“Hey Rod.......I can't believe it, now the store is out of soap. With everyone washing their hands twenty times a day, I guess it was inevitable. Do you know how to make soap?”
“One of the key ingredients to making soap is lye (sodium hydroxide) so you want to be extra careful handling this, it can severely burn you, so wear gloves and goggles, also always add lye to water, never water to lye. Now....still want to make soap? Okay then, you can make a rich lathering natural soap using a few ingredients. Using a scale, measure out 4 lbs. (1.8 liters) olive oil, 2.5 lbs (1.1 liters) coconut oil, 1.5 lbs (.7 liters) a hard oil like lard, palm or cocoa. Measure 3 lbs. (1.36 liters) of distilled water, to this add 473 g of lye, mix carefully and then let it cool to 80 degrees Fahrenheit (26.6 degrees celsius). Mix your other oils and heat to 80 degrees (26.6 C), next mix in your lye. Once this is completely mixed, add in your essential oil to what ever scent suits you the best. Oh, did I mention that you will need molds to pour your soap into, let sit for 24 hours, remove and let cure for 30 days. OR you could boil some hardwood ashes with some rain water and skim the lye off of the top. To test your lye for strength, pour some in a cup and put a raw egg in it, if it sinks...the lye is to weak, keep boiling or add more ash. The egg needs to float. Once you have your lye, mix four (4) parts lye to one (1) part oil (like olive oil). Pour in a mold and let sit 24 hrs., remove and let cure for a couple weeks. Easy peasy......right? Just don't be in a hurry, these are the kind of things you need to plan ahead........ like now.”
