Soda Soaps - soap, water, lye, pounds, boil, hard and thin

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SODA SOAPS Soda Soaps.—A favorite method of soap making is the saponification of various fats and oils by the use of caustic soda. As a rule soda soaps are hard soaps, soft soap being or dinarily produced from potash. Caus tic soda is now produced so cheaply that the commercial article is ordina rily used in soap making, and domes tic hard soap can be made in this way about as cheaply as by the earlier methods of leaching wood ashes to obtain caustic potash or boiling sal soda with lime.

To prepare a caustic soda lye for soap making, dissolve 3 parts of sal soda in 5 times as much boiling water. In a separate stone vessel slake 1 part of quicklime with 3 parts of water, mix to a cream and add in a thin stream to the boiling solution of sal soda, stirring constantly. Mix and boil for 10 or 15 minutes, remove from the fire and let the solution settle. Pour off the clear liquid from the sediment and the lye will be ready for use. The strength of the lye may be increased by boiling down over a brisk fire, leaving off the cover of the kettle to admit the air.

Or, if desired, the boiling may be continued until all the water is evapo rated and a melted residue is left, which may be poured into molds and bottled for future use. This is caus tic soda, and may be dissolved in hot water when required to form a caustic soda lye.

There is no danger in making soaps by this process if the solution is al lowed plenty of time to settle and the clear liquid is poured off in such a way as not to retain any of the sedi ment of slaked lime. if a suitable quantity of grease is used all the caustic soda contained in the lye will unite with it and become neutralized. A pure hard soap containing no free alkali or other injurious substance will be the result. The following are a number of standard family recipes: Dissolve 3 pounds of sal soda in gallons of soft water. Slake separate ly in a stone vessel 2 pounds of fresh quicklime in 2 quarts of soft water and stir to a cream. Bring the soda solution to a boil, pour in the slaked lime in a thin stream, let the mixture boil up well, remove from the fire, snd let stand over night to settle.

Now carefully pour off the clear liquid so as not to disturb the sedi ment. Melt down in a clean soap ket tle 3 pounds of clarified grease or fat with a little water, add, if desired, 4 ounces of borax, pour in the soda lye in a thin stream, stirring constantly, and boil until saponified.

Soak a wooden pail or tub in water and pour the soap into this to hard en. When hard cut into bars with a thin wire and stack up corncob fash ion to dry. Add perfume if desired at the rate of about to ounce fcr this quantity, just after the soap is taken from the fire, stirring it into the liquid mass thoroughly before it is poured into the pail or tub to cool. This is a favorite domestic soap of good quality for household purposes; and if carefully made according to directions can be used in washing the most delicate woolen goods and simi lar articles.

Or dissolve 6 pounds of sal soda in 2i gallons of soft water, and in a separate vessel slake 1 pound of fresh quicklime in 2 quarts of soft water. Bring the soda solution to a boil, pour in the lime in a thin stream. Let stand over night. Pour off the clear soda lye. Dissolve 6 pounds of clarified grease or fat in the soap kettle, pour in the soda lye in a thin stream, and boil until saponified. Add for this quantity to 1 ounce of any desired essential oil to perfume after the soap has been removed from the fire, stirring thoroughly before it is poured into the tub or kettle to cool.

Hard Soap from Caustic Soda.— Slake 3 pounds of fresh quicklime with 3 times its bulk of water, and dissolve 3 pounds of sal soda in 2 gallons of hot water. Mix these in gredients in a tub or wash boiler; add 9 gallons of boiling water, stirring vigorously. When the mixture has settled, pour off the clear liquor, which is soda lye, into the soap kettle, and add e pounds of melted clarified grease, pouring in a thin stream and stirring vigorously. Add also 2 ounces of powdered borax. Boil slowly for 10 or 15 minutes, when the mixture should become thick and stringy. When cold this will be found to be a good hard soap for family use. The longer it can be dried and cured the better.