wood ash lye

[pellet9999]

this one is for chemists... if I put a cup of wood ash in a gallon of water and let it sit on the stove for 2 days warm,not hot,
and then strain any chunks out...what concentration of lye is in the water...???? what concentration is useful for tough cleaning ??

 

[begreen]

I'm not a chemist, but found the traditional method is to test concentration with an egg. If it just floats, it's good. I suppose you could use an alkali hydrometer to measure the specific gravity for a more accurate reading. A fresh leach would be about 20% from what I read.

Google is your friend:

http://tinyurl.com/4nr5zxf
http://journeytoforever.org/biodiesel_ashlye.html
http://sodium-hydroxide.com/make-lye-at-home-from-wood-ash-10-practical-steps-to-follow
http://67.222.53.210/frontierfreedom/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=105

 

[PNWBurner]

Interesting links BeGreen!

Since the one site uses a pillowcase full of ashes in a 5 gal. bucket like a giant teabag my guess would be that one cup of ashes in a single gallon wouldn't be very strong. It does sound like some caution might be warranted in such experiements though...

 

[Battenkiller]

I know that a bucket full of ashes left out in the rain in an aluminum pan will drain all the water out of the bottom over time. When you finally empty the ashes there will be hundreds of tiny holes in the bottom. Pretty caustic stuff for sure.

 

[Corey]

I don't think one cup of ashes in a gallon of water is going to get very strong. Might be a good plant fertilizer...assuming you need potassium and alkaline water. IIRC, the traditional way to make lye would be to take a wooden barrel (or now days plastic) with a few small holes in the bottom, fill with ashes and slowly leach water through it. Collect the leachate over several days and you should have a pretty concentrated solution. You could scale up or down for how much you want, but the general idea is a small amount of water leaching through a large amount of ashes...not the reverse. You could further concentrate to to some extent by evaporating some of the water...either in the air or over heat.

 

[coaly]

It takes a slow drip through lots of ashes. If you take 4 - 2 X 4s and make two X's, then make a V with wood in the top, (like an animal feeder) fill it with ashes. Tilt it a little, and sprinkle a little water on top. Let it soak, add more until the ash can't hold anymore. SLOWLY, as it works it's way down, let it drip into a glass jar. This is the way they would "drip lye" for soap making or straight lye was used to clean anything nasty. (before there was 409 at Walmart)