r/soapmaking • u/JessyBearFA • 7h ago

Other Wrong place, maybe?

Instead of buying potassium hydroxide I'm making it. Does this group have any resources pertaining to that process? I've watched plenty of videos on YouTube, read many papers/books. Want to know if there are any additional resources to utilize. TIA!

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1

u/redmountainsoap 2h ago

At this point you know more about it than anything I've got. Are you going to make old-school soap? This would be the right place to post your journey. Sounds like a fun project!

2

u/JessyBearFA 1h ago

Yes I love making things from scratch! I'm going to process the ash from hardwood and make potassium hydroxide (lye) then make soap! I have used sodium hydroxide to make bar soap but never used potash is what it's called I think. I'll definitely upload my journey!

1

u/cicamaus 14m ago

Potash made from wood ash, you need hardwood, beech would be the best I read. But potash still isn't potassium hydroxide, it's potassium carbonate and you need slaked lime to make hydroxide. Slaked lime can be made by burning eggshells or seashells, grind them and put them in water. The calcium and the potassium will swap places while mixing together and you get potassium hydroxide in the water and the calcium carbonate will sink to the ground. I didn't do it by myself jet, but I will try it in the future.