Sudsy ammonia in soap?

[DeeAnna]

If you want a petroleum soap, I'd substitute kerosine or turpentine for the gasoline. Still flammable but far safer and as effective as a grease solvent. I will post some stuff in your other thread that I've gleaned from other SMF threads about petroleum soaps.

 

[Nanditasr]

I don't think I would try this recipe until you ran the oils through a lye calculator. I have made a laundry bar using ammonia. Make sure you are soaping in an open area or near an open window. This is the recipe I used:

Lard 19.2 oz
Coconut Oil 12.8 oz
Lye 4.8 oz
Distilled water 10 oz.
Borax 3 Tbsp.
Sugar 1/4 cup
Ammonia 1/4 cup
8 drops Vitamin E...

lsg:My apologies for digging up an old thread, but I have a question on this one: Is the ammonia here the "neat" (or the most concentrated possible) one that I can buy at the store selling chemicals, or is it the "household ammonia" with a 5% strength?

 

[lsg]

I used the household amonia.

 

[Nanditasr]

I used the household amonia.

Thanks. So I guess that would be 5% x 60 ml = 3 ml of the strong ammonia I've bought.

 

[LibAkilah]

I am reading The Delany Sisters' Book of Everyday Wisdom. The Delanys were two sisters who lived to be well over 100 years old and made their own soap right up to the end. They included the recipe in the book and I thought I would get your opinions on it.

6 pounds grease, melted and clean (or 3 pounds grease and 3 pounds olive, coconut, or other rich oil)
1 cup borax
1/2 cup water, boiled
2 tablespoons sugar
1 tablespoon washing soda
1 cup sudsy ammonia
1 can (13 ounces) pure lye
2 pints plain water
Optional:
2 ounces glycerin
2 to 4 tablespoons perfume, such as oil of cloves
2 cups oatmeal
​

The instructions start with dissolving the lye in the 2 pints of water. It says to collect 6 pounds of grease from cooking, or buying and rendering it--they note that half solid and half liquid fats make the best soap. You put the borax in a porcelain pan with the 1/2 cup of water, the sugar, and the waxhing soda. Then you add the ammonia and immediately follow that with the lye but make sure your lye is just slightly warm. "Hold your hand over it -- don't stick a finger in it." Then you add the melted grease 1/3 at a time and stir it until it's like thick cream. If you're making facial soap, they instruct you to add the glycerin and perfume when it's thick as honey and state that sometimes they grind the oatmeal and add it for texture.
Pour it into boxes lined with freezer paper and when it's thick cut it into bars. The final steps say to set it in the sun until it bleaches white then store it for use. The very last comment is, "One nice feature of this soap is that it floats!" Just thinking about what lye and ammonia would smell like together made me cringe. What do you all think? Would you make this soap?

I've made this soap 3 times now, and I really like it. I halve the recipe, so I don't make as large a batch. The soap did not float, but I did use an immersion blender the first couple of times. The last batch I made over the weekend I stirred with a spoon, so when it finishes curing I plan to see if the soap will float.

 

[RobinRogers]

It may be awesome but I just cannot imagine using ammonia!

 

[DeeAnna]

Ammonia could be irritating to your respiratory system when you make the soap without good ventilation, but the finished soap should be really nice and won't have any ammonia odor. The ammonia increases the solubility of the soap so it should lather pretty well even without any coconut, as the Delany sisters' recipe is written.

An alternative to the ammonia is to use about 5% potassium hydroxide (KOH) with 95% NaOH. Even nowadays KOH can be harder to find by everyday people, whereas ammonia solution is usually much easier to find. Availability of the ammonia solution is most likely why the Delany sisters used ammonia rather than KOH.