Soap with extra free lye

[nadsnads]

So I want to make a soap paste which has ~2.5% free lye (potassium hydroxide) leftover after saponification. I want to use it to strip the seasoning from my cast iron pan. Folks use a lye bath with 1 pour per 5 gallon of water (so ~2.3% lye solution) to do so. Since I live in a tiny apartment, having a bucket of lye water sitting anywhere here for 3 days would inevitably result in a bad accident. So I want to make a soap paste instead with the same amount of free lye, and rub that onto my pan.

Please critique my idea

 

[Obsidian]

Get yourself a bottle of easy off oven cleaner in the yellow can. Spray all over cast iron pan, put in garbage bag, seal shut, check after a day or two. Repeat until clean.

I used easy off until I had enough cast to set up a lye bath. Make sure to wear gloves and use a thick layer of newspaper to protect whatever surface you are working on, its messy.

 

[DeeAnna]

You can't just look at the concentration of alkali, you also have to consider the total amount of alkali.

The total amount of free alkali in the bucket of lye solution is going to be higher than the total alkali in a film of paste soap. In addition to that, the alkali can easily diffuse through water, but not as easily through a film of soap paste. End result -- I suspect you're going to have to reapply the paste soap several times to get sufficient cleaning.

Not to say the soap paste won't work, but I don't think it's going to be a whole lot safer, tidier, or easier than using a lye bath or Easy Off.

I'm with Obsidian -- I'd also use Easy Off if you can't do a lye bath.

 

[nadsnads]

You can't just look at the concentration of alkali, you also have to consider the total amount of alkali.

The total amount of free alkali in the bucket of lye solution is going to be higher than the total alkali in a film of paste soap. In addition to that, the alkali can easily diffuse through water, but not as easily through a film of soap paste. End result -- I suspect you're going to have to reapply the paste soap several times to get sufficient cleaning.

Not to say the soap paste won't work, but I don't think it's going to be a whole lot safer, tidier, or easier than using a lye bath or Easy Off.

I'm with Obsidian -- I'd also use Easy Off if you can't do a lye bath.

Hmm.. you're making some really good points. I guess I'll stick with Easy Off. Thanks for breaking it down for me.