Homemade Survival Soap

Yeah, you would need Pyrex glass...haven't seen any cups made of that type of glass.
It is possible that the recipe I recall was in ounces.....Just looked really familiar.

DW & I have made a friend of the "soap lady" from the farmers market we go to out at "The Place"...and have gone out for coffee and dinner with her.
I check in with her when we get together, here in a couple of weeks.

You can purchase Pyrex measuring cups. You might be able to use one of those.

Washing hands with wood ash is one of the first things that comes to my mind in combination with a couple of other things (first physical scrubbing with water and using plain dirt in certain ways to suck some stuff off your skin), but I thought ash can be really bad on your skin and mess you up. But obviously how to solve this is making it mild, with water (lye) as explained here, in a bag, and then going further to make the soap. I knew that you basically mix fat/grease and wood ash or ash-derived lye in various ways/recipes...but I always wonder if there are any other methods, in primitive conditions, which has any effectiveness (aside from some plants). But I suppose this is all pretty much it.

I think pyrex measuring cups would work. The lye and water react and it gets very hot quickly so be careful with that part. After the reaction settles down, you will have some hard lye on the bottom and you'll have to stir that up a bit to dissolve it.
Ceramic is very hard to break with heat and doesn't shatter. I have lots of experience with breaking canning jars when they were too cold and I was too lazy but none at breaking pyrex measuring cups.

One of my many interests as a young man was chemistry ......Built a pretty good set or hardware and gear.
Those glass beakers and flasks were Pyrex as well....and came in all sorts of sizes.

But the ceramic cups are already there...work well seemly.....the only draw back would be size.
Then again when you get it to work for you in a no muss, no fuss way....priceless.

if a bigger batch is wanted use one of those big cup-o-soup bowls

I just made a couple bars with a doubled recipe a little different. I never used a Pyrex measuring cup so I used a 2 cupper and it worked just fine. I closed my eyes just in case though. I heated the oil on the stove on very low in a coffee cup until I couldn't put my finger in it. Dumped it all together and blended it up for 7 minutes with an electric blending stick that you hold in your hand. It looked about as thick as whipped egg whites so I figured it was done and I put it in the cups for my molds. I think I have soap without having to heat it on the stove, but will know in a couple days if it's a dismal failure or not. I had read something like this before, but never tried it. I knew about the blending stick and had used it before for soap making and how it speeds up the "trace" or thickening. Don't confuse me with a guy who can teach your soap lady a thing or two. I'm just a guy who can mix three ingredients together and stir a stick.

Making soap is a common lab activity, and the recipe posted seems reasonable. Before anyone tries to make soap, though, he or she should carefully read the instructions in the lab manual. There are some safety concerns.

Lye (sodium hydroxide, NaOH or caustic soda) can corrode aluminum containers. Also, mixing the lye with water will produce lot of heat that can crack glass containers. "caustic soda" means that it can damage tissue, especially eyes. You do not want to contact the crystals or the solution. Please use safety precautions.

Many vegetable oils (corn oil, coconut oil) can be used to make good soap.

Other than soap, lemon and limes can be used to be used to remove oil from skin. "Fasi moli" is he Samoan word for soap - it means a piece of lime.:)

I use a brand of soap made by Dr Bronners. It comes in liquid form. The stuff I have now is peppermint. My dear old Dad was so tight he got his soap free. A friend of his worked as a housekeeper at a local motel and she kept all the old soap and gave it to him. Now that's what I call tighter than bark on a tree.

FYI........

So, was out shopping today...stopped at the hardware store ...thought I would check out lye.
Found Drano...but also found a #1 pound container for "Household Lye Drain cleaner....for $4.49

Looked it up and one line it's $2.22 (yeah cheaper)......but shipping is $7.99 (WHAT?).....
Anyway....looks to be straight lye....no mention of dye or metal.

http://www.idealtruevalue.com/store/...JUaAg6j8P8HAQ#

Thought I would try this....BTW Pyrex measuring cups were there and at the supermarket as well....didn't check prices...as I will most likely try a ceramic cup.....got a LOT of them.

Gonna be awhile as we are headed out in the morning for "The Place".

Hunter, which recipe are you going to try?

Randy...gonna try this one from edr730

Quote:

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Originally Posted by edr730

When I run out of soap I'll make another bar. The OP has a better receipe than mine for various reasons, but I keep mine easy and simple and it works good for me. I take a normal ceramic (not glass) coffee cup, put 2 TB water, 1 TBS of red devil lye (without the metal flakes in it), 5.33 TBS of coconut oil then put it on the woodstove while I get ready for work. Every once in a while I'll stir it with a stick. Sometimes I'll use a silver spoon and that puts a little silver in it. Don't ask me if it's a good idea or not, but I sometimes do it. Sometimes I put a tsp of salt, sugar or soda or a combination of those things in it. When it starts to get thick I might add some perfume or peppermint oil or whatever, then put it under the stove for a couple days and use a knife around the edges to remove it. After a week or two it's better, but I often use it right away, but the lye in it is still pretty strong at that point and it gets your hands very clean. It's easy, but finding the pure lye without the metal in it gets harder all the time. I've made it with the ashes, but it's just harder and you have to wait for the lye water to clear up or the bars will be dark yellow or brown.

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But will have to wait a while....gonna be out at the cabin.

Just wanted FYI what I did find at a Ace Hardware.....as the shipping would kill ya....$7.99....Seriously ????

Watched my mother and step grandmother make soap with rendered fat when I was a kid......and after my Grandmother passed...MM got the rest of the soap....
Kept the soap cakes in a big glass candy(?) jar with a metal cover.

I'm going to try eds recipe too, it sounds interesting and simple, simple is good.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by randyt

I'm going to try eds recipe too, it sounds interesting and simple, simple is good.

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Well, if I only mess up a cup of something....no biggie...LOL.....and I can just toss the cup....
Win, win, win.....

Safe travels to "The Place". See you when you get the WiFi at the saloon.

Mom used to make lye soap in a #10 washtub. She would use it for everything but wouldn't let us use it for bathing. I have no clue what her recipe was but I can remember her giving me heck if I got near it while it was setting up.

Ya, Hunter, you have a safe trip.

Yeah, Thanks guys.

My portable "Hot spot" works out there...but is sloooooow....LOL
So we will see...just won't be watching vid's much.
The saloon is my back-up....but does have a big screen, cold brewski's and food.....and motel up stairs if needed.

First time out so kinda anxious to see how everything wintered over.

Made a bar of soap this morning. Found some 100% lye at a place called Niemans too. $2.99.
I changed the guesstimate recipe I had. This time I used 1 tablespoon lye, 2 tablespoons water and 2 coconut oil, 2 olive oil and 2 avocado oil. It's what I had around. So 6 tablespoons of oil instead of the 5.33.
I used the pyrex 2 cup measuring cup again to put the lye and water in. I heated up the oil on the stove in the ceramic cup to lukewarm. When they were both about the same temperature I dumped them together in the measuring cup and stirred with a stick for a while. When it started looking creamy I used the electric blending stick for 2 minutes until it all got thick. I dumped half of the soap mixture back into the ceramic cup which still had a coating of oil on it. I put a couple of pinches of parsley in the soap I put into the ceramic cup and mixed it up. I put a few drops of food coloring on the soap in the measuring cup then dumped it on top of the other soap in the ceramic cup.
By this time, I had already stressed my artistic abilities beyond their normal limits. This made me tired and caused me to forget to put any perfume in the soap after it got thick. So I just put it under the woodstove and began to wait for the next month until it would be finished.
After about 50 minutes of this waiting stuff, I lost patience and stuck the warm soap in the freezer. After about 5 minutes of that, I took the still slightly warm soap out, pryed it out of the cup and went to the bathroom and washed my hands with it. It was slightly oily, made decent lather and cleaned very good. I decided that maybe I should taste it. I put my tongue on it and it was still pretty strong with lye. So I put it back under the stove. I'll probably wait 2 days and taste it again even though I know I should wait the month.

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