Making KOH from wood ash.

[Brent]

Has anyone made KOH from hardwood ash? I make soap and occasionally do a batch "old school" by using beef or pork fat and KOH made from wood ash from our wood stove.

I cannot buy lye anywhere locally and the drain openers that have lye also have additional chemicals. I know dozens of places to get it online but I am an avid DIYer.

I use the straw from our goat barn and chicken coop as a filter medium. Both the straw and wood ash ends up in our garden.

To extract it I use two 5 gallon buckets. On one bucket I have drilled a lot of 1/8" holes for drainage. I place it inside another 5 gallon bucket. The tp bucket I layer 2" straw and then 2" ash and repeat that all the way to the top. Then I just leave the bucket outside to collect rainwater. I live in Western WA so there is an abundance of distilled water that falls out of the sky.

[Bhart]

Thanks for the info Brent, I can buy LYE from Ace Hardware for $5.00 a lb. (NAOH)

[Brent]

For me it's just the concept of getting something useful out of what is normally thrown out. And the idea of being involved in as much of the process as possible.

In WA there is an ever growing list of what is restricted to sell without a signature and only small quantities. It's seems just about everything is being used to make meth. Last winter I went to buy a bottle of gas tank dryer since I was heading up to the mountains for a few days. I had to show ID and sign a log book.

Some stores are not even carrying any cold/flu meds that have Sudaphed because they are being stolen.