Here's another couple of soap recipes - bascially the same thing, but in larger quantities. Please heed the warnings Jeanne posted! This is not something to fool around with. My mother used to make lye soap, using grease drippings from cooking bacon, mostly, for the fat. It was the only thing that would get the foundry graphite out of my father's work clothes. However, she used a metal tub to mix it in, with a large wooden spoon, always wore gloves. The fumes were obnoxious. One time, she put the finished product on top of a THICK layer of newspapers on the kitchen table, and the soap was still damp enough that the lye ate through the papers and took the varnish off of the wood table top.
How To Make Soap
OLD FASHIONED LYE SOAP
To be cooked outside in iron kettle.
Be sure and make it in dark of the moon so it won't boil over.
30 qt. rain water
4 cans Lewis Lye
18 lb. lard or strained grease
1 lb. Borax
Bring to a boil and cook 45 minutes, stirring constantly with a wooden paddle. Keep a bucket of water handy, in case it boils over; dash in a little water. Pull fire out from under kettle when it is through cooking. Cover and let set overnight, or until cold, then cut out in bars.
WHITE FLOATING SOAP
Into enamel kettle or dishpan put 2 quarts melted grease. In a crock or Pyrex bowl dissolve 1 can Lewis Lye in 1 qt. water, stir and allow to cool. Use a wooden spoon.
Into the melted grease add: 1-cup ammonia and 2 tablespoons Borax dissolved in 1/2 cup warm water.
Stir 5 minutes.
Last, when lye water is cool add slowly to grease, stir slowly for 1 hour. Cover and let stand for a while, then stir again. Let stand all-day or overnight. Cut out in cakes.
Don't use for 2 weeks - age improves the soap.
Use a wooden spoon to do the stirring.