Making Lye Soap

Making lye soap is a skill from history that has almost been forgotten as a home craft. Soap making is believed to have been accidentally discovered in Rome around 1100 BC, when grease from sacrifices hardened in the ashes around the altars. The skill proceeded through the Middle Ages and beyond. Even up through colonial times, men who made soap and candles professionally were known as chandlers.

For years in American history, soap making usually took place outside in a big black iron pot, where the fat and alkali solution from ashes were boiled down. The maker stirred the mixture slowly with a wooden paddle or large stick.

Some people mistakenly think lye soap is stronger than other soaps or is not as good. It doesn't normally lather much, but it does clean well. It's also as gentle as any regular soap.

Two ingredients are essential to making soap - fat or oil and an alkali. Homemakers first used ashes to obtain the alkali solution, and an ash hopper often stood near the back door to collect the

ashes. Later, beginning in 1836, lye would be manufactured for

soap making. Today, however, readily available lye has been taken

off the market. A few homemakers had continued to make lye soap into the 70's and 80's, but I don't know of anyone who still makes it today. Commercial soap production began much earlier, but the bars of soap didn't appear in many places, including North Carolina, until after the Civil War. 

Home soap making has almost died out. However, those interested in history, folk studies, and crafts still find it interesting, and some make soap as an experiment to experience the past. Of course, some also market it in craft and folk outlets.

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