The dirty process of making soap

Keeping clean in times of hardship is essencial to anyone entertaining the subtle desire to survive and stay healthy. Supposedly one of the secrets of general Patton's success during WW2, was the fact that he demanded all his troops to wash their feet and socks every day. Other names to mention in this regard would be Florence Nightingale and Ignaz Philipp Semmelweis, who were modern pioneers in hygiene. Few have had greater impact positively on general health, infant mortality rates, and things like the importance of washing your hands between doing an autopsy and receiving a baby. Semmelweis suggested doctors be using chlorinated lime solutions. Below is another solution. Homemade soap.

So how do we make our own soap after all the WallMarts have been bombed to smitherines and even water is a limited resource? It would perhaps be a shocker to some that the process of making soap, nature's way, is quite a dirty process, but then again a fairly simple endavour given you have the time, so if you want to try it out, doing so outside would be good idea. Haven't actually tried this myself, but after googling and reading up a bit and watched through a few videos on youtube I feel I'm ready to share my research.

Producing potash lye from ash and rainwater
Firstly, all soap contains some form of lye. There are a couple of different kinds around, common is caustic soda or sodium hydroxide [NaOH] and potash, potassium carbonate [K2CO3]. Unless you stacked away a box of industrial made lye crystals (i.e. 100% lye drainopener) before the crap hit the fan, there is a rather simple way to make a substitute (though not as powerful as pure crystals), all you need is a few containers of different shapes and sizes, a pile of ash and rainwater. If you use ash from wood it will produce a potash lye solution, and if you use ash from seaweeds you will make the sodium variant which is a tad bit more effective. My set-up below is rather oldschool, but that's the way I like it.

Step 1: Get a wooden barrel about 20 liters (5 gallons), drill holes in the bottom and place a layer of twigs and straw ontop eachother, alternately you could also cut out a filter of jute ontop or make your entirely customised filtration system of course. Put some sort of drainable container (lye eats aluminum for breakfast, so something else) underneath the barrel, preferably with a tap or similar simple system. Put both the barrel and the container on top of a steady riser of some kind enabling you to place a bucket under the tap, you'll need the extra height!

Step 2: First fill up the barrel with (preferably) sifted white ash from hardwood.

Step 3: First use a sturdy stick (like your grandfather's cane, but again, not the aluminium one) to stirr along the edges to form a depression in the middle of the ashes. Secondly, pour warm rainwater or distilled water into the depression and let it saturate the ash, and keep on refilling until it's all sticky and nasty. This process is called 'leaching'. Follow intuition for when you have enough water or keep adding more depending on how much lye you plan to produce. Using about 8 liters or about 2 gallons of rainwater will get you nearly 2 liters or 8 cups of potash lye.

Step 4: Drain off the brown potash into a third container of some sort only not of aluminium. And voila, you have just made the base ingredient for soap. To check if it is the real deal try putting an egg or a potato in it, they should float. If it's too weak, repeat the process. Another way to check the quality of potash is to dip a chickens feather into it. The feather should be coated but not eaten away.

Producing soap from potash lye
To make your soap, you will need an iron kettle and a stove or fire, a wooden utensil of prefered choice for stirring, measuring pots, clarified fat or olive oil, potash lye and a wooden or clay mould for the soap to cool in.

Mix 1/2 cup of potash lye with 1 cup of fat or oil.
Boil the potash and fat while stirring, until it becomes thick, rubbery and foamy.
Mix in more ingredients like a few drops of your favorite parfume or ethereal oils.
Remove the kettle from the fire and pour it into the mould.
Let it rest in it's mould for about a month before using it.

Warning: The lye in potash is highly corrosive, so use rubber gloves and protective eyewear throughout the process. Lye is not something you want on your cloathes, let alone you skin or in your eyes. If you do get lye on your skin, remove any affected cloathing and flush under loads of gently running lukewarm water and contact your doctor. The same goes for the eyes if the eyes are affected. Don't bother removing contact lenses if you use them. Having it checked by a doctor is imperative, if luck is against you or you don't visit the Emergency, you could go blind or have your vision ruined. Make sure that you have the procedures ready if an accident should happen. Like Douglas Adams says: DON'T PANIC!!!

Appart from that. Good luck with the end of the world and all, and please drop me a note if you decide to try it out. And do tell if there is something in my method which is completely wrong or otherwise may improve the process in any way. Also, please, if you know of other methods of making soap, please share

Sources:
en.wikipedia.org...
en.wikipedia.org...
en.wikipedia.org...
en.wikipedia.org...
en.wikipedia.org...
en.wikipedia.org...
www.endtimesreport.com...
www.cd3wd.com...
www.youtube.com...
www.ccohs.ca...

reply to post by Utnapisjtim


Well presented, S&F from me mate, ATS needs more threads like yours.

This is actually very important to know. I did some studying on this but your article is actually easy to read. Soap is actually a really important thing, just think of how strong people would smell without it.

The ash can be used to make gunpowder also.

Peeing in the ashes from the stove creates a very good fertilizer also. It neutralizes the lye and forms a potent fertilizer from what I have read. Europe is studying this...A highly salty urine would probably not be good though.

Great way to recycle leftovers.

rickymouse
The ash can be used to make gunpowder also.

Oh? How?

reply to post by swanne


Thanks swanne. Much appreciated

reply to post by rickymouse


Indeed. Urine contains quite a bit of phosphorous which is an effective fertiliser in itself, being vital for all cell growth. Together with nitrogen from the salts and urea they are excellent fertilisers. Urea or carbamid is CON2H4, so it's also a fertilizer in itself.

swanne

rickymouse
The ash can be used to make gunpowder also.

Oh? How?

Well, not ash, but charcoal. Slight difference.

reply to post by Utnapisjtim


It's okay, it's as easy to make.

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.

reply to post by Utnapisjtim


Before this goes any further I am going to apply some adult supervision…

if you are going to mess around with peeing in a metal tray and drying it in the sun, then make sure when mixing with other things like…, and …, and…, or just …, that you--

Please wear leather gloves, long sleeves and full face mask like the kind used when working with grinders.

Have fun.

Olive oil might be hard to come by in those years.


What is clarified fat, and how can i procure some?

reply to post by intrptr


Yes hehe, that.

intrptr
reply to post by Utnapisjtim

 

Before this goes any further I am going to apply some adult supervision…

if you are going to mess around with peeing in a metal tray and drying it in the sun, then make sure when mixing with other things like…, and …, and…, or just …, that you--

Please wear leather gloves, long sleeves and full face mask like the kind used when working with grinders.

Have fun.

Sounds like you might be talking from experience there.

DeadGhost
Olive oil might be hard to come by in those years.


What is clarified fat, and how can i procure some?

Most of my research ended up being focused on one webpage in particular. I have no idea who are behind it, but this stuff seemed genuine: www.cd3wd.com... (also linked in the OP):

Soap can be made from either animal fat or vegetable oil. Mineral oil cannot be
used. Animal fats commonly used are tallow, mutton, and lard. Vegetable oils used
include coconut, palm nut, maize, olive, cottonseed, soybean, groundnut, safflower,
and castor. Chicken fat, which is not a hard fat, is considered an oil. The best
soap is made from a mixture of fat and oil.

o If you want a hard soap for use in hot water, use only tallow, made from
melting rendered sheep, cattle, or horse fat.

o If you want a good laundry soap, use 1 part tallow to 1 part lard or cooking
grease from melted hog fat, skin, and bones.

o If you want a fine toilet soap, use 1 part tallow to 1 part vegetable oil.

The best vegetable oils are made from crushing dried coconut meat, palm nut
kernels, or the outer pulp of the palm nut. The last makes a harder soap than the
coconut meat or kernels.
[...]
The fat used in making the soap should be clarified. To do this: put the fat in a
kettle with an equal amount of water; boil this mixture. Remove the kettle from
the fire and strain the mixture through a sieve or a piece of cheesecloth. Add 1
part cold water to 4 parts of hot liquid. Do not stir the mixture; let it stand
until it cools. The clarified fat can then be removed from the top. To help in
cleaning the fat, a sliced unpared potato can be added before the mixture is
boiled.

reply to post by rickymouse


And while we're at it, don't eat yellow snow unless you have lab gloves and no worry about peeing on the third rail (mythbusters prooved that), it's actually hugging it that is dangerous. They've been lying to us all these years!

reply to post by rickymouse

Sounds like you might be talking from experience there.

Why yes, I am. Back before you all were old enough to know what fireworks are I was making them in my garage and setting them off at the beach on the fourth of July.

Back then, Before the time of terror, nobody cared. We were still free to do this and nobody cared!

Chemical grade ingredients and manuals filled with formulas and safety instructions, even tubing and fusing were readily purchased by mail without so much as a picture of your driver license.

Lots of people did it and although it was frowned upon the police just stood back and watched as we waged massive west coast beach firework wars on the fourth. Lots of alcohol and singed eyebrows later we retired to our beds, ears ringing… satiated… in the land of the free.

I know return you to your regularly scheduled programming (insert static)…

reply to post by Utnapisjtim

…and no worry about peeing on the third rail (myth busters proved that)…

Actually, its a little more detailed than that. (Cover you eyes girls)

A Mans pee stream breaks up into individual drops at a certain distance, thus precluding a direct path for current. Closer up however, when the stream is still solid… Pazoowww!

Myth busters is Main Pee Stream disinfo sometimes. I didn't see that episode, though.

reply to post by intrptr


Kids nowadays can't have the fun we enjoyed as kids. Back then if you didn't design something that blew up, you weren't a normal boy.

Boy, did I get in trouble a few times when I was young.

To keep on topic....I had to hold a bar of soap in my mouth quite a few times when I was a kid. I doubt if the soap nowadays is safe for that anymore.

reply to post by rickymouse


These days they summon swat teams for a match. Let's stick to soap

reply to post by Utnapisjtim

These days they summon swat teams for a match.

Which is why they started this whole anti terrorist campaign. Can't have a trained, armed citizenry now can we?

What happened to the teeth behind the republic?

They used our own government against us and legislated it away.

intrptr
reply to post by Utnapisjtim

 

These days they summon swat teams for a match.

Which is why they started this whole anti terrorist campaign. Can't have a trained, armed citizenry now can we?

What happened to the teeth behind the republic?

They used our own government against us and legislated it away.

This is why I genuinely love ATS, because a thread about soap manufacturing can quickly spin my mind into speculation about whether or not 911 was a false flag. I'm not being facetious or sarcastic here. I just think it's a funny characeristic unique to this site.