What are Your Safety Procedures?

[Andrew]

Hello Everyone,

What are all of the procedures and precautions you keep in mind when you make soap? I have my whole way of doing things and have kept me and my toddler safe as I work.

Let's keep this thread to what you do and how you do it.

Here is what I do and why:
1) Keep vinegar, citric acid, and coconut oil within arms reach. Vinegar helps wash and neutralize lye. Citric acid neutralizes lye, and coconut oil rubs into the skin if I ever spill lye water on me. With its high saponification number, it can help neutralize any lye left on the skin. So far no spills in 3 years of my business.

2) I generally mix my lye inside, but sometimes I will do it outside. My lye mixing bucket is an older HDPE 1 gal container from Bulk Apothecary. The lye solution does not come up half way up the container and it has a nice handle for easy movement.

Adding water to the lye or lye to the water makes no difference. I know some people disagree, but with cool purified water there are no risks other than spilling the container which is a risk no matter which way you do it. I am sure it is different with additives like beer, wine, milks etc..

3) I melt my KOH in a metal pot on the stove for my liquid soap. Not sure the best method for this other than a larger pot. So far no lye issues either.

4) I soap at 100˚ and have a DOT thermometer in my melting pot to make sure oil does not get too hot. Warm oil is great. Hot oil is dangerous. BTW I cold process all my bar soaps.

5) Unplug my stick blender before putting on and taking off the attachment. That mistake actually sent me to urgent care once...

6) Keep my child away when I am working. Obviously.

 

[MGM]

I had read that the vinegar "neutralization" argument is more or less moot, insofar as the neutralization is a reaction that creates heat, which will then burn you. So sure, your pH is back to normal quickly, but at the cost of a burn. I have no idea how long coconut oil would take to saponify (and thereby neutralize)...it seems it might take a while, ergo not effective. If it does go quickly, again, heat-generation.
I've luckily never experienced it, but the chemistry makes sense.

 

[Andrew]

*

I had read that the vinegar "neutralization" argument is more or less moot, insofar as the neutralization is a reaction that creates heat, which will then burn you. So sure, your pH is back to normal quickly, but at the cost of a burn. I have no idea how long coconut oil would take to saponify (and thereby neutralize)...it seems it might take a while, ergo not effective. If it does go quickly, again, heat-generation.
I've luckily never experienced it, but the chemistry makes sense.

vinegar is 5% acid to 95% water. It heats up a bit, but not much and quite honestly is something i'll take instead of a caustic burn which dissolves the skin. Also, lye and water creates a lot of heat so you're hot water either way.

Vinegar is better for cleaning equipment, countertops, floors, etc..

 

[DeeAnna]

@Andrew -- If you were in my college freshman chemistry class, you'd get reprimanded (1) for adding water to NaOH rather than the reverse, and (2) for not knowing the correct first aid protocol for NaOH or KOH exposure to the body, and (3) for stirring the contents of a container while the container is on a scale --



It's important to teach beginners to make soap correctly and safely, and that means safety rules must be clear and consistent. I personally will not be silent when I see someone advocating practices that can be dangerous. YOU might not have gotten in trouble with (1) or (2), but other people have. That's enough reason for me to warn others to not buy into these practices.

 

[jcandleattic]

 

[atiz]

I mix my lye in the kitchen sink. If it spills, it goes down the drain where it belongs. If it spills on me, I can immediately rinse it (better than vinegar).

I always wear glasses when I mix because a little lye in your eyes does not sound like fun at all. Nowadays I don't usually wear gloves because I feel a bit clumsy in them -- but I am careful and water is always nearby. I treat the lye container similarly as I would treat a pot of boiling water: attentively but not overly scared.
(ETA: the best practice is to wear gloves. I'm just mostly lazy, and I also like feeling if something splashes on me instead of finding it on my glove unaware half an hour later. But I'm not advocating for this practice.)

As others said, I mix them by adding NaOH to water and not the other way.

I don't usually use a thermometer, just make sure that both my lye and oils are slightly warm to the touch but not hot.

I don't leave my stick-blender in the mixing pot, ever. Once I did and it *almost* fell over spilling raw soap batter everywhere.

 

[Andrew]

@Andrew -- If you were in my college freshman chemistry class, you'd get reprimanded (1) for adding water to NaOH rather than the reverse, and (2) for not knowing the correct first aid protocol for NaOH or KOH exposure to the body, and (3) for stirring the contents of a container while the container is on a scale --



It's important to teach beginners to make soap correctly and safely, and that means safety rules must be clear and consistent. I personally will not be silent when I see someone advocating practices that can be dangerous. YOU might not have gotten in trouble with (1) or (2), but other people have. That's enough reason for me to warn others to not buy into these practices.

Dee,

I happen to have learned quite a bit from your posts in the forum. Please keep that up!

Now let's go through this point by point.

1) I have a Masters in geology and know my way around basic chemistry.
2) The scale is pretty much toast and I'm looking at new ones so I can go up to 80 bar batches. I also need a lab grade one as well for mixing up essential oil blends. I would definitely be up for scale recommendations.
3) I know know first aid protocol when it comes to lye. It is great as a degreaser and grill cleaner! It also dissolves organic material such as skin and hair. I wear gloves when I work since I don't like to touch the soap I sell, but not in that video as I was making a point that you apparently missed. As I cold process almost all of my soap, I do not actually touch any caustic soap or keeping any oils at a hot enough temperature to burn.
4) I also had the request to stay on topic in my original post but I guess you didn't read that.

Advocating a procedure is different than sharing how one does it and you know that. A proper response would be "Andrew, this is how I do it and this is how I advocate new soapers to stay safe..."

I would be quite interested to read an on topic response from you as many people here value your input .

 

[earlene]

Some of my safety DO's and DON'T's for safe soaping:

I do wear gloves at all times when working with active lye. I've been working with lye for 52 years, in other capacities besides soap making, so learned at my mother's instruction how to safely work with lye. I was taught to add dry lye to the liquid and this works best in all applications in which I use lye. My chemistry professors also instilled safe chemical procedures in me which reinforced the safety precautions taught to me by my mother.

I do wash any lye spills on my skin with plain water, as it is the safest method for diluting the lye. Besides diluting the lye, making it weaker, water cools the skin at the same time, and decreases any burning sensation fairly quickly. If the burning sensation continues, I keep the body part under a steady stream of cool tap water.

When (it has happened) dry lye spills onto my scale or work table, I wipe up/sweep up with a wet paper towel (wet with water) to collect the crystals, then wipe again with a clean wet paper towel, followed by a vinegar spray & wipe. Dilution with water is the safest method for cleaning up a lye spill. (See MSDS sheets on lye.)

I don't spray or pour vinegar onto my skin if I get soap batter on myself because vinegar causes an exothermic reaction with lye and it burns the skin. (Yes, I did that when I was new and it does really burn. Rinsing with cool water from the tap does not burn at all.)

I do use HDPE plastic with recycle # 5 or # 2 as it won't melt that plastic. I have experienced the bad effects of mixing lye in the wrong kind of plastic (when I was very new to soapmaking) and what happened was cracks and leakage from the bottom. I don't buy cheap plastic measuring cups from the Dollar Store anymore because of that experience.

I don't mix lye in any metal EXCEPT stainless steel, but since it is so heavy when full, I only have one for small batches.

I do limit the weight of what I work with to what I can safely carry due to my age, strength and the conditions of my hands. This is extremely important for me when working with lye and when pouring large bottles of oils or transporting melted oils across the room from my heat source to my worktable.

I don't put my CPOP soaps into the oven sitting on aluminum because lye eats away at the aluminum when it spills over. Yes, that happened to me. So all soaps for CPOP go on top of a lye safe tray (thick cardboard works just fine in my oven at the low temperatures I use.)

I do mix my lye in the kitchen sink (inside the tall plastic containers mentioned above) to prevent spills on a counter top. Besides the height of the container inside the sink is perfect for my height.

I do use a long-handled spoon or mixing utensil when mixing lye so I don't have to reach down inside the container while mixing my lye solution. The handle is always at least 3 or 4 inches longer than the lye solution is tall.

When I make soap while traveling (which I do quite a lot of), I use a plastic dish washing tub (HDPE #2 or #5) as a replacement for my sink to mix lye, by placing the plastic container into the tub first, then make the lye solution. This is to contain any possible spillage.

I don't use frozen milks or any other frozen liquid in making lye solution because of my experience getting huge lye chunks in soap once. It can be prevented, but as a new soaper, that was one really rough experience. I learned to create a cool lye solution without having to use frozen liquids.

When I make lye solution with beer or other quick to boil liquid, I make it in a very tall container, never filling it more than 1/3 - 1/2 full because of my experience with it boiling over once. I make sure to use very cool liquids to start, and keep the container in the sink and add an ice bath for the known heaters (kombucha tea and beer both boil up really fast if not careful.)

I do wear personal protective gear when soaping: gloves (I use nitrile gloves, due to latex sensitivity), protective eyewear, protective mask as needed, apron (to protect my clothes), shoes, hair protective measures (when my hair was long, I wore it in a bun so it wouldn't fall into the soap - yes my a long braid almost fell into the soap once - a valuable lesson).

I do work with lye in a well ventilated room. I run the kitchen stove fan while masterbatching lye, even though I don't mix lye on the stove top (gas range), but it helps draw some of the fumes out of the kitchen.

I do cover my work table or counter-top (depending on which space I am using) with old towels to collect any spills or splashes and make clean up easier (for me in my situation).

To wash up, I rinse the lye container with plain water before washing. I wipe excess soap leftovers from the containers and utensils, then nestle them inside each other and allow to dry out for a day or so before washing.

I use a tall cup to place my stick blender into to prevent raw soap from contaminating my work area. The cup's diameter is a perfect fit for the bell of my SBer and I can stand the SB up in the cup quite easily by leaning it in the direction of the pile of old towels I keep handy for clean-up.

I don't leave my stick blender inside the mixing container and walk away. It has fallen over and did create a mess of raw soap I had to clean up.

I mop the floor around my soap area with water, followed by vinegar.

I don't wear long sleeves, because raw soap on tight sleeves sticks to the skin and is harder to safely remove, then treat the skin than it is to run tap water over my bare skin. My personal experience taught me this one.

I don't touch my face with my gloved hands while making soap. If I have an itch, I remove my gloves, wash my hands, then use cool water to rinse my face. An itch while making soap, is quite likely to be from a tiny splatter of either raw batter or lye solution than some other cause, and it's better to rinse with water to ensure no lye burn on my face.

I don't rush while soaping.
I don't soap when I am tired.
I don't soap on days when I am clumsy.
I don't soap while on pain medication.
I don't soap while sneezing or otherwise sick enough to make it unsafe to soap.

When soaping with children (I have done with teen-aged grandchildren), I require all safety protective equipment and use methods that are both age and skill-set appropriate.

Edited to add
Reference re: safe & proper handling of lye - Material Safety Data Sheet (MSDS) from one of my suppliers: http://www.essentialdepot.com/msds/KOH_MSDS.pdf

 

[Andrew]

Some of my safety DO's and DON'T's for safe soaping:

I do wear gloves at all times when working with active lye. I've been working with lye for 52 years, in other capacities besides soap making, so learned at my mother's instruction how to safely work with lye. I was taught to add dry lye to the liquid and this works best in all applications in which I use lye. My chemistry professors also instilled safe chemical procedures in me which reinforced the safety precautions taught to me by my mother.

I do wash any lye spills on my skin with plain water, as it is the safest method for diluting the lye. Besides diluting the lye, making it weaker, water cools the skin at the same time, and decreases any burning sensation fairly quickly. If the burning sensation continues, I keep the body part under a steady stream of cool tap water.

When (it has happened) dry lye spills onto my scale or work table, I wipe up/sweep up with a wet paper towel (wet with water) to collect the crystals, then wipe again with a clean wet paper towel, followed by a vinegar spray & wipe. Dilution with water is the safest method for cleaning up a lye spill. (See MSDS sheets on lye.)

I don't spray or pour vinegar onto my skin if I get soap batter on myself because vinegar causes an exothermic reaction with lye and it burns the skin. (Yes, I did that when I was new and it does really burn. Rinsing with cool water from the tap does not burn at all.)

I do use HDPE plastic with recycle # 5 or # 2 as it won't melt that plastic. I have experienced the bad effects of mixing lye in the wrong kind of plastic (when I was very new to soapmaking) and what happened was cracks and leakage from the bottom. I don't buy cheap plastic measuring cups from the Dollar Store anymore because of that experience.

I don't mix lye in any metal EXCEPT stainless steel, but since it is so heavy when full, I only have one for small batches.

I do limit the weight of what I work with to what I can safely carry due to my age, strength and the conditions of my hands. This is extremely important for me when working with lye and when pouring large bottles of oils or transporting melted oils across the room from my heat source to my worktable.

I don't put my CPOP soaps into the oven sitting on aluminum because lye eats away at the aluminum when it spills over. Yes, that happened to me. So all soaps for CPOP go on top of a lye safe tray (thick cardboard works just fine in my oven at the low temperatures I use.)

I do mix my lye in the kitchen sink (inside the tall plastic contains mentioned above) to prevent spills on a counter top. Besides the height of the container inside the sink is perfect for my height.

I do use a long-handled spoon or mixing utensil when mixing lye so I don't have to reach down inside the container while mixing my lye solution. The handle is always at least 3 or 4 inches longer than the lye solution is tall.

When I make soap while traveling (which I do quite a lot of), I use a plastic dish washing tub (HDPE #2 or #5) as a replacement for my sink to mix lye, by placing the plastic container into the tub first, then make the lye solution. This is to contain any possible spillage.

I don't use frozen milks or any other frozen liquid in making lye solution because of my experience getting huge lye chunks in soap once. It can be prevented, but as a new soaper, that was one really rough experience. I learned to create a cool lye solution without having to use frozen liquids.

When I make lye solution with beer or other quick to boil liquid, I make it in a very tall container, never filling it more than 1/3 - 1/2 full because of my experience with it boiling over once. I make sure to use very cool liquids to start, and keep the container in the sink and add an ice bath for the known heaters (kombucha tea and beer both boil up really fast if not careful.)

I do wear personal protective gear when soaping: gloves (I use nitrile gloves, due to latex sensitivity), protective eyewear, protective mask as needed, apron (to protect my clothes), shoes, hair protective measures (when my hair was long, I wore it in a bun so it wouldn't fall into the soap - yes my a long braid almost fell into the soap once - a valuable lesson).

I do work with lye in a well ventilated room. I run the kitchen stove fan while masterbatching lye, even though I don't mix lye on the stove top (gas range), but it helps draw some of the fumes out of the kitchen.

I do cover my work table or counter-top (depending on which space I am using) with old towels to collect any spills or splashes and make clean up easier (for me in my situation).

To wash up, I rinse the lye container with plain water before washing. I wipe excess soap leftovers from the containers and utensils, then nestle them inside each other and allow to dry out for a day or so before washing.

I use a tall cup to place my stick blender into to prevent raw soap from contaminating my work area. The cup's diameter is a perfect fit for the bell of my SBer and I can stand the SB up in the cup quite easily by leaning it in the direction of the pile of old towels I keep handy for clean-up.

I don't leave my stick blender inside the mixing container and walk away. It has fallen over and did create a mess of raw soap I had to clean up.

I mop the floor around my soap area with water, followed by vinegar.

I don't wear long sleeves, because raw soap on tight sleeves sticks to the skin and is harder to safely remove, then treat the skin than it is to run tap water over my bare skin. My personal experience taught me this one.

I don't touch my face with my gloved hands while making soap. If I have an itch, I remove my gloves, wash my hands, then use cool water to rinse my face. An itch while making soap, is quite likely to be from a tiny splatter of either raw batter or lye solution than some other cause, and it's better to rinse with water to ensure no lye burn on my face.

I don't rush while soaping.
I don't soap when I am tired.
I don't soap on days when I am clumsy.
I don't soap while on pain medication.
I don't soap while sneezing or otherwise sick enough to make it unsafe to soap.

When soaping with children (I have done with teen-aged grandchildren), I require all safety protective equipment and use methods that are both age and skill-set appropriate.

wow that is very detailed and informative! Great guidelines to go by. I wonder if anyone does anything different?

My lye bucket ends up in the sink almost all the time as well. Usually it is in a cool water bath to knock down the time it takes to get to temperature.

Thanks!

@earlene in your 52 year of working with lye, have you been able to get any pictures or videos of lye behaving badly? I am thinking about the fabled lye volcano and it doing this like burning sugars/milks and such.

 

[IrishLass]

4) I also had the request to stay on topic in my original post but I guess you didn't read that.

Advocating a procedure is different than sharing how one does it and you know that. A proper response would be "Andrew, this is how I do it and this is how I advocate new soapers to stay safe..."

Andrew, please keep in mind our forum rules in regards to staying on topic:


Staying On Topic – It is not unusual for a thread to sometimes stray a little, but valid responses to questions that cover points or areas that were not implied in the original question but have an appropriate relationship/connection to it, are allowed, as long as the responses are generally relevant. If the responses are not generally relevant/completely unrelated altogether, it is naturally acceptable for the original poster to steer it back on course or suggest a new thread be started to address the unrelated matters. But if generally relevant answers are being offered, it is considered bad form of the person asking the original question to dictate what the responses should be. Such 'dictatorship' will not be tolerated.

In light of the above rule, DeeAnna's response is considered to be generally valid/relevant because it has an appropriate relationship to the point you went out of your way to make in your opening post in regards to the method of adding water to lye instead lye to water making no difference. Such a comment will not go unchallenged on our forum, as it goes against the proper chemistry protocols we advocate on SMF. Dictating to her what her response should have been instead is bad form.

 

[Andrew]

Andrew, please keep in mind our forum rules in regards to staying on topic:


Staying On Topic – It is not unusual for a thread to sometimes stray a little, but valid responses to questions that cover points or areas that were not implied in the original question but have an appropriate relationship/connection to it, are allowed, as long as the responses are generally relevant. If the responses are not generally relevant/completely unrelated altogether, it is naturally acceptable for the original poster to steer it back on course or suggest a new thread be started to address the unrelated matters. But if generally relevant answers are being offered, it is considered bad form of the person asking the original question to dictate what the responses should be. Such 'dictatorship' will not be tolerated.

In light of the above rule, DeeAnna's response is considered to be generally valid/relevant because it has an appropriate relationship to the point you went out of your way to make in your opening post in regards to the method of adding water to lye instead lye to water making no difference. Such a comment will not go unchallenged on our forum, as it goes against the proper chemistry protocols we advocate on SMF. Dictating to her what her response should have been instead is bad form.

Noted. I had a different understanding of 'generally relevant' and will keep that in mind moving forward. Thank you for the clarification.

 

[earlene]

@earlene in your 52 year of working with lye, have you been able to get any pictures or videos of lye behaving badly? I am thinking about the fabled lye volcano and it doing this like burning sugars/milks and such.

No, it happens way too fast to even think about preserving the event on camera! But I have never had any interest in filming the mixing of a lye solution.

Lye solution with kombucha tea was almost an instantaneous roiling boil-over, which thankfully spilled over into my sink and I washed that down the drain. It was also a very dark brownish orange color, reminiscent of perhaps Dr. Pepper or maple syrup.

Most of my experiential education with lye behaving badly was before I ever thought to film anything other than finished soap.

And 52 years ago, I didn't even own my first 35mm video camera yet. All I ever filmed with that was my children, anyway. And back then I only ever mixed lye with water and it wasn't for making soap.

 

[Rune]

The safety I follow is to always use googles. That is the most important, since lye splatters can blind you or give you serious eye damage. I mix lye in plastic, not glass, and I do it outside to not breath in any lye fumes. And I always, always mix lye into water, never the opposite. My brand of sodium hydroxide do give a clear warning on the bottle about the explosion risk of doing it the way you do it @Andrew. I'm sure your does too.
I make sure to make soap where have easy and immediate access to running water to dillute any spills of lye. I try to use gloves all the time as well, and always as I'm mixing and carrying lye around. I rinse my lye container quickly just after pouring the lye in the oils. And I fold up my shirt sleeves to expose the skin, which makes it easy to rinse off any lye splatter above the gloves. And that's more or less it.

@Andrew, using vinegar to neutralize lye sounds great in theory but it definately is not. It burns like crazy, as many have mentioned (yes, I have don that too). But I guess the worst ever thing you could do is to use coconut oil to neutralize lye spills on your skin. What you actually do is encapsulate the lye, making it impossible to rinse off, and it will just sit there and burn you really bad. Oils and lye does not saponify instantly. If they did, it would create heat that would burn you. So put your coconut and vinegar back in the cupboards where it belongs.

You should not neutralize lye, lye must be diluted, not neutralized. Plain running water from the tap (or any water source) is what you should use. It will quickly dilute the lye spills on your skin down to safe PH levels. But you can neutralize lye on objects with vinegar, that is fine, since heat does not normally damage objects. For example wipe your table with vinegar if you have spilled some lye on it.

In the beginning (but I'm still a newbie), I used to have an open bottle of vinegar besides me when making soap. I had seen that in a lye safety video on Youtube (I think it was), to alway have the vinegar ready to pour over your skin. But I took it away when I learned that vinegar would only make it worse. It is so much to learn every day in soapmaking. And it is so much misinformation out there, especially on Youtube, blogs and places where soapmakers tell others to do this and that without anybody correcting them. This forum is the best place for reliable information, because misinformation or dangerous practices will usually quickly be corrected by someone who knows better. And since lye has so high PH that it becomes dangerous, I'm sure nobody wants you to have accidents and learn the hard way, which many unfortunately have done. So it is just in the best of intensions @Andrew

 

[LilianNoir]

When I make soap while traveling (which I do quite a lot of), I use a plastic dish washing tub (HDPE #2 or #5) as a replacement for my sink to mix lye, by placing the plastic container into the tub first, then make the lye solution. This is to contain any possible spillage.

Ah! That's a fantastic idea for those of us who can't make lye solution inside. I didn't think of that(or did and forgot...very possible). I may need to do that for my lye masterbatching outside.

 

[earlene]

The safety I follow is to always use googles. That is the most important, since lye splatters can blind you or give you serious eye damage. I mix lye in plastic, not glass, and I do it outside to not breath in any lye fumes. And I always, always mix lye into water, never the opposite. My brand of sodium hydroxide do give a clear warning on the bottle about the explosion risk of doing it the way you do it @Andrew. I'm sure your does too.

Good points, Rune! Thank you for mentioning instructions on your lye bottle. I had meant to include the MSDS for lye in my post above, but forgot. So I have since edited the post to include it.

 

[Andrew]

The safety I follow is to always use googles. That is the most important, since lye splatters can blind you or give you serious eye damage. I mix lye in plastic, not glass, and I do it outside to not breath in any lye fumes. And I always, always mix lye into water, never the opposite. My brand of sodium hydroxide do give a clear warning on the bottle about the explosion risk of doing it the way you do it @Andrew. I'm sure your does too.
I make sure to make soap where have easy and immediate access to running water to dillute any spills of lye. I try to use gloves all the time as well, and always as I'm mixing and carrying lye around. I rinse my lye container quickly just after pouring the lye in the oils. And I fold up my shirt sleeves to expose the skin, which makes it easy to rinse off any lye splatter above the gloves. And that's more or less it.

@Andrew, using vinegar to neutralize lye sounds great in theory but it definately is not. It burns like crazy, as many have mentioned (yes, I have don that too). But I guess the worst ever thing you could do is to use coconut oil to neutralize lye spills on your skin. What you actually do is encapsulate the lye, making it impossible to rinse off, and it will just sit there and burn you really bad. Oils and lye does not saponify instantly. If they did, it would create heat that would burn you. So put your coconut and vinegar back in the cupboards where it belongs.

You should not neutralize lye, lye must be diluted, not neutralized. Plain running water from the tap (or any water source) is what you should use. It will quickly dilute the lye spills on your skin down to safe PH levels. But you can neutralize lye on objects with vinegar, that is fine, since heat does not normally damage objects. For example wipe your table with vinegar if you have spilled some lye on it.

In the beginning (but I'm still a newbie), I used to have an open bottle of vinegar besides me when making soap. I had seen that in a lye safety video on Youtube (I think it was), to alway have the vinegar ready to pour over your skin. But I took it away when I learned that vinegar would only make it worse. It is so much to learn every day in soapmaking. And it is so much misinformation out there, especially on Youtube, blogs and places where soapmakers tell others to do this and that without anybody correcting them. This forum is the best place for reliable information, because misinformation or dangerous practices will usually quickly be corrected by someone who knows better. And since lye has so high PH that it becomes dangerous, I'm sure nobody wants you to have accidents and learn the hard way, which many unfortunately have done. So it is just in the best of intensions @Andrew

Funny story, my 50 lbs lye containers don't say that. All three of them.

I never wrote anywhere in this thread that I use vinegar on my skin so you can calm down about that. I actually use it for 1) spills and 2) post soaping clean up. It also takes about 4L of vinegar to neutralize 126g of lye (about enough lye for one batch). Try mixing those together and seeing how hot the water gets.

If you wash the lye off with cold water you're good. For when I have gotten lye or soap on me, coconut oil or some other oil works great as a moisturizer since the lye strips that out of the skin.

Feel free to hit me up if you have any newbie questions. I make soap 6 days a week, but can manage to answer an email.

Funny story, my 50 lbs lye containers don't say that. All three of them.

I never wrote anywhere in this thread that I use vinegar on my skin so you can calm down about that. I actually use it for 1) spills and 2) post soaping clean up. It also takes about 4L of vinegar to neutralize 126g of lye (about enough lye for one batch). Try mixing those together and seeing how hot the water gets.

If you wash the lye off with cold water you're good. For when I have gotten lye or soap on me, coconut oil or some other oil works great as a moisturizer since the lye strips that out of the skin.

Feel free to hit me up if you have any newbie questions. I make soap 6 days a week, but can manage to answer an email.

 

[earlene]

I never wrote anywhere in this thread that I use vinegar on my skin so you can calm down about that.

Maybe that's not what you meant in post number 3 of this thread, but that is what it looks like you are saying, so I get why Rune responded the way he did. I read it the same way, as if you are saying you prefer to use vinegar on a lye spill on your skin. If that's not what you meant, perhaps a clarifying edit might be in order (before the opportunity to edit times out). Just a thought.

*

vinegar is 5% acid to 95% water. It heats up a bit, but not much and quite honestly is something i'll take instead of a caustic burn which dissolves the skin. Also, lye and water creates a lot of heat so you're hot water either way.

Vinegar is better for cleaning equipment, countertops, floors, etc..

Incidentally, not all vinegar is 5%. I have seen other percentages sold in some grocery stores (4%, even 3%, but it can also be purchased in higher percentages as well, although not in any grocery store I've seen.)

 

[Rune]

We have this warning on the lye bottles (translated from norwegian to english):

"PRECAUTIONS: When making the solution, always mix caustic soda in the water, not the opposite. Be aware that there is a strong heat generation and take this into account when choosing a mixing vessel. Wear resistant gloves such as neoprene rubber/polyvinyl chloride (PVC)"

I was sure we had warnings on the bottle about the explosion risk, but it must have been somewhere else. Perhaps the MSDS. I know I have seen it in relation to this brand's product.

I really don't like that they don't mention safety glasses. I find that even more important than gloves, since eyes are more delicate than skin and not as easy to rinse, and if you do get serious damage, I guess most will agree that a damaged skin somewhere is better than damaged eye vision.

I admit I did not read the post where you wrote that vinegar is better for cleaning equipment, countertops.... I only read the first post.

 

[MGM]

I never wrote anywhere in this thread that I use vinegar on my skin so you can calm down about that. I actually use it for 1) spills and 2) post soaping clean up. It also takes about 4L of vinegar to neutralize 126g of lye (about enough lye for one batch). Try mixing those together and seeing how hot the water gets.

It's true, you said you neutralize with vinegar and in the next breath, that you rub coconut oil on your skin. But you didn't say you neutralize your skin with vinegar.
However, if your ratios are accurate (and I don't doubt you) why on earth would anyone pour 4L of vinegar over a surface rather than mopping up the 126g of lye? Seems like a mechanical clean up is easier than a chemical one, in this case.
Vinegar is making less and less sense...except on fries of course!

 

[earlene]

Ah! That's a fantastic idea for those of us who can't make lye solution inside. I didn't think of that(or did and forgot...very possible). I may need to do that for my lye masterbatching outside.

Thank you, Lilian. It is not my original idea. I learned it from my soaping instructor in a basic soapmaking class I took. When I saw the list of required supplies to bring along, I thought 'why a plastic dish pan?' but did not guess correctly as to how it would be used. I have found it invaluable for use while making soap when I travel.