Table of Contents
- Can You Make Soap In The Wilderness?
- What Ingredients Go Into Making Soap In The Wilderness?
- How Do Ash And Animal Fat Make Soap?
- Where Can You Find Fat For Soap Making In The Woods?
- How Do You Make Lye In the Wilderness?
- How To Do A Lye Test
- Soap-Making Process In The Wilderness
- Woods For Making Lye In The Wilderness
- Conclusion
In the fight for hygiene and health, Soap—an everyday object—emerged as a lifesaver.
Soap is a useful item to have when you are camping, hiking, or living in the wilderness.
It can help clean your body, clothes, dishes, and wounds. But what if you run out of soap or forget to bring it with you?
Don’t worry; you can make your soap in the wild using natural ingredients and simple tools.
In this blog post, we will delve into making soap in the wilderness, addressing crucial issues like how to make lye and what ingredients nature provides for soap-making.
Can You Make Soap In The Wilderness?
Yes! You can indeed make soap in the wilderness! If you have access to necessary materials like ashes, distilled water, fat, and with the right precautions.
Evidence of soap-like substances being used dates back to about 2,800 BC in ancient Babylon, proving that their ability to “clean” has been known for thousands of years.
Since it is likely that cave dwellers at some point mixed ash with cooking grease by accident, creating the white-foamy substance that functions well as a cleaner, it is even possible that cave dwellers knew how to make soap.
What Ingredients Go Into Making Soap In The Wilderness?
- Wood ash
- Water
- Animal fats
- Plant oils
- A large container or a bucket
- Strainer or cloth
- Molds (can be made from wood, plastic containers, or flexible materials)
- A wooden spoon or stick
- A metal pot or can: This is used to melt the fat and mix the soap batter
- A digital kitchen scale: This is used to weigh the ingredients accurately. You can use any digital scale that can measure in ounces and grams and has batteries or solar power.
- A candy thermometer: This is used to check the temperature of the fat and lye solution
- Safety goggles, rubber gloves, oven mitts, long-sleeved shirt, apron, and well-ventilated work area.
How Do Ash And Animal Fat Make Soap?
When you mix fatty acids found in animal fat or oil with an alkali, such as the kind found in wood ash, a chemical reaction called saponification occurs.
During this reaction, the alkali breaks down the fatty acids into two key components: the fatty acids and glycerin.
The remaining fatty acids then chemically bond with the potassium present in the alkali, creating what we call “potassium salts,” specifically potassium hydroxide.
These potassium salts are the building blocks of soap.
In essence, this chemical transformation of fatty acids with alkali (potassium hydroxide) is
what turns a combination of ash and animal fat into a substance that effectively cleanses and lathers, known as soap.
Where Can You Find Fat For Soap Making In The Woods?
Fat can be obtained from any animal you hunt, trap, or fish in the wilderness. If you have coconut oil or olive oil, you can use them too.
You can use the fat from deer, bears, rabbits, fish, or any other animal with some fat under its skin or around its organs.
The cleaner the animal fat used in the soap-making process, the better the smell and the purer the soap will be.
To refine the fat, you can either gently heat it or render it.
Rendering means melting the fat and separating it from the meat, bones, and other impurities.
To render fat, you must cut it into small pieces and heat it over a fire in a pot or a metal container.
You need to stir the fat occasionally and skim off any foam or solids that rise to the surface.
When the fat is completely melted and clear, Pour the melted grease or fat through straining cloths. Cheesecloth if you have it.
The idea is just to get the pure liquids. Pour it into another container and let it cool.
How Do You Make Lye In the Wilderness?
Begin by gathering wood ashes from a campfire or deliberately setting up a controlled fire for this specific purpose.
Water can be found in many sources in the wilderness, such as rivers, lakes, streams, springs, or rain.
However, not all water is suitable for making soap. You need soft water, meaning it does not have a lot of minerals or salts dissolved in it.
Hard water can interfere with the soap-making process and make your soap less effective.
To soften water, boil it for a few minutes and let it cool.
Boiling water will kill any bacteria or germs that might be in it and also remove some of the minerals or salts that make it hard. Let the water cool a bit before use.
You need a plastic bucket or a clay pot with a lid or cover and a hole in the bottom.
To make concentrated lye, pour distilled water through cold ashes; hardwoods are best.
Pack your ashes tightly over the filter to prevent the ashes from falling directly.
Slowly pour soft or distilled water over the ash and collect the liquid that drips out of the holes at the bottom. This liquid is your lye.
Shake or stir the container well and let it sit for a few hours or overnight.
Place a cooking container or a bucket under the first container to catch the runoff.
Ten cups of ashes and one and a half to two gallons of rainwater will make an average strength lye.
Leave a few inches at the top to allow for water expansion.
The water will leach potassium hydroxide from the ashes and form a brown liquid called lye water.
Carefully pour off the lye water into another container without disturbing the ashes at the bottom. Discard the ashes or save them for another batch of lye water.
How To Do A Lye Test
You can test the lye progress by performing a “zap” test. This is a traditional method of estimating the lye strength.
Touch a small amount of the mixture with your index fingers and rub or pass it around with your thumb so it’s just a trace.
Strong lye feels soapy on the fingers because it removes the natural oils from the skin, giving the soap its slippery feeling.
Then, tip it to the very end of your tongue.
Here, you have to be extremely careful, particularly when you have yet to learn the strength of the lye; if it zaps or stings, it still needs to be fully saponified.
Continue cooking and stirring until the mixture no longer causes discomfort on your tongue. Boiling the lye water will only make it more concentrated and caustic
However, some people prefer less strong lye, so it depends on your personal preference.
Boiling the lye water is not necessary for making lye. So it depends on the strength of the lye you want.
If you need to be more competent at handling lye, use the egg method.
By floating an egg in the lye, if the egg is floating nicely with a little section (the size of a coin) sticking out on top, your lye is set.
If the lye solution is too strong, add more water. If it’s too weak, you can boil it longer to strengthen it.
Tips: It’s important to note that making soap using ash and animal fat requires careful measurement and handling of the ingredients, as lye (potassium hydroxide) is caustic and can be dangerous if mishandled.
It is essential to take safety precautions when working with lye, such as wearing protective gear and being cautious.
Soap-Making Process In The Wilderness
Step 1
The temperature of the lye and fat should be the same as when making soap in a normal setting, which is between 95°F and 115°F.
However, in the wilderness, you may not have access to a reliable way to measure or control the temperature.
In that case, you can use some alternative methods to estimate the temperature of the lye and fat, such as:
– Feeling the temperature of the containers with your hand. The lye and fat should feel warm but not hot to the touch.
– Observing the appearance of the lye. The lye should be clear and not cloudy.
– Testing the temperature of the lye: The paper should not burn or blacken when dipped into the lye.
In a large container, pour 1/2 cup concentrated brown lye water, and add 1 ½ cup lard, grease, or animal fat to your lye. Stir for fifteen.
Add a cup of grease and another 1/2 cup of lye water and stir for fifteen minutes. Use an additional 1 cup of grease (similar to the first measurement) and another 1/2 cup of lye water.
These measurements help maintain the appropriate balance between the fat or oil and lye, ensuring the saponification process occurs correctly to make soap.
Stir the mixture well, ensuring the lye solution is thoroughly mixed with the fat or oil. Mix until it’s about the consistency of custard.
This mixture will begin to undergo saponification, turning into soap.
Step2
Cook the Mixture: Heat the mixture over your campfire or portable stove, stirring continuously.
To further harden the soap, if, while stirring, the soap bar seems to be too soft, toss in a bit of salt (called “graining” the soap) during the boiling process.
The salt will absorb some of the water and help harden the soap, giving it a texture and feel similar to commercial soaps.
This helps to speed up the saponification process and ensure that the soap components are thoroughly mixed.
Check for tracing by drawing a line with your spoon.
If you can see the line, the soap is done. Conversely, When the mixture has the consistency of a heavy syrup, the soap is ready.
Step3
Natural fragrances can be added to the mixture to scent the soap.
For instance, oil squeezed from lavender or wintergreen can be added to the mixture to make the soap smell like commercial soap.
Vinegar or lemon juice can also be added to rid the soap of any undesirable smells.
Step4
Mold the Soap: Once the mixture reaches a consistency similar to pudding and has undergone saponification, remove it from the heat.
Mix until it’s about the consistency of custard.
Pour the mixture into molds, which can be made from wood, plastic containers, or even natural materials like leaves.
Allow to Cure: Allow the soap to cool and harden in the molds for at least a few days.
This process is less precise than modern soap-making, so the curing time may vary. Once the soap is solid, take it out of the molds.
Use with Caution: Remember that this wilderness soap-making method might yield different results than store-bought soap.
It’s likely to be more abrasive and less refined. Test the soap on a small skin area before using it all over your body.
Woods For Making Lye In The Wilderness
Here are some tree types and wood that are known to be relatively high in potassium and have been historically used for making soap in the wilderness:
1. Ash (Fraxinus spp.): Ash wood is one of the best-known sources of potassium for soap-making.
It has been traditionally used for creating lye due to its relatively high potassium content.
2. Beech (Fagus spp.): Beechwood is also considered a good source of potassium for soap-making. It’s a hardwood that has been used historically in soap production.
3. Oak (Quercus spp.): Oak wood is another hardwood that can make soap in the wilderness.
While it might not be as high in potassium as ash, it can still contribute to the soap-making process.
4. Maple (Acer spp.): Maple wood is known for its relatively high potassium content.
It’s another option if you’re looking for suitable wood for wilderness soap-making.
Conclusion
Choosing the right wood is a critical step in successful wilderness soap-making.
Selecting hardwoods with high potassium content and ensuring safety precautions will lead to a more effective and safer soap-making process.
By respecting the environment and following proper procedures, you can create soap in the wilderness that is functional and suitable for personal use.
As my own wilderness experience demonstrated, something as seemingly ordinary as soap can make a world of difference when faced with the unknown.
