The dirty process of making soap

i worked at a fancy hotel years ago and the little green bars of vegetable soap in the room's were $25 each and i mean little bars .

i liberated a few [ as you do ] and a tiny drop would make a fantastic lather they lasted many years they were that good [ or i don't wash a lot ].

but i have never used animal fat soap since i might make some now

Cool thread.. i've made soap a few times using palm oil & olive oil (in solid form) with herbs and flowers.... you can make a much easier woods version using birch leaves (young ones from the start of spring are best iirc) vigorously shaken in a container with warm water. It's way past bed for me, but there are numerous vids on YT no doubt.

pah, cant post and run like that... i dont have sound on my pc so cant properly check the vid myself, but this should help:

reply to post by 999zxcv


Good luck on your soap odyssey

reply to post by skalla


Yeah, I saw a few vids of that quick birch leavs in a bag solution. A great way to make soap on the fly. Thanks for posting!

Utnapisjtim
reply to post by swanne

 

A friend of mine lost an eye to DIY gunpowder back. A flash of light and heat and he was blind on one eye. Looks like a pirat though. Which is konda cool.

Hm, why was it his eye? It's black powder, not eyeliner...

As for me I once tried to recharge an un-rechargeable battery. The result was a mini-explosion which felt like an electric wave. Lucky for me it was low amperage.

Goggles and gloves are not there just for decoration, I realized afterwards.


I'm diverging from the topic, though.

swanne

Utnapisjtim
reply to post by swanne

 

A friend of mine lost an eye to DIY gunpowder back. A flash of light and heat and he was blind on one eye. Looks like a pirat though. Which is konda cool.

Hm, why was it his eye? It's black powder, not eyeliner...

The flash of light I discribe was made from the explosive fire itself, and of course there is quite a bit of heat involved with charcoal going all plasma. He was lucky enough not to destroy his good eye though. He was just a kid back then.

Goggles and gloves are not there just for decoration, I realized afterwards.

That would be the mantra of any chemist. Also the process of making soap. Chemical reaction involves a lot of energy from all the atoms forming new molecules, discharging heat. I.e. how acid quickly evaporates ("explodes") if put into water. One of the wisest people I know happens to be a chemist, there is a reason for that. In chemistry there are quite a few things that can turn even the silliest toad into a wiseman in the fraction of a second. Use proper protection, and leave chemistry be if you are unsure or a novice.

Why make soap? Sounds like a lot of work...

Soapberries or soapnuts are full of soap and no processing is required. One variety even grows in the US, the Florida soapberry.

Wiki on soapberries

And also, not generally known to the public, Saponaria Officinalis, the common soapwort, has more of the soapy ingredient saponin than soapberries. About 20% vs. 15% contained in soapberries. Grows in my garden, no need to look for soapberries.

Wiki on Saponaria Officinalis

reply to post by Utnapisjtim


Soap making is very old. Use of soap is mentioned in 'Ramayan'.

"Shauch" (cleanliness) is one of ten rules or commandments for Vedic people.

Thanks for sharing process of making soap. Soap using vegetable oil and lye from wood ash has been made for ages in India.

Fabulous soap recipe well explained. From experience I can tell you that animal fats make a very dense hard soap which cures really well (DON"T FORGET TO CURE IT) and lasts a long time with use.

But don't panic, you can make primitive soft soap by just chucking the white ash from burning a hard wood into whatever fat is handy, mainly meat tallow. This will lather and wash stuff - you don't have to do the fancy lye thing. Meat tallow is very, very important because it is also the base for primitive wicked lamps and tallow candles. Fat cattle are important. When using tallow for soap and lighting, the whole place smells like a BBQ but then there are worse things than that.

Utnapisjtim
Chemical reaction involves a lot of energy from all the atoms forming new molecules, discharging heat. I.e. how acid quickly evaporates ("explodes") if put into water.

I'm sure I wrote the other way around: Put acid into water, not water into acid! This just shows how a tiny detail can turn everything upside down.

Another good example is if you warm up destilled water until it boils, remove the heat source, put on your goggles and rubber suit and throw a tad of dust into the water. It will explode. I designed an engine based on this effect. I used sulphuric acid for heating up the water. Worked on paper, but the challenge was to have the processes replicating themselves for stable rotary motion, and there was quite a soup of excess chemicals being produced so the papers and drawings soon ended up in my drawer together with perpetual designs and the odd poem.

GargIndia
reply to post by Utnapisjtim

 

Soap making is very old. Use of soap is mentioned in 'Ramayan'.

"Shauch" (cleanliness) is one of ten rules or commandments for Vedic people.

Thanks for sharing process of making soap. Soap using vegetable oil and lye from wood ash has been made for ages in India.

Having only sifted through the Vedic library, I didn't know that. I still have a handful of books related to Vedic and later Indic tradition resting on my shelf collecting dust, ranging from the Rig Veda and the Upanishads etc. to modern Hare Krsna literature. I really need to read up. Thanks for the info

loris
Fabulous soap recipe well explained. From experience I can tell you that animal fats make a very dense hard soap which cures really well (DON"T FORGET TO CURE IT) and lasts a long time with use.

Perhaps you could elaborate about the curing process? That [curing] was the part I didn't really find much good info on. There seems to be more than one way of doing it.

When using tallow for soap and lighting, the whole place smells like a BBQ but then there are worse things than that.

Indeed. Up here we mainly used whale blubber for that, and the smell from this is extrapolated in literature of the day. You can also make explosives from whale blubber. I think I learned that from a book by Jules Verne back

I have a book with natural recipes in it and some of the recipes call for soap wort root powder. It can be used to wash yourself, your hair and clothing. I notice it is even being sold on amazon.com. You could grow soapwort and then dry and powder the roots.

Sal

SallieSunshine
I have a book with natural recipes in it

Is it available on amazon or elsewhere? Could you please post it's ISBN code? Sounds like a great book

reply to post by Utnapisjtim


It is called "Beauty by Nature" by Brigitte Mars.

Sal

reply to post by SallieSunshine


This one here? ==> www.amazon.com...

Anyway, thanks, I'll check it out. And as I ask anyone with a book in their hand: Are there other great books you own or have read that you'd recommend?

Great post

originally posted by: 999zxcv
i worked at a fancy hotel years ago and the little green bars of vegetable soap in the room's were $25 each and i mean little bars .

i liberated a few [ as you do ] and a tiny drop would make a fantastic lather they lasted many years they were that good [ or i don't wash a lot ].

but i have never used animal fat soap since i might make some now

For all the people who cannot be bothered with the mess here is a great soap

mariessoap.com...

and here is the one i tried i thought was great just found it

www.mariedanielle.it... but expensive