[Herbalist] Soap- How would they Have created Lye?

[jenne@fiedlerfamily.net]

> most of the recipies I have found  go straight to the
> "then add grated Soap" approach.
> I'm Hoping  some one on this list can help me.

Dunno if this will help, but:

 There is a scented lye-based soap recipe in The treasurie of commodious
conceits, & hidden secrets by John Partridge (Imprinted at London : By
Richarde Iones, 1573).
"To Make Muske Soape

Take stronge lye made of chalk, and six pounde of stone chalk: iiii,
pounde of Deere Suet, and put them in the lye; in an earthen potte, and
mingle it well, and kepe it the space of forty daies, and mingle and
[styr? fyr?] it, iii, or, iiii times a daye, tyll it be consumed, and
that, that remayneth, vii, or, viii, dayes after, then you muste put a
quarter of an ounce of Muske, and when you have done so, you must [sty?re]
it, and it wyll smell of Musk."

-- Pani Jadwiga Zajaczkowa, Knowledge Pika jenne at fiedlerfamily.net
"For so many years gentle has been equated with weakness, but it requires
more strength to be gentle, so it's the everyday encounters of life that I
think we've prepared children for and prepared them to be good to other
people and to consider other people." -- Bob Keeshan (Capt. Kangaroo)