Dissolving lye in hot water

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gsc

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I want to steep some herbs in my lye water then strain. Directions for steeping herbs says to pour boiling water over them. When lye is dissolved I don't believe it is quite "boiling" temperature so I was wondering if I could start out with very warm water, add my lye and when completely dissolved add my herbs Any comments if this would work? I thought this might be easier than infusing my oils with the herbs.
 
Hello! I wholeheartedly agree with Obsidian and Ruthie - the chemical reaction of lye and water is very strong and produces an enormous amount of heat. Don't take chances by trying to combine two or more steps involving lye. I also don't like the idea of you straining out the herb/lye mix if you do it. That is one additional hazardous action that could back-fire for you. Safety first is foremost when doing anything involving lye. Just make the solution, let it cool and carefully pour it into the soap batter. Do other things separately. :thumbup:
 
Yep, what the others are saying. I'll also add:

Doing an infusion in plain water is quite different than doing an infusion in a strong alkali solution (aka your lye water). Old time soapers used to float a feather in their lye water to check its strength. It was strong enough for soaping if the lye disintegrated the feather. Our lye water will do the same if you wanted to try. Plain water, boiling or not, is not remotely in the same league. :)
 
.................I also don't like the idea of you straining out the herb/lye mix if you do it. ..............

This is a very good point - if you steep the herbs in lye water then strain them out, you'll have very caustic herbs to deal with and that won't be straight forward at all.

Steep in normal water, strain when cooled and then add lye - this method gets my vote, too.
 
I want to steep some herbs in my lye water then strain. Directions for steeping herbs says to pour boiling water over them. When lye is dissolved I don't believe it is quite "boiling" temperature so I was wondering if I could start out with very warm water, add my lye and when completely dissolved add my herbs Any comments if this would work? I thought this might be easier than infusing my oils with the herbs.
Hello
I just put the lye over a very hot water after boiling my herbs in it and straining it, what I got is a volcano of a very hot liquid and I burn my hands after that, thanks god for vinegar.

USING VINEGAR IS NOT ENDORSED BY SMF. DO NOT DO THIS.
 
Hello
I just put the lye over a very hot water after boiling my herbs in it and straining it, what I got is a volcano of a very hot liquid and I burn my hands after that, thanks god for vinegar

Never ever put vinegar on a lye burn. Your adding acid to the lye. Will make it worse That’s dangerous to even suggest. Also, this post is 5 years old.
 
Thanks for the advice guys, I'm new member here and saw this thread and thought of sharing my experience :)
 
Thanks for the advice guys, I'm new member here and saw this thread and thought of sharing my experience :)

Your first aid information is wrong, please do not share the wrong information, on a public forum.
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