Subject: Re: Soapmaking

From: Coyote and her Hunter <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 21 Mar 1996 10:20:08 -0600

Marge Pritchett wrote:
...P.S. What is the purpose of the lye? If it is caustic and
> shouldn't get on your skin during the soapmaking process then
> how can it be used on skin afterward?

Yes, Marge, lye in its pure form is not good for the skin. But in 
soapmaking, the lye reacts with the fat (whether vegetable or animal) to 
make the soap. The result, if you measure carefully, should not be 
caustic, since all the lye should be used up in the chemical reaction.

I *will* say that the lye soap my grandmother used to make from lard did 
have a tendency to be harsh on clothes, so I assume she had a generous 
hand when she measured the lye. I did enjoy the process of rendering the 
lard, making and cutting the soap, and helping her wash clothes in her 
wringer washer. Nice memories....

DeeAnna

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From: [email-masked] (Steve Thomas)
Date: Wed, 03 Apr 1996 08:05:25 GMT

In <[email-masked]>,  ([email-masked]
(Marge Pritchett)) wrote:

>Would like the soapmaking infor - thanks!
>[email-masked]

>P.S. What is the purpose of the lye? If it is caustic and
>how can it be used on skin afterward? I grow herbs so would
>like to also know which ones are best for use in soapmaking.
>The vegetable oil based soaps esp. interest me but I would like
>to read about all. Thanks again!

It's a chemical process. Caustic plus lipid produces soap. If you have
an excess of caustic, yeah, the soap ends up being pretty rough on the
skin. If you have an excess of fat, then all the caustic gets used up
in the saponification process, and you have oil mixed up with your
soap.

If you use sodium hydroxide (regular caustic soda), you end up with
regular soap. If you use potassium hydroxide (caustic potash), you end
up with soft soap.

In the process of handling soybeans, they are crushed and the crude
soybean oil is purified by a number of steps, including
saponification. The end result of this process is "neutral dry soap
stock" which has historically been disposed of by blending it into
animal feeds. Frankly, it's a hassle to get rid of, and the feed folks
don't really want it, but nobody really knows what else to do with it.
If you can figure out a use for it, the folks at Central Soya and
Archer-Daniels-Midland would surely be interested in selling it to you
*REALLY* cheap.... <G>

__________Steve Thomas___________________Paulding, Ohio______________________
"Look, I'm standing naked before you. Don't you want more than my sex?
I can scream as loud as your last one but I can't claim innocence.
Oh God! Could be the weather? Oh God! Why am I here?
If love isn't forever and it's not the weather, hand me my leather.
I could just pretend that you love me.
The night would lose all sense of fear.
But shy do I need you to love me when you can't hold what I hold dear?
I almost ran over an angel. He had a nice big fat cigar.
'In a sense', he said, 'you're alone here so if you jump, you best jump far.'"
      - Leather [Tori Amos' Little Earthquakes)
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