Hard Soap with Sal Soda. —Dis solve 4 bars of shaved yellow soap in 9 gallons of soft water; add 9 pounds of sal soda and 4 ounces of borax. Boil and stir vigorously until the in gredients are thoroughly incorporated. Pour the soap into a washtub previ ously soaked in water to prevent stick ing, and just before it sets add ounces of aqua ammonia, stirring thor oughly. Allow 3 or 4 days to harden, cut in bars, pack, and cure.
Soda Soaps — Not Neutral. — For rough work, as washing coarse gar ments, scouring, washing greasy pots and kettles, and for the use of me chanics and laborers, as printers, blacksmiths, machine-shop men, and the like, it is quite customary to make a hard soap containing an excess of alkali. But it should be carefully noted that such soaps are not suitable for washing paint or delicate fabrics, and that they have a tendency to chap and roughen the skin. Soaps of this kind are made by melting down a good hard soap containing no excess of alkali with a suitable quantity of caustic soda lye. As the fat con tained in the soap has already neu tralized as much alkali as it is capable of acting upon, the result is merely the addition 'of a quantity of free alkali which, of course, increases the cleansing power of the soap by giving it a caustic quality.
To make a soap of this kind put pound of fresh quicklime in an earth en jar and pour over it 2 quarts of boiling water. Let stand a couple of hours, stirring frequently, allow the sediment to settle, and pour off the clear liquid into the soap kettle. Add gallons of soft water, 2 pounds of hard white neutral soap, shaved, and 1 pounds of sal soda; boil, stirring constantly until all the ingredients are thoroughly mixed and dissolved and fully saponified. Now stir in 1 ounce of salt. Remove from the fire and Pour into a well-soaked wooden tub or pail. This recipe makes a thick soft soap suitable for all coarse laun dry and other purposes.
Or, for a hard soap of this kind, first prepare a caustic soda lye by dis solving 1 pound of sal soda in gallons of soft water, and slaking in a separate stone vessel 8 ounces of fresh quicklime in 2 quarts of soft water. Bring the soda solution to a
boil, pour in the slaked lime in a thin stream, boil up 10 or 15 minutes, stirring constantly, and let stand over night to settle. Now pour off the clear solution, taking care not to dis turb the sediment. Add Si pounds of hard white neutral soap, shaved thin, and bring to a boil, stirring con stantly until the soap is dissolved. Remove from the fire and stir in 1 ounce of borax, ounce of alum with to 1 ounce of any desired perfume. Let cool and add, if desired, 2 table spoonfuls of benzine. Pour into a well-soaked wooden vessel to cool, and cut into bars with a thin wire.
Or bring to a boil in a soap kettle 2 gallons of soft water. Stir in pounds of sal soda and pound of borax, until dissolved. Add in 71 thin stream pound of melted tallow, stir ring constantly, and 5 pounds of good hard yellow soap, shaved fine. Stir until all the ingredients are thorough ly mixed and saponified. Slake in a separate vessel 4 or 5 pounds of fresh quicklime, and rub it through a coarse sieve to free it from lumps. Add as much of the fresh-slaked lime as can be stirred in. This is a. very strong soap, only suitable for coarse work, but it will cut all kinds of grease, ink, tar, etc.
Soda Soft Soaps — Not Neutral. Dissolve in 2 gallons of boiling water 1 pound of sal soda, and shave in 2 pounds of hard white neutral soap or hard white or yellow soap of the best quality. Boil up 5 or 10 minutes, stirring constantly, and pour into a well-soaked wooden tub or other ves sel to cool. Like other soft soaps this preparation contains an excess of al kali and is only suitable for coarse work, but it is a powerful cleanser. Other ingredients, as aqua ammonia, benzine, and the like, may be added to this soap if desired.
Or dissolve in 2 gallons of soft water pound of sal soda, 2 pounds of hard white soap, and add ounce of aqua ammonia and 4 ounces of borax.