Malcolm Rands: Making soap at home

Until around 1916, making soap at home was commonplace. Using wood or plant ashes and leftover animal fats, families produced their own soap for cleaning their clothes and themselves.During World War I, when animal fats were in limited supply, German scientists developed synthetic detergents — and commercial soap was born. Homemade soap became less of a necessity, and gradually the practice dwindled. 
In recent years, back-to-the-landers and simple-living adherents have revived the homemade soap-making process. It’s not only in favor with those who leave the big city for rural life or those with an anti-commercialist bent. For anyone interested in living as self-sufficiently as possible, it makes good sense to make your own soap.  Homemade soap is good for your wallet: you can make big batches of soap from scratch for less than it costs to buy bar after bar at your local drugstore, and you can reuse leftover bits to make new soap. It's good for your body, without all the potentially harmful chemicals in commercial soap, homemade soap is of superior quality. People with sensitive skin often find relief when they stop using store-bought soap and start making their own.  Homemade soap is good for the environment: it lacks the synthetic materials in conventional bar soaps that eventually accumulate in our waterways and put natural resources at risk.  There are many recipes on the web and lots of different techniques. Here are some general tips: 
* Make sure you have all the ingredients and tools assembled before you start. It is quite an exacting process and you don’t want to be running around looking half way through.
* Rubber gloves and protective eyewear, such as goggles or glasses.* Two large mixing bowls made of a material that will not react with lye: strong plastic, stainless steel, glass, enamel. Do not use flimsy plastic, aluminum, tin or wood. One bowl with a lip for pouring will be helpful. * Accurate measuring tools and good stirrers.  
* Sodium hydroxide, which is used to saponify the oils is very caustic. You’ll probably buy stuff normally used to clean toilets or drains. Always add the caustic to the water, not the other way around. This will then start warming up from the reaction with water.  * Measure every ingredient accurately. Getting it wrong and you end up with foul smelling or sloppy soap.  Once you have done this a few times then you can start experimenting with different techniques including hot mixes. And then you can also invent new shops using different added ingredients and essential oils.LISTEN ABOVE 

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.