608. To Make Good Common Soft Soap

608.    To Make Good Common Soft Soap. For a barrel of soap take 12 pounds of potash to 14 pounds of grease. Dissolve the potash over night in 2 pailfuls of hot soft water, in the morning pour it hot over the grease, which must have been previously rendered down and put in the barrel, put more water on the potash that remains undissolved; when hot, add as before, and so on until all the potash is dissolved; fill up the barrel more slowly with cold water, finishing it the next day; stir it very frequently during the day and for several successive days. Al low it to rest for three months in the cellar.

609. Shaker Method of Making Soft Soap

609.    Shaker Method of Making Soft Soap. Place a shallow iron kettle, to hold from 4 to 6 barrels, just out of the wash-room, under cover of a shed. Extend 1/2 or 3/4 inch pipe for steam to the middle of the bottom, bending it to form of surface, and terminating with open end. Take another pipe to discharge cold water over the top of the kettle. Use the best quality of first sorts of potash, in the proportion of 6 pounds of potash to 7 pounds of grease, for a ban-el of 40 gallons. Break up the potash into small lumps, and dissolve it in say 2 pails of hot water to 24 pounds. It dissolves rather slowly when the potash is good. When dissolved, put the solution into the kettle, add the grease quite warm, and stir the mixture together. Allow it to stand over night, if convenient. In the morning, apply a moderate jet of steam until the mixture appears ropy, or rather soapy. Shut off the steam and open the cold water valve, stirring the mixture as the water runs, until the kettle is full, or the required quantity obtained for the materials used.

610. To Make Good Lye

610.    To Make Good Lye. Hickory ashes are the best for making common washing soft soap (when it is not desirable to use the potash lye), but those from sound beech, maple, or almost any kind of hard wood, except oak, will answer well. A common barrel, set upon an inclined platform, makes a very good leach, but one made of boards set in a trough in V shape is to be preferred, for the strength of the ashes is better obtained, and it may be taken to pieces when not in use, and laid up. First, in the bottom of the leach put a few sticks; over them spread a piece of carpet or woolen cloth, which is much better than straw; put on a few inches of ashes, and from 4 to 8 quarts lime; fill with ashes, moistened, and tamp down well -tamp the firmest in the centre. It is difficult to obtain the full strength of ashes in a barrel without removing them after a day's leaching, and mixing them up and replacing. The top should be first thrown off, and new ashes added to make up the proper quantity. Use boiling water for second leaching. This lye should be sufficiently strong to float a potato.

611. To Make Soft Soap

611.      To Make Soft Soap. Take about 4 gallons the above lye, and boil up thoroughly with 12 pounds of clear grease, then add the lye as it is obtained, keeping a slow fire, and stirring often, until you have a barrel of soap. Alter boiling the grease and 4 gallons of lye together, it may be put in a barrel and the rest of the lye added there, which will form good soap if frequently stirred, but the heating process is the best when weather and time will permit the work to bo done.