In this video me and Nico @kullervo. try making soap with old fashioned wood ash lye and lard. Thanks for watching❄️ 🟢Learn to formulate your own (modern) soap recipes here: www.tellervo.fi/shop/p/the-so...
This was our first time making old fashioned soap so there was a lot of trial and error involved😄 We mostly followed the instructions in this blog post: www.primalsurvivor.net/wood-ash-soap/ Watch the 6 week lather test here: ru-vid.comFWhGW9lDCf8?feature=share Have you made soap with wood ash lye? How did it go?
Nice try! A couple years ago i made just some lye, but i put all the ashes in the pot and let them sit for a few days, then boiled it, let it cool down and settle, then i poured lye leaving ashes on the bottom, then boiled it to reduce the water. Mine had something similar to light beer/very weak tea colour. I guess this year i will have to try adding lard and making soap. But i don't get just one thing. Cutting tree for the fire? Hmm... so much moisture in that... Anyways, it was making a bit of foam, so it was a soap 😁
Congrats you guys! Such patience and you did it! I attempted a lye soap, boiled and boiled for days and days on the wood stove a pot full of wood ash and water. The goal was to float a potatoe in it right? Or an egg? Well in the end I gave up and added some sodium hyrdroxide. Made an allright soap .
Felicitari pentru rabdare si curaj! La noi ( Romania),sapunul de casa se face din untura ramasa de la prajit) se strecoara de resturi) ceai de plante si hidroxid de potasiu( cred ca asa ii zice) se fierbe mult timp se taie bucati mari se pun la uscat di dupa 6 luni e bun de folosit ca altfel raneste pielea( de la lesie). Si pentru rufe dar si pentru corp! Succes da mai incercati retete!
In Britain it was common to use a plant. Saponaria officinalis, also known as Soapwort. You just mush it up in water and strain it and use the liquid. Its lather is very effective and very gentle, so much so it's used in museums and heritage properties for safely cleaning tapestries, delicate fabrics etc.
Yes! In India, it's called Reetha or Soapnuts. They are slightly smaller than walnuts and super gentle. They do not lather as much as chemical soaps but they are antimicrobial and clean your very well. I use them to wash my hair every now and then.
@@shailjatripathi3901 A different plant to here in the UK. Soapwort is a delicate scrambling plant with small pink flowers. The leaves and stems are crushed in water to produce a soapy water but I bet the plant you know and the plant I know both contain something called saponins.
My grandmother insisted that ashes from hard wood be kept separate specifically for making soap. With 8 children during the Depression, she was the queen of making something out of seemingly nothing.
it's only seemingly nothing to us because all the knowledge and techniques that people relied on to provide necessities are no longer relevant to the average person. Many people will never even know what soap is made OF, much less HOW it's made. I don't think that's a good thing.
Different breed of women we need to pay attention to. The cost of all soap is ridiculous. I'm looking at seeds. Soapworts invasive in U.S so it will be something else. Laundry and skincare and toilet paper not to mention diapers ... toothpaste! are serious holes in our boat.
Very well done! This is exactly how "black" soap has been made in my country Guatemala for many years. You can infuse rosemary branches with the lard to give it a special color and aroma. Here we shape the soaps into balls, they are balled while they are still warm, it is not put into molds. Some people don't even remove the ash from the final lye, they put both in the soap. It is very good for the skin and hair, it is even great for washing white clothes and removing stains. Some modern techniques here put a little coconut oil to help harden the soap and a little castor oil to improve the lather, and of course with these additional ingredients you have to run the recipe through a soap calculator. And if it is for cosmetic use, they add rosemary essential oil or fragrance. This ash bleach is even very good at whitening clothes instead of using chlorine or other modern bleaches.
Im a soap maker too, and I think you just had to stir without any pauses and stops to prevent separation, (because thats what happened here, it happened to my first few learning batches because I was too impatient) so yeah no stops on the stirring until it turns into condensed milk consistency. other than that, GREAT JOB
@@itzakpoelzig330 haven't used tallow coz beef is expensive around my area, but I would love to try it soon. And to my surprise I thought lard soap would have a porky kinda smell, but no it just has this neutrally bland smell to it (my opinion). And yeah it doesn't make a lotta bubbles tho, its slimy but it certainly does clean well. Actually better than commercial soaps.
@@tellervo. just keep stirring next time and don't ever stop until it turns into condensed milk consistency, pauses from stirring would cause separation which happened to your batch. ❤️
A couple of fire tips: use the back/spine of the knife when striking the ferrocerium rod to avoid dulling your knife. It'll work just as well if not better. Also, you can hold the knife stationary using your shin as a brace for your hand holding the knife, and pull the ferro rod back. That will help to avoid scattering your tinder or knocking it. If you process the birch bark down into finer fibers and bundle them into something like a bird's nest, you should be able to get it going in 1-3 strikes. That will preserve your ferro rod as well. Hope this helps some.
Another tip for the ferro rod. Scratch it down a a while without sparking it, and make a small pile about the size of a nickel. Then ignite that. It creates a small flash rather than just a few sparks at a time.
Primitive skills are so humbling aren’t they? A lot of work. It’s wonderful you tried and I hope you will modify and try again. I didn’t know about the zap test! So cool. This was interesting to watch.
Where I live in Appalachia, women just poured the same lye water back through the ash hopper a few times to concentrate it enough to float an egg. They made a soft soap with homemade lye and hard soap with store bought.
My grandmother died when I was in middle school, but I remember her always having homemade lye soap and the pile of ashes in the basement where she made it. I hope to make my own someday soon
I really like this refreshingly honest style of documentation. It might not have turned out exactly the way you imagined it would, but you still showed us your true experience and results. Really nice to watch👍🏻🙏🏻
15:40 About using too much fat in the soap: I think it's better if you use too much of that than too little, this means all the lye gets to react, if use too little fat then you might end up with unreacted lye in the soap. Also, part of that of excess fat is probably glycerol, which is a by-product of saponification. The salt you added actually drives the glycerol out from the soap, which makes it brittle, because normally some glycerol is left in the soap. The "excess fat" probably forms two layers if you let it sit in a jar for a bit: one being the unreacted fat and the other a salt-glycerol solution. Something to note: I have almost zero experience in soap making, I'm just looking at it from the chemistry perspective. So take all this with a grain of salt.
When using a ferro rod, you might find it easier to hold your knife firm, right on the tinder, then hold the rod horizontally and draw it sharply back over the spine of the knife blade. The sparks have less distance to travel so they'll be hotter when they hit the tinder, and you are less likely to accidentally move the tinder around. Rather than doing this several times quickly, concentrate on doing it once strongly, then reset if necessary. If you want a less grey soap, try using apple or white oak. You'll need to cut this in winter, then remove the bark and leave the timber to season for a year. If the wood has a dark core, remove that when you split the logs into kindling. Thin kindling will burn faster and hotter, driving off the remaining water and volatile organics. I hadn't heard of the potato trick before -- thanks very much for that. Soap should be left to cure for several months, until its pH is down to 7.5-8.5. The thinner the bar the faster it will cure because a greater surface area per volume is exposed to air. Place the bars on a rack in a ventilated dry, cool place and turn them over once a week.
@@tellervo. I've seen you struggle a bit cutting that birch into pieces. Try cutting it diagonally as much as possible cause that way you are not fighting the grain of the wood as much. It'll be much easier and you'll be able to cut narrower parts in a single strike.
As a kid in the 1970's I learned about making soap this way from the Foxfire books. Finally seeing it done in real life makes me very happy. Thanks for sharing this!
Traditional soap is you, not me! I applaud your exploration and passion for soap and your beautiful video! Since the strength of alkali is weak, a lot of oil remains, so I don't think it went to perfect saponification. So even during the zap test, the taste of alkali remained a lot. However, the method you tried was traditional and I think it's correct! Making soap from unrefined raw materials takes a lot of skill! It seems that you were able to complete your own soap because it was you!
If you boil the ash and water for a bit before you strain, you'll have a stronger solution. Or you could use more ash and less water. Great job though! As a soapmaker, I am impressed you got lather on your first try!
Patience and creativity with trial and error yet the most humbling product made. The natural materials and environment is opposite to what we have; 35-40 degrees and natural stuff like coconut husks for ashes, lemongrass, paw paw seeds etc. Your video inspires me so much to use what we can around us and also incorporate and explore what our ancestors used. Meitaki from the Cook Islands 🇨🇰
Hi. Love your method as we have coconut, lemon grass here in W/Africa. We have black soap locally made , but would love to know how it is processed. Much love.
Ashes contain lye. You can rub your hands with ashes and rense. You can also use the lye and oil or fat to make soap. I like lye soap if properly made. What may ancestors used was strong enough with lye to just about take your skin off but it did get things clean. They used it on the floors, dishes, bathing, washing hair and cloths. It got the job done and killed germs too.
@@Fa-So8It is too strong to use on the face which has delicate skin. Also in liquid form when using lye it one should use eye protective wear goggles and a mask in a ventilated area as it I think has fumes and If the liquid gets on the face and eyes one has to rinse it immediately as it can burn your skin and eyes.
This was such a fun and beautiful video to watch, imagine having to kill the pig, cut the fat off, then cook it to use, burn a fire to collect the ash before you can start to make your soap and compare to how we make it today. Your soap might have been a bit slimy but so is olive oil soap early in curing stage. As for being ugly well maybe not the prettiest colour but it did the job. Thank you for sharing from your winter wonderland it was great
Well that was a lot of hard work for a few bars but very rewarding to do it the old way. It makes us appreciate the very hard work people used to do in order to make soap. I’ve rendered my own lard before and loved the soap from it. Great video! Hugz, Tree
Me: “I have a million things to do I need to get going on my day.” “Oooo a new Tellervo video!” (Immediately lies down with iPad and goes into a trance) 😍 This is just amazing in every way. What a beautiful setting, too.
Who back in the day figured out all these steps to make soap. What a feat of genius. My sister and I use to make soap. Even with adding salt it takes months for most soaps to harden properly. However if you want your soap to harden very very quickly just add beer. Wine or another alcohol to it or a sugar. If you do this you need to be the flash to get it in to the mold before it starts to set up because it happens very quickly. Huge congratulations to making the soap the grandma and grandpa way. My sister and I never did this. It was a very interesting watch. Thank you for going through the time and trouble to make this video.
You don’t need to sift the ashes, but you will get a stronger lye if you use a full bucket of ashes and fill with water until just covering over the ashes about 2-3 inches and let it soak for days, then strain and reduce but your whole process was so cool to watch!! What did it smell like?
Nice video! Here in Brazil this kind of soap was made pretty often too, its called " sabão de decoada". We use the same ingredients, but with some diference in the process. 1- some people boil the ashes in water, after that we let It rest and decanter like you did. 2- we mix some alcool in the oil/lard. 3- we use Salt too, but only when the saponification process is almost complete. Very interesting to see how It was made in other parts of the world. Thanks for sharing!
Wow.. that was amazing! What a bold step to make a soap in the ancient method! 👏... i would never have had the heart to do it or lost my patience on the way but you never lost patience nor hope! what more.. the soap works and thats all that matters! well done ... and thank you for sharing the experience 😊 ❣️
Your soap might not have turned out as well as you'd hoped, but you made a very impressive effort and a great video! I think the reason your lye wasn't strong enough was that you needed more ashes in a larger container with more small holes at the bottom for the water to more slowly leach through the ashes. It does take a lot. Sometimes you might have to pour the liquid through a second time to get the lye strong enough. Also, beef fat (tallow) tends to make a harder, more dense soap that lathers better and lasts longer. I find that pork fat soap doesn't cure as well as tallow and ends up being kind of slimy and melts away much faster.
Have you ever tried with deer tallow? I’ve never made soap like this, though I’ve made tallow based lotion with deer tallow and it gets pretty stiff, so I’m wondering if it would be similar to beef.
@@buffycurtis9351 No, I've never tried that myself, though I know it works and have seen it used. I don''t really know the exact science behind which animal fat is better for what purposes, but I think it has something to do with the amount of acidity in the fats and also it's density and salt/mineral content that affects saponification. Pork fat seems to be good for soft soaps and tallow seems to make a harder, better lathering soap. Deer are lean and the fat is pretty dense, so I would imagine it would make a good soap, though I don't know if it'd be much different or better than beef tallow. You'd probably want to add some oils like coconut or olive if you are using it as a bath soap. You can also add things like aloe or shea butter because pure tallow soap can be harsh and dry out your skin. You just have to be careful with how much you add and keep the ratios balanced or the soap won't set well.
A friend of mine makes soap with modern methods. She makes sure to have just slightly more fat than lye and then ages it for six months. Apparently it gets harder as it ages but, also, over time, the last of the lye gets converted and makes the finished bars gentler. It's wonderful soap! I gathered up the equipment to dedicate to making my own but I never have.
Little advice I learned: If you are goign to use those fire starter rods, do not strike down, its too sparce, concentrate by putting the striker steady close to the fuel and then "pull" with the rod as if you were sawing, that way the sparks hit much closer together
You should use the smaller twigs from the tree to get the fire going on the 1st try. Make three bundles of small twigs stacked like a capital A with your tinder in the bottom of the A. Once a flame is there, pull that middle part ( which goes on top of the sides) of the A down to catch the flame. Then bigger pieces on top of the A, kindling size. Also, touch the tip of the ferro rod to the tinder and you can often start it with 1 spark 😁
At least you know what’s going into your soap! Can’t say the same for most factory made soaps. It’s beautiful where you are. This video was awesome, is awesome !
You guys are so amazing! Thank you for sharing with us on the ancestor's way... This techniques really shows us how we truly appreciates our ancestors and need to recognize this. I've been saving some ashes as I was willing to try to make soap out of this... I think I'm having second thoughts LOL
You guys are AMAZING. 16 years ago a history teacher in New England made true Castile soap with wood ash lye water, olive oil, and a small amount of lard. The soap was a very lite in color. It smelled soooo good like no other handmade soap and was so gentle for our newborn. I used it on my face and my husband shaved with it. LOVE your video. Thank you for sharing!
this is the information I've been looking for for a long time, making soap without synthetic chemicals, because I want a natural life, youtube is a miracle for me
Way to go, making soap isn't as easy as people think. Good job, but I have a question the white birch that you cut down was "green" and not suitable for a fire until it is dried for a year or six months when split. All you were burning was the oils in the bark with that first fire.. confused me for sure as a Woodsman.
4:21 Thank you for showing that someone as bad at lighting fires as me can still do traditional woodcrafts. Truly inspirational :') Seriously though this is fascinating to watch. Good job on getting a functional soap at the end of all that
Hi there! It was a great video. I actually searched a lot about making natural soap without using pre-made ingredients; at last, I saw this video and It was awesome! Thank you for your amazing effort!
wow, what a journey! Loved the whole idea behind it. So important to trace the roots of soap making - especially with a beautiful scenery like in your video.
Thank you for sharing this. I was very impressed. _This isn't something that's easy to do and we take for granted what our ancestors had to do in order to make soap._ I render my own deer fat to make my tallow soap, but I haven't tried making my own lye yet. Our ashes from the woodstove are usually a mix of hard and soft wood. I also liked that you started your fire using a flint and steel and not a match. You mentioned that the soap was brittle and ugly. Do you think it was brittle because of excess salt? And remember, back in the day, soap was a necessity and didn't have to look nice. I truly enjoyed watching this.
Whatever the mishaps it was brilliant to watch your efforts and to LEARN new things. I thank you for sharing this with all. God Bless...Lots of love from Texas.❤
My mother told me how our ancestors made soap with animal fat and lye. I've read how lye was made but never saw anyone make it. This is a great skill. Very educational video.❤️👍😁
Hatss off 👏 for your great work it shows how much hardwork you put into this video it was really beautiful and really loved it great and amazing work I really recently found your page it was really soothing and loved the way your teaching ❤️👏
Pork fat always makes soft slimy soap no matter if ratio between lye /water/ fat is correct. Dark colour comes from all that cooking. I watched an old video of soapmakers adding unrendered fats and even the bone to the pot with liquid lye and then cooking it on low heat until it began to stick to the wooden spoon. (the method I will try some day)
I spent the winter reading books on square foot gardening and companion planting. I've been telling everyone i know about it and trying to teach them how its done!
I didn't expect this from your profile jajaj, such a surprise. Thanks so much for sharing with so many details, it's been nice to watch such an ancestral way of making soap. An now, we got a soap in a few weeks, or even days, crazy to compare!
That’s dedication for you, I can see you both enjoyed the experience. Was wonderful to watch, a very lot of effort so thanks for the journey. I am just glad we now have easier methods for our soap making. Loved every minute of it.
Lard doesn’t get firm like other fats. Try tallow next time (beef fat). And, it won’t thicken much because the fat has very little moisture to boil off. The only real moisture is from the lye and that isn’t a ton. But, great information and video!
This was such a pleasure to watch ❤☺ I felt like I was watching a little movie. I only found your videos about a month ago and you have inspired me to try making my own soaps. Each and every video you make is relaxing and Molly is just the sweetest! Thank you for sharing your knowledge and wisdom on making soap. Very grateful 🙏
Wow how very brave of you, such a lot of hard work, it reminded me of a goat milk soap I once made which overheated and was disaster. But you did get soap and it did get hard soap as I thought that the ash lye was Koh but then you did add salt to harden and probably the hard fat also made it harder. This was so very interesting and I like watching from my warm room comfortably ! while you did all of the work😏Thank you for another great video.
I know that grating the fat down before the rendering stage makes it melt faster. Put the fat in the freezer for 30-60 min n the put it through the grater 👍
This video was absolutely incredible! I've always been curious about ash and lye and soap making. I'm so impressed at the quality of the video and the amount of work you put into making this tiny loaf of soap. Even though it turned out kinda rough and strange, it cleaned! Bravo🫧 What language do you speak at the end?
In my country still this time many people use ashes to scrub pots and wash dishes..i hear about soap made by ashes instead of lye but i wasnt brave enough to do it and im happy to see that you have tryed..👏👏..but the soap made seems..hmm .interesting🤣 so i prefer to stick with our same way
Just wanted to let you know that soap made from hard wood ash is still made with lye. Lye from hardwood ash is potassium lye and what you would buy in the store is sodium lye. While potassium lye is commonly used in making liquid soap, where as sodium lye is for hard soap. You can make hard soap with potassium lye but it takes years to cure.
Legend has it that some washer-women were doing their laundry downstream from a temple where there had been animal sacrifices performed. When the holyfolk sluiced water over the altars, it swept the ashes and melted fat into the stream, and the washer-women quickly figured out that their whites got whiter on those days. This was supposedly in ancient Arcadia, I think?
This was a very ambitious project! I have rendered my own fat for soapmaking but I've no interest in DIY lye. So it was interesting to see you take this on. I love your precious doggo. Your videos are the most beautiful and also educational soapmaking videos out there, thank you.
That was so rad! Love how you documented the process and just was honest about how it went. That teaches and shows more than doing it perfect the first time! And there’s not really a perfect in this anyhow. Thanks! I learned a lot.
I remembered my late grandma is using wood ashes to shines her pots.. it works so well.. I must try this method sooner .. Thank you for sharing.. really appreciate it so much.. :) :)
