Making Lye
Part of the processing of fibres for paper making is to boil them in an alkaline solution. One way of doing this is to add Soda Ash to the water but I wanted to make my own alkaline solution from wood ash. We have a wood burning stove so we had no shortage of ash. As with all the stuff on my website this is not meant to be a "how to" guide. This is just how I did it this time including cockups and disasters. By the way you must use stainless steel or enamelled containers and tools because the lye will corrode aluminium pots. Also you should protect your hands, skin and eyes .
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I collect the ash from our wood burning stove shown here. |
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Here is the bucket of ash. |
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I used about one third of the bucket of ash then I add water to fill the big pot shown here. First I scoop out the charcoal bits that float on the top. I don't know why you have to do this but I read it in a book so I do it. This is a little camping stove which runs off bottled gas and I can use it in the studio with the door open. I have seen various descriptions of this process. Some of them say just pour boiling water over the ash and others say boil for 30 minutes. As a compromise all I do is to bring the liquid to boiling. To tell the truth I think it may work even if you just use cold water but I've never tried. |
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After it's boiled I let it cool off a bit and then I straing the big lumps out with a sieve. |
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After straining out the big lumps I strain it again through a piece of fine cloth. |
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This is the resulting liquid. In real life it looks quite yellow and if you strain it carefully it is clear and looks just like pee. According to the book I have the pH should be about 10. The testing paper shown here goes up to 11 and you can see that the pH of this batch is at least 11. Woodash Lye is supposed to be gentler in action than Soda Ash so I figure 11 or 12 will be ok. The water feels soapy between your fingers and I read in one article that its because its dissolving the fat in your fingers. Not sure of thats true but you can see how you could go on to make soap with it using a bit of pig fat. Maybe thats something to try another time. At any rate this is how I use the lye. Just like this and since its already hot I start boiling the fibre right away.
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