Or mix 10 pounds of clear melted grease, 6 pounds of sal soda, and 8 gallons of hot water in the soap bar rel. Stir once a day and let the mix ture stand until completely saponi fied.
Or melt 8 pounds of grease in a kettle and bring to the boiling point. In another kettle melt 8 pounds of caustic soda and 1 pound of sal soda in 4 gallons of soft water, and pour all together into a 40-gallon cask. Fill up the cask with soft water, stir daily, and let the mixture stand until sapon ified.
Or melt 4 pounds of lard in a ket tle and 6 pounds of potash in an other kettle with 3 to 5 gallons of water. Pour the lard into the melted potash in a thin stream, stirring con stantly. Pour into tz tub and let stand until saponified.
Mix 6 pounds of potash, 4 pounds of lard, and pound of powdered rosin, and allow the mixture to stand for a week. Now melt in a kettle with 2 or 3 gallons of water, pour the mixture into a 10-gallon cask filled with soft water, and stir two or three times a day for 2 weeks.
Or put into a kettle pound of sal soda and 1 pound of brown soap in shavings. Add a pailful of cold water, melt with gentle heat, and stir until dissolved. It is ready to use as soon as cool.
Soft Soap—Boiling Process.—Dis solve 8 pounds of potash in a large iron pot with 3 or 4 gallons of boiling water. Melt 8 pounds of clarified fat to the boiling point in a separate vessel. Now put 4 gallons of boiling water in a soap barrel and add with a ladle first 1 quart of hot fat and then 1 quart of the hot lye. Continue this process—one person stirring brisk ly and another ladling—until fat and lye are all used. Now pour in enough boiling water to fill the barrel, stir ring constantly until the whole be comes a creamy emulsion of a uni form appearance. Let the barrel
stand for 2 or 3 months in a cool place until it is completely saponi fied.
Or dissolve 1 pound of potash in 1 gallon of warm water. Let it stand over night, and in the morning bring it to a boil and add 10 ounces of pure clarified melted grease. Place this in a tub with 1 gallons of warm water, mix well, and allow to stand until saponified.
Soft Soap.—Melt 4 pounds of clear fat in one kettle, and dissolve 4 pounds of caustic potash with 6 quarts of boiling water in another. Pour 2 gallons of soft water, boiling hot, into a clean tub or barrel, and ladle into this water the melted fat and the dis solved potash alternately, one person ladling and another stirring, until the ingredients are thoroughly mixed. Add boiling soft water each day, 2 gallons at a time, stirring the whole each time vigorously, until it equals 16 gallons. Place the barrel in a cellar or other cool place and stir occasionally for 3 minutes. The oftener it is stirred the better. This is a standard household recipe.
Hard Soap Made Soft.—Hard soap may be reduced to the consistency of soft soap by dissolving it in a suit able quantity of water. Shave the hard soap fine or run it through a meat cutter. Add twice its bulk of soft water and simmer with gentle heat until the soap is dissolved.
The amount of water required will depend upon the nature of the soap. If too thick, a little more water may be added; if too thin, the excess of water may be removed by keeping on the stove until the surplus water has evaporated. If quite thin when taken from the fire it will assume on hardening about the consistency of soft soap, and will not irritate the skin as ordinary soft soap is apt to do on account of its excess of alkali.