(N.Morgan) Hygiene is a very basic, yet important part of our daily lives. when SHTF it may become impossible to even get a bar of soap, so the best way to deal with this issue is now and be prepared by learning to make your own soap. Becoming more self reliant will help you to survive what is coming down the road.

 

First step, getting the lye:

1. Gather the fine white ashes (not wood chips if any remain) and place them in a container that can resist the alkalinity of the lye. Metal and glass are not suitable for this task: use plastic or wood. This container should be large enough to hold several gallons of water, and ideally should have a tightly closeable lid to avoid accidental spills or splashings.

2. Gather several gallons of soft water, usually rainwater works best. Water from wells and rivers tends to be filled with additives that interfere with soap-making, and you may need to add a few scoops of baking soda to the water if you don’t have sufficient rainwater handy.

3. Slowly and gently pour the soft water over the ashes, taking care to avoid splashing. Stop when you start seeing ashes floating around in the water instead of dissolving.

4. Allow the mixture to sit for at least 24 hours, though it may be even longer. The water needs time to leach the lye out of the ashes, and you’ll know there’s lye in the water once it starts turning brown.

5. Test the water periodically by adding an egg or potato and seeing if it floats in the liquid. If it floats with about half of the egg or potato showing, your have the proper ratio of lye to water. If it sinks too much, you have too much water and you need more ashes. If it floats higher, add more soft water since the lye concentration is too high. Alternatively, place a single bird feather in the mixture and see if it dissolves the feather to determine proper concentration. Immediately dispose of any foodstuffs that touch the lye water, and do not put it in a compost heap.

6. Carefully scoop out the lye from the surface of the water into another resistant container for final boiling. You’ll want to use avoid getting actual ashes on your skimming tool of choice, but otherwise just avoid splashing.

7. Test the lye again for proper balance.

 

Preparing the fat:

1. To clean the fat, pour the liquid drippings through multiple layers of cheesecloth in order to strain out gristle and meat bits from the fat.

2. Bring equal parts grease and water to a boil, then remove the mixture from the heat source and add another 1/4 of water.

3. Once the fat has solidified, remove anything that looks “dirty”, leaving the clean fat behind. Continue this cycle until the fat is pure.

4. On your final cleansing add about a spoonful of salt to the mixture. If using drippings of fat from cooking, also boil this last load in a mixture of 1/2 cup of water mixed with a few spoonfuls of vinegar per cup of fat you’ve collected.

 

Now you need to mix the fat and lye together to make the soap. The objective is to use the fat to solidify the mixture, while the lye works to keep the greasiness of the fat to a minimum, making a nice liquid mixture that can harden into a bar of soap.

 

1. Mix lye in about 10 quarts of water and begin boiling it. This gets the lye ready to be mixed in with the fat and dilutes it a little more.

2. Mix in your fat, maintaining the boil. You don’t need to stir just yet, but you do want the fat to desolidify if you let it harden back up between the first cleaning and when you decide to make soap.

3. Add 4 more quarts of water and begin stirring the mixture together as it boils down. Continue mixing until it is about the consistency of corn syrup, dripping but solid.

4. Place a little bit of the mixture in a mold and let it dry into a bar of soap, then test it for proper feel and lye concentration. If it burns, add more fat to the rest of the mixture with water to dilute the lye. If the mixture is very greasy and the mixture has lots of scum on top of it during stirring, add more lye to break it down. Err on the side of too fatty rather than too caustic, since fat isn’t likely to hurt you!

5. Once you have tested and found the proper balance, make as many bars as you wish and enjoy scrubbing. The soap is great for people as well as general household use. Flakes can even be shaved off and added to laundry wash water for homemade dish soap.

 

Take special care to mix just the right amounts of both lye and fat, to avoid skin burns and irritations.

 

 

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