You can dry it and mix it with new charcoal the next time you want to cook out.
I bar-b-q with hardwood charcoal, not briquettes. When I'm finished with the fire, I drown it and re-use the unburned charcoal the next time I cook.
I was wondering about that. I know burning wood for charcoal was a regular industry back in once-jolly old England.
Since he's leached alot of the alkaline materials from it, it would also make great gardening bio-char. Bio-char is used to add carbon back into the soil which improves the quality of soil substantially. You can use wood ash without leaching it, but it takes nature a year or two to neutralize the PH. (It will kill anything in the area you put it, and prevent growth until the ph has become neutral, but after-wards you'l get amazing garden plants in that soil.)
@@jscixnobody1510 Are you saying wood ash can be used as a herbicide?
@@jscixnobody1510 and they say there is to much co2 in the atmosphere when in actuality there is almost not enough. without co2 the plants would die and so would we. we are being duped by the so called social scientists who have no clue what they are talking about. they also would hate the fact that we want to make our own soap and other things. I am really glad I watched this video. now I know I won't have to buy this stuff to make my soap and can make it all myself. We will be totally offgrid power water soap laundry soap everything. this is what we should all be doing so the gov has less of a hook in our lives. just like the old days. we need to go back to that time so the modern society doesn't destroy our brains like they have so many of the kids that are in university now. good vid man really appreciate it. keep doing the good work.
Where’d you get that profile picture Captain Nemo
Just to be prepared, it's good to know this.
Pure Lye drain cleaner, and the cheapest crico- type white shortening makes a pretty good soap.
Once that runs out, this is gonna be the thing people do if they bathe.
Good tip: if your solution will dissolve a feather, it'll make soap.
or if a potato floats on it, instead of sink. ;)
Since you put a lot of work into making your potassium hydroxide, you might want to maximize what you collect and minimize the work.
That means filtering out the coals first is very very very helpful. Avoide breaking up your coals as you try to filter them out. Burn the coals you filtered. Collect and combine all your ash. Not only will not having coals make less work mixing the ash water slurry, but will help ensuring water gets to, reacts with, and dissolves all the potassium into the water as potasium hydroxide rather than getting stuck in the pores of highly porous charcoal. No charcoals will help when straining the ash water slurry through a tshirt, it would not hurt to wash and strain the ash slurry once more, and save the weaker concentration of potasium hydroxide for the next batch of ashes.
If you let the second filtered lye solution sit and dry till next year, it will probably form potassium carbonates that can be thrown in to a hot fire turning it back into potassium oxides that when dumped into water makes a more concentrated potassium lye slurry this second round.
For clarity, it helps to keep the coals out. After filtering, one should let it settle for a day and cover it with plastic wrap to keep CO2 out. Then decant the clear potassium hydroxide.
this needs to be pinned up
Great video. Thanks! We make soap at home and I love to know that I can make my own ingredients. I really appreciate your patience, which you must have since you seemed to have not burned yourself with your product. Also the patience it takes to inform us lurkers. You are cool!
You should filter it with a coffee filter... that'll get it cleaner quicker with less waste.
Wouldn't the paper react with the lye? I think it would just dissolve.
@@DianneMrock It works on fats more than paper , think bleach it is an type of soap ☺
edgeeffect less waste or less taste😄
Thanks, dude. Best video of making lye I've found so far! I'd love to see an actual soapmaking video. Great stuff!!! Tree
So far the best tutorial I have seen. Thanks
Thanks so much for the kind words!
black color is only because it wasn't strained or sieved (carbon colored water) I did a test on Australian iron bark ash (you Americans have never seen hardwood) and after fine mesh sieving and adding rainwater the pH was above 8! - Used much more water so solution wasn't over saturated with potassium - Evaporation stage begins now - then in a couple of days we'll boil down the remaining filtered liquid and see what the result is - Thank you for sharing mate
Haven't seen hardwood? Like osage orange or screwbean mesquite?
Gammareign He made the comment with no forethought it seems.
You need to use a screen to get rid of the bits of charcoal.
It absorbs a lot of your lye and once you have the slurry duct tape a coffee filter over a piece of PVC and dump it in that to filter out over a pan.
This will save you time and get you a very clean product.
Great vid all in all though! Knowledge is key to to thriving rather than just surviving.
Lye is used in silver refining to convert Silver chloride into silver. I’m going to try this to produce lye instead of buying it. Hope it works! Yet another use for ashes.
The left over chunk of Charcoal you can do 2 things with it Crush it and put in garden to help the soil or let it dry and burn it in the wood stove/pot belly stove. The other left overs items we all way put in the compost pile and let it sit for the year along with the other items then after the pile sat for the year it went to the garden area. We ran 2 pile's and empty the one that sat for a year in the fall in to the garden before tilling the soil for winter. BTW the soil was hard clay and took 3 years before we got it broken up where it was real good for planting.
When I had a garden (in an apartment at present 😐), I had to really work the soil. I almost enjoyed the preparation more than the harvest. I'm in L.A. (hoping to get out), and the soil is mostly sand! Btw the time I was through, our back yard was rich, dark soil, with loads of earthworms! We grew all kinds of things, even corn and some beans, little potatoes, and rhubarb once, but the Mediterranean climate here favors tomatoes, squash, peppers, and eggplant, which gree in abundance. (The squash blossoms attracted nice, big carpenter bees, too! The kids were able to experience some nice bits of nature.) I had small, sugar pumpkin vines trailing up in the trees. It was really a wonderful time.
I know this isn't apprapos of soap making, but utilizing compost! I got carried away.
Very cool. This is how my granny and grand dad use to make it. I forgot how it was done. ty for the video :)
Wow, this is so amazing, interesting and fascinating :) Thank you.
You can use it as a liquid, too. You cook it down until an egg will float in it, with about a quarter sized part of it above the liquid. When the egg floats, it's soap worthy. Crystals would take up less room, of course. But when you make soap you dissolve the crystals in water to make a liquid, so this saves a step.
Can you use the liquid lye to make bar soap?
A long time ago, I worked in a factory where we used Potassium Hydroxide (Potash) and Methylene Chloride to strip paint on bad paint jobs. We used full positive pressure (SCBA) face masks, because the 300-F tank would off-gas fumes that would, over-time, destroy the linings of your lungs (emphyzema). I wouldn't do this inside, without a chem lab chemical hood! As for the 'clarity', before your 'first reduction', double-stack some coffee filters in a funnel and pour a warmed mix (160-200 F) through it. Your remnant will then look like water, and your crystals will be clear-white in the end.
Nice to see some old skills have not died, I have done the same for years. University and no cash is a great impetus to learn. Best wishes from the UK!
Wow, that was neat. Thanks! Interesting how much ash was needed to yield the lye. Very cool, and thanks for posting.
I’ve been looking into how to make this for a while, glad I found this
Glad to hear it! Please add to your process some of the suggestions of others; exclude the charcoal from your ashes and filter your liquid or wait a long time for solids to settle, for example. This was just a down and dirty experiment to show how it can be done. At the time I made the video there really weren't any better, but I think there are now. Best of luck in you effort!
Great video, from start to finish!
Thank you for share this solution about the lye making god bless you
I could just go to the store and buy soap and drain cleaner...
But that just wouldn't be as satifying!
Mad whistling skills!
Thank you. This is exactly what I was looking for.
Great experiment. thanks for filming it
Hi
I would enjoy seeing the finish soap, using this lye.....
Someday, I will do this. I still have some of this lye, and when I find the time, I'll finally do it!
Countercommie Did you make the soap yet?
@@Countercommie Can use use cast iron to reduce your lye water? I'm ASSUMING you can as that's probably what people would've used up through the 1800's.
@@American-Plague Good question! Cast iron is absolutely safe for lye. It will eat away any seasoning that happens to be on the pan, but it won't harm the pan in any way. In fact, a strong lye bath is often used by cast iron aficionados as part of their restoration process for old pans. They will leave the pan in the lye sometimes for days before sanding and re-seasoning.
@@Countercommie Awesome! All I've ever used in my life is cast iron. Once they're seasoned well they transfer heat better than anything and are just as non stick as a Teflon coated pan, not to mention food seems to taste better/cook more evenly and have a better sear. Plus they'll last 500 years with minimal care! To top that, it actually has been shown that women who cook in cast iron are FAR less likely to suffer from anemia. I refuse to use anything else. Lol! Thank you very much! I wasn't expecting an answer that promptly! 😎👍
Very useful information and thank you thank you very much
Great video! I have the ability to get tons of hardwood ash so maybe I’ll try this one day down the road!😊
This was very helpful. Thank you 🙏.
Thank you and God bless you
You're welcome bro. Blessings on you too!
Good vid! Thx. The char cole particles settle on the bottom of the pan, cause they get wet inside so they dont float anymore. You would aceive the same effect if you just let it sit in a bit more water for a week or two. You can then filter it with a coffe filter. To get really clean Potash you can then dry it like you did, then heat it, dissolve it again in water and cristalise it. There a lots of videos on how to (re)cristalise.
The amount of water is not crucial, cause you wont make a saturised solution. It is important though that the water is low in minerals. Distlled water works best.
Yeah I was going to make this stuff a few years back. I had heard that the soap is really good for your skin. Anti fungal aswell.
Home made soap is great for your skin and it feels wonderful. You can probably find a local brand to see for yourself. It takes a little practice to get the right balance of lye/oils. Too much lye and you'll get a drying soap that can make you itchy; too little and you'll be oily. Write down your recipes down each time you make a batch and you'll arrive at the perfect ratio. I don't recommend using home made lye for regular soapmaking though; it's strength is not consistent so you can never quite get a perfect batch of soap.
Thank you for the demonstration, great channel name. Keep crushing!
Absolutely awsome! Thank you so much for taking the time to do all this work and give an excellent lesson. Really appriciate the shared knowledge
Glad you like it. Drying it to crystals is really the only safe way to store the stuff. Hopefully you can use the info and make it more efficient, purer, etc... Thanks, vet!
Wow. I took soap for granted
Thank you soo much for this demonstration. I have always wanted to make potash lye..
So what would be the "proper way" of disposing of the unused portions from the pan? You mentioned you poured some of it into the woods early in the video. Obviously you wouldn't want to wash this down a drain, at least in my situation... we have a septic system. How hard is it to clean those utensils when you are done using them for this process? Hand washed outside or dishwasher? Does it stick to the pan at all? Great video. Thank you!
I basically live in the woods so I can safely dispose of this stuff "out back". The residue is no different than the runoff from an outdoor fire pit when the rain falls. Some of it could be put down the drain, it's basically drain cleaner such as Drain-O, but my leftovers contain a lot of solids like ash slurry and chunks of burnt wood which wouldn't go down the drain. While it can cause burns in high concentrations, this lye isn't poisonous in small amounts; Latin cultures use it to remove the husks from corn kernels in the production of 'hominy' or 'masa'. None of this stick to the utensils; it rinses away very easily and won't damage stainless. Don't use aluminum though; lye is brutal on Aluminum.
it's probably an aluminum pan. aluminum reacts with potassium hydroxide in ash. which adds dark color to the crystals
Boki Minor stainless for everything
Doesn't look or sound like aluminum
That's really neat! Thanks for making that video. I don't really need lye but I definitely know of a few things I could use it for. I might make some just in case, to have around.
That was so cool I wished I found this when you made it.
So how do you know how much to use with water? Do you measure it the same way you would measure regular store bought lye???
I would like to see what the soap would look like afterwards. Thank you for the video!
My pleasure! It's fun to do. I did make a batch of soap with the lye made in this video. It was tan/grey in color and pretty good, but a tiny bit too greasy. You really have to guess at the strength/purity of homemade lye. It might be 75% as strong as store bought, I suppose. I originally guessed 80%. Next time, I'll use about 10% more lye in the recipe and it should be better still. It's been 3 1/2 years but I still have a jar of this very lye! When I finally get around to it, I will make more soap and a video and post it. If you subscribe, you'll be notified when I post a video. Thanks for watching!
Great video!
One thing...
Would you please do a tutorial on the "merciful time lapse" for all that make videos and don't grasp that concept?
For the love of all that's hoLY PLEASE MAKE THAT TUTORIAL!
LOL
Great information. Helpful. Thank You.
Great video exactly what I was looking for
This was so informative. Thank you!
You won't have to keep letting it settle and pouring off the top if you strain it through paper towels. Paper towels will catch much more particles than the tee shirt did. If I were you I would use the tee shirt to strain it, then strain through paper towels. I have salvaged a lot of deep fryer oil with paper towels, so it will strain very fine particles.
If you skim the crystals off the top as it simmers you can greatly increase its purity
I wonder if there is a way to substitute the potassium for sodium in the hydroxide salt. You can get more complete saponification and make hard soaps.
15:58 OMG, This is a LOT of work for so little product at the end! Who came up with this? Kudos to you for having patience! This is something I would have never thought of in my wildest dream!
Thanks man! Gotta love YT. I was wondering how, typed it in and pow your video. Thanks again!
You're welcome, sir! Thanks for watching.
5:54 "I'm goona run this to the woods and dump it...."
EVERYONE THAT MAKES BIOCHAR: "noooooooooooooooooooooo!"
I'm sorry that i did that to my biochar friends.
Googling biochar...
Facts
Thanks for this video Sir I'm really very happy seen it. thanks again
Use coffee or large cooking oil filter, helps to get all the solids out in one step.
I like that you took it clear down to crystals although I wonder if that is necessary for some uses. I tested my solution (used rainwater) after I filtered it through coffee filters, very clear brownish solution, and it is highly alkaline. I'll test pH later and boil if necessary or simply evaporate.
you can separate the impurities after you have recovered the lye water by rinsing the solution with a nonpolar, immiscible solvent such as ether, gasoline, toluene, etc. The water layer will still have the negatively charged hydroxide ions in solution - without the organic impurities.
Thanks for the video! I am in the process of making soap at the moment myself. It has worked well (except for the fact that the Teflon from the muffin tray I used has stuck to the soap muffins I have made). Extracting Lye is another process I am hoping to master! Appreciate it heaps! I will be tagging this video straight to my journal!
Thanks for this comment! You just saved me an expensive muffin tin. Phew!
Micheal Farmer How do you tag it to your journal?
Very interesting material and a well-made video. I like your easy, Laura Ingalls style - we could all use some, getting-back-to-the-old-ways, lifestyle.
I thought it was interesting and ironic that you could make a nice, cleansing soap out of such a dirty, grimy mess of wet ashes! Right? Nice Work, thank you.
Thanks Addison! Yes, that is ironic! I find it compelling that if I cook an animal over a fire and some fat drips in the ashes, I can wash up after dinner with what results!... Coincidence?...
ancient peoples must have found that washing up with the campfire ashes worked better than the pond alone? And today, we think were so smart - LOL.
Suggestion:-
a} Use a seive or a piece of steel mesh to filter out the large solid pieces from the powder.
b} Use a mortar and pestle to reduce said solid pieces to powder.
c} Add said powder back in to the other lot, and then mix it with water after that.
Very cool, always like to have knowledge of how folks used to make things before modernization made everyone lazy 😂🤦♀️ plus I enjoy the science, chemistry lesson! Bravo
I would sift the ashes and then make the lye. Thanks great video.
totally awesome, its way cheaper than buying lye
You can actually clean up the end result by washing it with alcohol, it should dissolve most of the organic compounds that give it color, leaving you with a better product.
I'm a little confused, wouldn't it be discolored because the organic compounds are dissolved into the mixture? To remove the impurities wouldn't they need to be precipitated? Or maybe they dissolve in the alcohol and evaporate with it? Can you confirm if it's the latter?
Actually, they worded it wrong. KOH is Soluble in C2H5OH (Alcohol), therefore the organic compounds (insoluble) remain out of solution.
One thing of note, storing your lye as water actually preserves it's strength vs storing it as crystals. Over time the crystals take in moisture and lose potency etc. If you've ever made soap in larger quantities like for your extended family then storing your lye still liquid is better in the long run
You'll note than when lye is sold commercially, it is sold as crystals in airtight containers. This includes hardware store lye and lye sold for the soapmaking market, such as that from Essential Depot. The airtight container prevents the absorption of moisture from the air. At home, this can be done with a Mason jar. I've kept my lye crystals in these air-tight jars for years without any problem. I am also pretty sure that the crystals don't lose potency (become less alkaline) over time.
@@Countercommie Because that's the easiest way to transport it but that's not the best way to store it long term
That's great, you can seen it taking on that waxy lye consistency as the water evaporates. 😀
You should put the water first and then the ashes for a better mix and easier mix
GOOD JOB!!!! YOU DID THAT!
I use like three five gallon buckets the bottom of which has only one brick and a tee shirt the second or middle bucket will have about two inches of gravel then a tee shirt then the top bucket will have straw and a tee shirt the top two buckets will have small holes drilled in the bottom and the bottom bucket has a spout made into the bottom into it
Then how do you use that liquid to make the soap? How would I measure what I need? Or does it have to become a powder on the stove?
Use a decanter for wine to get sediment out. And you don't need to make crystal. Get a fresh egg and it should float halfway in and halfway out of the surface of the lye water. Then its a third lye water to two thirds lard.
back in the old days they had a wooden crib lined with straw. you dumped your ashes in the crib and collected the clear lie water from the rain water and filtered through the straw. If you want a better quality just strain it through a couple coffee filters then boil it down.
Looked delicious.
Amen to that.
We like your videos and refer to you as Merciful Time Lapse Guy.
Nice whistling!
Well I’ll be. I just did not know where lye came from. Just never thought of it. I do make soap. Love learning Ty for video
Only thing. I sure would have worn gloves
Thanks, I hope you try it out!
if u take some straw and strain it through the straw and a tee shirt u can cut out slot of that silt
nice thanks! very cool!
Hope it's helpful, thanks for watching!
Im seeing him talk about how caustic the lye is...which is very true, but im not seeing him take any safety precautions like wearing gloves or eye protection. Might be helpful👍🏽
I found that if you calcine your brown salt, rehydrate, filter and calcine numerous times, you get a white salt, it has a greasy feel and stains your hands black. I'm not sure it's KOH though, Maybe K2CO3. It's time & fuel intensive work for the amount you get out.
***** Leaching ash & decanting is the first step. This year I used snow melt. Then there's the long wait of evaporating what's in your buckets (boiling uses too much energy for me), an aquarium bubbler can speed things up a bit. Then calcining those brown crystals left at the bottom, rehydrate, filter, calcine; repeat till your salt is white.
biochar great for your trees and garden
Thanks for the video! Try to use pure ash without coals in it, to obtain clear solution.
The potassium does burn, you get K2O which is potassium oxide, the potassium oxide reacts with water to make KOH and OH- ions, which is the basic part that gets used for soap. also oxygen gets produced in the reaction but it shouldn't be noticeable.
+Ethan Petrea your chemistry is off
+Mohamed Sabra where? I'm not trying to be a typical annoying twit, i'm curious. The potassium should have turned from to an oxide salt from a chloride or whatever organic complex it was bonded to in the heat of the flames, then by adding water you should be hydrating it to turn it into hydroxide ions
All that is accurate but hydrogen gas is produced not oxygen
+Mohamed Sabra that may be the case, i'm going off of an equation i made in my head, so balancing very well could be off
Wooow, you are so awesome. The people in the comments don't know what they are talking about. I was experimenting last year with making ash lye, but I never found out how much I should use to make soap - which would be my final goal. You are my hero!
I know this is an old upload, but I'd be extra thankful if you replied on how much grease you put to this amount of crystals --- I know you said 12 bars --- does that mean that I am supposed imagine 12 bars of soap and all of that is pure grease? Or does the cooking process involve water as well...?
Thanks for the kind words! Home made lye such as this can be used to make soap, but the resulting soap may vary from greasy to just right to too caustic depending on the strength of the lye you've made. That can vary based on the kind of wood you burned to make the ashes. When I made soap with this lye, I just guessed that its purity was around 75% and used 33% more than my recipe called for. Years ago, folks used various methods to determine the strength of their lye, none of them very accurate. Keep in mind that I did this only as an experiment to satiate my curiosity. I don't normally make my own lye. When I make soap for real, I use only U.S. made, food grade lye with a very high purity.
I wanted to reduce the lye to crystals because it is easier and safer to store it in this form. To use lye in crystal form, you'll need to add it to water. Don't add the crystals to the water. The amount of water should be about 33% of the weight of the oils you use. Just look up a soap recepie online and use extra lye if you're using home made stuff.
A nice video but I couldn't help adding my two cents worth in the form of a couple of tips for when doing this:
When pouring , if you do it with the pot that you are decanting from held above the back of the receiver pot and pour towards yourself, you won't need to be holding your head over the fumes as you pour.
When working with chemistry always use gloves, safety-glasses and a splash-proof apron. Keep a weak solution of boric acid handy should you accidentally get some of the lye in you eyes.