[Ansteorra] soap making supplies (was: need source for real lye soap)

[Stephanie Suesan Smith]

I was not very specific in my request.  The information is fascinating.  I
need one bar of old fashioned lye soap because the elderly mother of a
friend remembers it wistfully, and has requested a bar to keep as and smell
once in a while.  She says the new stuff just doesn't smell right.  He has
not been able to locate any and I thought I would try here.  Thank you to
those who replied.  That is, though, why I really just want a source for the
made soap.  It's not my mother that wants it, or my laurel (not that I have
one of those) <g>

Lady Stephanie Lilburn

On Thu, May 6, 2010 at 5:32 PM, Coblaith Muimnech <Coblaith at sbcglobal.net>wrote:

> Michael Fenwick wrote:
>
>> Probably the best way to get some lye soap with certainty that it is the
>> real, old-fashioned thing, is to make it yourself: lye plus fat, using a
>> slight surplus of fat to make sure that all the lye reacts. There are
>> recipes out on the web, searchable through Google.
>>
>
> Stephanie commented:
>
>> . . .the problem is you need fire, ashes, lye, a large kettle, and all day
>> to make it.
>>
>
> Thomas Smith answered:
>
>> Not unless you are doing this as an Arts and Sciences project and trying
>> to be super authentic.  You can go to the store and get a can of Red Devil
>> Lye - its usually right next to the Draino and other drain cleaning
>> products.
>>
>
> Red Devil Lye hasn't been manufactured for about 5 years <
> http://candleandsoap.about.com/b/2005/09/19/its-not-a-lye.htm>.  Somebody,
> somewhere probably has a stash, but I wouldn't count on being able to find
> it at your local grocery store any more.
>
> However, there are multiple online sources for sodium hydroxide (which is
> the alkali typically used in modern soapmaking and that most commonly sold
> today as "lye"), potassium hydroxide (which is the alkali typically used in
> medieval soapmaking and is often sold as "potash"), and potassium carbonate
> (which is an alkali sometimes used in medieval soapmaking and is often sold
> as "pearlash").  Many of them are specialist soap-makers' supply shops, and
> could provide other materials and tools one would need to make a batch of
> soap.
>
> Incidentally, the online Medieval English Dictionary entry on "sope" <
> http://quod.lib.umich.edu/cgi/m/mec/med-idx?type=id&id=MED41595> includes
> quotes from some documents that might be of interest to anyone researching
> the topic.  For instance, from an early-15th-century English translation of
> Guy de Chauliac's _Cyrurgie_ comes, "Sope forsothe is double: sope of
> Sarracenes, þe whiche is softe, and þe Frensche sope, þat is harde. The
> Sarracenes sope is made of two parties of lye and the þridde parte of oyle
> dolyf. Þe Frensche sope is made of þe two partyes of lye and of oon parte of
> schepes talowh."  ("Lye", in this case, probably means "potassium
> hydroxide".  It was the usual choice for soap making before 1791, when
> Nicolas Leblanc invented a process that made the commercial production of
> sodium hydroxide viable.)  If you could get your hands on a copy of that
> translation (a transcription of which was published by the Early English
> Texts Society in 1971), you might find more details on how soap was made
> and/or used in the 14th century (when the _Cyrurgie_ was written).
>
>
> Coblaith Muimnech
> <mailto:Coblaith at sbcglobal.net>
> <http://coblaith.net>
>
>