lye soap

[buckknife]

Picked up a small chunk of home made lye soap from a Amish store today.Reading up on how its made i got the ider to try using it alone with water for a moose milk :youcrazy:
I shaved off maybe an ounce and put in 13 onces of water or so.Takes a while to dissolve an needs to be stired up,hard stufff.
It does seem to hold a lube quality besides the soap.I think it would work as a moose milk when figuared out the right poerportions of water to soap.It would also be period correct and was readly avaliable.
My question is how corrosive would this moose milk be knowing how lye soap is made? :hmm:

 

[buckknife]

Well manure that didnt work,the darn stuff just wont disolve,full of little chunks.I have susesfully invented soap suds :: oh guess thats been dun already.I do have a bar of 90 cent soap about the size of 3 regular store bought bars,and very clean hands :youcrazy:

 

[bezoar]

There are two ways to make lye soap. the right way and the wrong way. Some people do it incorrectly and it turns out as the "horrible burning/stinging soap" that same of you older guys may remember using at grandmas long ago.
When made correctly the acid in the lye is completely neutralized, the soap is the neutralized lye,water,fats, that were mixed up.

 

[IronMan]

I make lye soap but had never thought about useing it as a lube for the BP guns. As far as how corrosive it would be,after it has cured for the right period of time all the corrosiveness is gone. The soap we make sells quite well at craft shows.

IronMan

 

[buckknife]

maybe some fresh lye soap would disolve better,the stuff i have probably been around a while,hard and dry.If i let the mix set a couple of days maybe it would adventually disolve?

 

[waksupi]

If it was French milled, it wouldn't have any active lye left, after aging. You should be able to put it in hot water, and melt it. I've been making it for years, and do use it in Felix Lube for full velocity cast bullets in modern firearms. I've never seen any bore problems due to it.

 

[buckknife]

Thanks Rick,i will give the hot water a try

 

[Slowpoke]

If any of you get On the Trail they have a good article on Lye soap this month.

SP