Posted by: venom

Soap making is a actually a very simple process which has been made complicated by all the luxury requirements demanded by our pampered society today. However, if you want to have some fun and make some basic soap at home, the process is actually quite simple and rewarding. The guide below is based on th traditional ‘no-frills' method of making soap.

Before you start, you will need to prepare the ingredients you will need for the experiment. The basic ingredients include:
1. Some type of fat - most recipes suggest lard or tallow
2. Sodium Hydroxide (this is actually lye)
3. Some alcohol - Ethanol is a easily ready option
4. Table Salt
5. Water - for best results use water that is as pure as possible (e.g. distilled water or rain water)

In order to produce 9 pounds of soap, you will need about 6 pounds of fat, 13 ounces of lye and 2.5 pints of water.

You will also need some equipment to handle the ingredients. These include:
1. 2 glass beakers large enough to hold your ingredients
2. 2 burners - you can either use bunsen burners or even you stove
3. Protective gear - goggles, gloves and a good apron will do the job. This protective gear is mostly needed for handling the lye.
Once you have gotten all the ingredients and equipment ready, you are ready to start. Firstly, place the chosen fat into a glass beaker. Heat the fat up gradually until the fat is completely liquid. While heating, make sure you stir the fat so that it will be smooth. Continue heating and stirring until the melted fat offers some resistance to the spoon used for stirring.

IMPORTANT - TO BE PERFORMED BY ADULTS ONLY: In a separate glass beaker, dissolve the lye in cold water. You will notice that as the lye dissolves, the water will be heated up very quickly to a very high temperature. After the lye has dissolved, let the mixture cool down naturally.

It is important to know that lye is actually a very strong base and is corrosive. It reacts with aluminium so to be safe, use a glass beaker instead of a metal container. Also, always pour lye into cold water instead of pouring water into lye as it may cause a violent reaction. When lye is poured into the cold water, stir quickly so that the lye does not sink to the bottom and solidify.

The next step is to very slowly pour the lye mixture into the melted fat which is still being heated. Stir slowly and continously to try to get the lye mixture to mix with the melted fat. Do not stir hard as this will probably cause the 2 mixtures to separate. Add the alcohol to the mixture at this point. You can also add any coloring or fragances if you wish at this point. Continuously stir for about 20 to 30 minutes until all the lye has been completed melded into the fat. At this point the texture will become like honey.

Pour the mixture into a mold. To make it easy to take out the hardened soap later, line the mold with a clean but wet piece of cloth (preferably made of cotton) that has been soaked. Wrap the mold with a blanket so that the heat is retained and the temperature goes down slowly. Let the mixture cure for about 24 hours. When the mixture is cured, pull the cloth together with the mixture out from the mold and cut it into whatever shape that you fancy.

Voila! You've got soap.