lye help please....

[FunFlames]

Hello, I have never made soap (other than M&P) so I have no idea about this.

My Aunt has my Gramma's original "lye soap" recipe. The problem is... my Gram had a "not so informative" way of keeping recipes. You know the handful, pinch, a bit, smidge measurements.

Her soap recipe is....

1 can lye

1 qt cold water

6 1/2 # grease

with that amount of water and bacon grease, can anyone give me a better idea of how much a "can of lye" might be.

Thank you all for any info you can give.

Oh this soap is used for laundry stains by our family.

[MsDammit]

Wowsers, IMO your best bet would be to go to the recipe section and try one of the recipes there.

[jbren]

Are you using bacon grease?

That's quite a large recipe.

Why not use lard instead, amd just plug in the amount you want to use in a lye calc like SOAPMAKER.

Just to answer your question, if you made that size recipe using lard with no superfat, you would need

104 oz. lard

14.35 oz. lye

33.44 oz. water

[lsg]

You will need to clean your bacon fat first. Dump the fat into a pot with an equal amount of water. Simmer it for about ten to fifteen minutes. Turn off the heat and let the pot cool a bit.

Set your pan in a sink full of ice water and the fat will separate from the water. After the soap has hardened, lift it out or pour off the water.

Run your recipe through Soapcalc9 and click on lard. Fill in the amounts in oz. or lbs whichever you choose. Click on "comput recipe." Soapcalc will automatically give you the right amount of water and lye to use with your recipe.

http://www.soapcalc.com/calc/soapcalcWP.asp

[Vio]

I'd think she probably was using the old fashioned and now not available, red devil pure lye. Had to be. It used to come in a short can, probably like 16 oz's or less for that sized can, but really you know the base of it, just run it through a calc to get the right amount. Since it's for stained laundry, I'm guessing here, but it's along the lines of less superfat so check for a recipe already out somewhere, to see how little sf they usually use for it. Here's read this on the stain stick recipe to get some info. http://www.soapnuts.com/cp7.html

Check me on this, but I believe lard would be the thing you'd need to input on the soap calc. There's no bacon grease, but from what I'm reading, people say it's like lard. From what I can see on soapcalc, if you put in 104 oucnes of lard, and use a 0% superfat, you get 14.68 ounces of lye so that makes me think she used a 16 oz can for laundry stain stick. Her water comes up to 32 oz's and soap calc says default water should be 39.52 oz's. It sound like she had it down with her recipe for stain stick. Run it through http://www.soapcalc.com/calc/soapcalc.asp using 104 ounces for oil amount, 100% lard unless someone knows of a calc with bacon grease listed, and 0% superfat unless someone has input on why that shouldn't be done for stain stick. From all I've seen, laundry soap benefits from less excess fat of course, since oils in laundry would be bad. But have someone double check me. Just make sure no one ever uses it on their skin. Try a small amount first, run through soapcalc with that info to test the ability to remove stains and safety for clothing, first. HTH

For the lye, you can get roebic (spelling might be wrong) lye, from Lowes. In plumming department.

[FunFlames]

Thanks for all the replies...My Aunt is trying to follow Gram's recipe. Easier said than done!

Once in a while we would use it on our hands or feet if they were really snarky. Feet mostly grassy from fresh mowed lawn. Hands greasy from working on cars. I know if we rubbed too hard on the clothing it would take the color out.

I have one bar here that I keep wrapped and displayed with alot of my Gram's other stuff. I know she would make it and leave it in the mold for a long time in the basement. So from what I read that is CP correct??

I will have to play with the calculators and see what I come up with.

Vio, I think you are right about the Red Devil lye. It sounds familiar. Maybe I can research that and see what I find also.

Again thanks for all the help

Danielle

[Vio]

Well hp soap can be molded too so not really. Look at the bar and see if it looks like, well chunky maybe? HP tops have a texture and are more rough it seems, than cold process that's poured in liquidy and left to set. That is, if she poured it at medium trace, it would be like smooth on top. If it looks like more textury and not design like, from all I've seen, that could be hp. If she left it a long time though, she was probably allowing curing time, and if it was for like 6 weeks, I'd think that's cp maybe. HP supposedly needs a little shorter to cure. But she probably just did it like she thought was hard enough to use on clothes. Would be really cool if you had her mold. Or knew what it looked like. Good luck with it and remember only stainless steel to make this, or glass, or plastic that will only be for soaping. Lye into water, never water into lye. Wear safety glasses and long sleaves and shoes. Long handled spoon to mix lye water while pouring lye into it slowly. I buy my cheapie plastic spoons from walmart. Like plastic wooden style for a buck and they have like 4 in the pack all handle lengths, and use longest. Have white vinegar on hand in case you splash lye water on yourself to neutralize it immediately. I do my lye water in my sink because I still get nervous with it, and wear a mask so you're not inhaling the fumes if you do it that way. Better to do it outside but you have to walk with it after.

As mentioned above, clean that grease properly or you'll have rotting pieces possibly in the soap after which would be yukky. LOL

Roebic Lye (100% sodium hydroxide) from Lowes.

Careful with little ones and animals. Keep them away. I lock them out of the kitchen even when they're asleep. I put up gates and do it late at night with the lye stuff.

[FunFlames]

Vio, actually between my Mom and Aunt they have all her stuff....

My Aunt has the actual recipe.... directions too I am sure... she was just asking me about the lye amount.

We have no little ones and she has no animals.... so we are safe there. My animals are not allowed in the kitchen.

Thank you so much for all the help and info! I am going to print this out and let my Aunt read it. This might end up being a joint effort.

Again Thank You, Thank You, Thank You!!!!!

[Vio]

Well I'm glad I could help in some way. LOL Still, ask for input on the superfat thing. I don't believe you use one with laundry stuff, but I don't know for sure. I'm like 95% on it, but that 5 percent is like, well wait for more to see if you need any superfat in there. I doubt it but just check.

[jbren]

Here's a site with some recipes almost like yours!

http://farmgal.tripod.com/lyesoapconcoctions.html

[gloworm]

The old red devil cans were 18 oz. But definitely use a soap calc. I used to do the recipe like your Gram way back when.

Glo

[FunFlames]

gloworm, thanks for the info, that was the missing piece!!

jbren, thanks for that link.

Hopefully with all the info we should be able to get this underway.

[kidsngarden]

Providing that it was indeed red devil 18 oz net wt can of lye, that's lye heavy soap. (It very often was back then) I suppose if you are trying to be "authentic" and just using it for laundry that would be alright, but I wouldn't want my hands to fry using that soap. The wonderful thing now about modern technology is we can make a safer product! Grandma would have recjoiced!

I make laudry sticks - just lard and 0% superfat. I have a gazzilion of them. IF I ever run out Iwant to try 100% coconut oil...

[FunFlames]

I need to do more reading and research. I need to figure out what some terms mean and play with the calcs.

Yes, my Aunt wants to duplicate Gram's soap.

I asked her last night and she does have the "how to" directions Gram left. With the safety knowledge I aquired from this board we should be able to get it done.

She isn't in a huge hurry as she just found a few more bars. So it gives us (me) time to gather more info.

thanks again for all the help

Danielle

[Vio]

It's going to be strong on the caustic side, kids is saying. The lye has the ability to break things down and it will like be lye heavy soap, meaning it will be strong on the not so gentle side. It won't be gentle at all and can harm skin if used so you would need to be sure no one used it on their skin. Another thing you might want to know, is what scale your gram used or if she used a liquid measuring cup of some kind to measure her bacon grease. If she used a bathroom scale, well that might mean the bacon grease was really heavier or something, so it might have been more gentle. Find out if they know what scale she used. The type. Spring scale, etc. Or did she use cups or something. Like a coffee mug or measuring cup to measure the fat.

It's about 3.32 ounces over on what's needed to saponify lard of that amount, on the lye. That's where lye heavy comes in there. That's with calculating that there's no added fat left in the soap to superfat it for residual oil qualities. Even if you add more water, the lye can only go away if the oils react with it, so your Gram's is lye heavy. Just be careful no one uses it on their skin. She might have done something that was safer because she weighed her oils on an old scale that was off, but if you do it on your candle scale, you're gonna have a lye heavy soap.

Here's a picture of the soapcalc if you want to print it out with your recipe as calculated with the exact amount of lye needed for the oils. If you decide to use the full 18 oz, just use caution with skin.

[FunFlames]

Thanks Vio... I will have to read her recipe for my self and the directions to see if it makes a bit more sence. I know we have used it on skin with no problem.... so I would guess that she did something a bit different.

Well this experience is really getting me on the fast track to learning about soap making. So all is good! LOL

[kidsngarden]

Chances are there was not too much weighing involved. Often times there was a lot of going by site and feel. But she did list 6.5 pounds of grease so who knows???

[gloworm]

Here is a neat link I found. Maybe in the older days than me Red Devil came in 12 oz cans. Either way here is the story from Grandmas mouth:

http://www.rangelandherbs.com/recipe.htm

[CareBear]

oops - disregard this post!

[FunFlames]

The 12oz sounds a lot better.

Thanks for that link, I bookmarked it for future use.

I am getting a bit excited now to do this. It will be a first.

:D :D :D

[Vio]

Pretty cool link! Nice to see this kind of stuff. It's really interesting to read about the ash lye methods people used.

[FunFlames]

K... when you get done laughing at my next question can some one please help....

Here goes.... how in the world do you use that soap calc?? I tried putting stuff in and I am NOT succeeding! LOL

I wanted to put in the 6.5# lard, 12oz lye and 32oz water to see what it said.... I failed! LOL

Is there a tutorial on how to use it?

I know.... I am a sad sad case! LMAO

[Vio]

Start off with putting in your oil weight up top. 6.5 pounds or convert it to ounces or grams for small batches. Then add your oil in the list with the drop down and hit the add button, then add the percent. Yours would be 100%. Change the superfat to 0 for your grandmother's recipe only since it's laundry, unless you know you want excess oils in it. Usually you use 5 or if expert, adjust to your needs. Then hit the calculate and take down what you need in ingredients amounts. The oils have to equal 100%.

Use the soapcalc9 one.

[FunFlames]

Thanks Vio... that worked.

Now I have another question... why does it put 38 in the "water as % of oils" area?

I played with some numbers and to get what I think her recipe was.... it came out to

31% = water as % of oils

15% superfat

now I have no idea what any of it means..... I was just messing around.

[Vio]

That's the default water amount without a discount, I believe that's how you put it. The lye stays the same as it's based on the oils used, but the water used may vary. It can also get more complicated to stir soap properly with too high a water discount so it's best to do it full water for beginner with certain recipes. Bacon grease used there, you'd have to ask someone who's done it if they ever took a water discount and if it behaved well. I wouldn't know sorry. Full water, it will trace slower and set up slower and need to cure longer.