Fleece scouring soap

[Birdie Wife]

Hiya, I've progressed in fibre crafts to buying and processing whole sheep fleece (greasy fleece). I'm looking to make a liquid soap to degrease and clean raw fleece. The most recommended commercial fleece scour is Orvus, which seems to be almost entirely SLS, and I'd like to use something more natural. What else could I use? 100% CO?

 

[DeeAnna]

I prefer to not use a lye-based soap for washing raw wool. Unless you are able to use demineralized water or rainwater, soap scum will form when soap reacts with hard water minerals. That scum will reduce how clean you can get your fiber.

I realize soap had to be used in times past, but that's all they had back then and soap scum was a problem they had a hard time dealing with. Synthetic detergents don't form scum in hard water, so that's why they are preferred as scouring agents nowadays.

If you are going to use soap, however, then yes I'd use a 100% coconut oil soap.

 

[Shannon Dillman]

I have been working with sheep fleece too. I think the term for working with fresh cut fleece is ‘in the grease’. ?
I tried washing one ONCE then I found this method. The greasier the better. I was very excited with the results. It creates its own ‘soap’ through fermentation.
http://bluebarnfiber.blogspot.com/2017/07/suint-fermentation.html?m=1
I can’t wait for spring because I’ve used up the 3 full fleeces I bought and cleaned using this method. I’ve been invited to a shearing festival

 

[Kiti Williams]

Hiya, I've progressed in fibre crafts to buying and processing whole sheep fleece (greasy fleece). I'm looking to make a liquid soap to degrease and clean raw fleece. The most recommended commercial fleece scour is Orvus, which seems to be almost entirely SLS, and I'd like to use something more natural. What else could I use? 100% CO?

I use Orvus to clean my fleece. I have a dump out the back grey water pipe for my washing machine. Makes the grass really grow.