Buy lye from ash. Lye as a detergent and antiseptic instead of soap or shampoo for personal hygiene and washing clothes. Getting lye from ash. Using ready-made lye instead of soap and shampoo for washing and washing

The guides of the Ethnographic Museum, telling visitors about the life of our ancestors, mention one universal detergent, which was used to wash and bleach clothes, wash dishes, wash in the bathhouse, fertilize the garden, and so on. These transfers cause genuine interest in such a unique tool. Indeed, in our high-tech age, such a substance simply does not exist. And it's just a lye. An excellent natural remedy obtained from ash, which was widely used by our ancestors (and more recently, some 60-70 years ago). During the Great Patriotic War, and even after, it was a big problem to buy soap, not only toilet, but even household soap. And since they were heated with firewood, there was enough ash and, accordingly, lye.

So what is lye?

From a scientific point of view, this is a consistency of wood ash infused with water. It mainly consists of potassium and sodium carbonates, has a strong alkaline reaction. From this word came the name of a class of chemical compounds - alkalis. Unlike store-bought detergents, this is a completely natural, environmentally friendly substance - it does not contain any preservatives, or chemicals, or all those harmful substances that are found in large quantities in modern products.

How was lye obtained?

Lye was prepared in two ways: hot and cold. Preparing lye in a cold way is quite simple. To do this, you need to take: a container, ash and water. Pour two thirds of the prepared ash into the container and fill with water. Stir and let it brew for three days. After this time, the liquid that has collected in the upper part of the container is very carefully drained. This is the lye. For household needs (washing, washing), the lye was diluted in a ratio of 1:10 before use. For washing hair and body, dilute even more 1:15. The hot method is more troublesome, but faster. We dilute the ashes with hot or boiling water in the same proportions, put on fire, bring to a boil and simmer for at least three hours. After the mass has cooled, strain it and drain into another container. Such lye is considered more soapy. There is another way to make lye. It consists in the following: the same amount of water is passed each time through a new portion of the ash until a strong lye is obtained. It becomes thick. To wash your hair, it is enough to pass water through the ash once and you do not need to dilute it.

What ash is suitable for making lye?

The concentration of lye depends on which plant the ash was burned from. The chemical composition of the ash and its amount depends on the type of plants and the amount of nutrients that they took out of the soil and did not have time to spend in the process of growth. These indicators are also influenced by climatic conditions. It has been established that there is more ash in herbaceous plants than in woody ones. Moreover, the younger they are, the richer in ash. With age, its composition also changes. For example, there is more potassium in the ashes of young leaves, while in old leaves calcium predominates. Grain is rich in phosphorus, magnesium, sulfur, and straw is rich in calcium and potassium. Especially a lot of potassium is obtained by burning sunflower stalks 30-35%, buckwheat straw 25-30%, potato tops, nettles, quinoa. There is less of it in the ashes of cereal straw. Birch ash contains 10-15% potassium (this is the highest indicator for woody plant species). For the manufacture of alkali, mainly the ashes of hardwood trees are used: birch, aspen, oak. The ash of coniferous trees contains a lot of resins and is suitable only for household needs.

Where and how was lye used?

Since lye was practically the only readily available broad-spectrum detergent, it was used in all types of economic activity. in lye soaked skin before tanning. Boiling in a solution of lye (1:10) washed and bleached canvases, linen. Fabrics bleached in this way did not deteriorate, but, on the contrary, became stronger, clothes were worn longer, wore out less (this applies only to natural fabrics: linen, hemp and nettle). If you wash with a more concentrated solution of lye, the clothes will wear out quickly. Lye diluted with a decoction of herbs was used as a shampoo or liquid soap. Our ancestors had no problems with hair until they were very old (with gray hair), and there was not even talk about dandruff. There was a natural cleanliness, a healthy body. It is worth paying attention to to wash your hair not any ash is suitable, but birch ash. But the ash from the hazel will save you from hair completely. To wash the body you need to moisten the body with lye, you need 1-2 liters and 10 liters of water to wash it off yourself. This is enough for a good wash. It is not recommended to leave the lye on the surface of the hair and skin for a long time, and it is also recommended to avoid getting the solution on the mucous membranes. To wash dishes used any lye, without diluting it with water, or diluting it (1:10). Washed the floors lye mixed with sand and the mixture obtained with the help of a golik (a broom without leaves) rubbed the floorboards. Lye was also used in medical purposes: used internally for flatulence, gastric colic, high acidity and poisoning with berries.

The benefits of lye, of course, stem from the benefits of its original product, ash.

aspen ash, mixed with fresh pork fat, is used as an ointment for eczema and furunculosis.

And it's great on a hot summer day quench your thirst such water: pour half a glass of ash into a tight linen bag and rinse well with water. Some of the ash will dissolve. Place the remaining ash in a jar of water (1/4 cup of ash per 2 liters of water) and leave for a day, then dilute with boiled water in a ratio of 1:3 and drink.

From the ashes, our ancestors made excellent soap, toothpaste, tooth powder. From washed ash, toothpaste strengthens gums and teeth, protects enamel. Tooth powder - powdered wood ash obtained from the combustion of birch, makes teeth snow-white and keeps them healthy until old age. Ash soap perfectly and instantly washes the skin and head, it is a pleasure to wash it - a feeling of extraordinary cleanliness and freshness.

Unfortunately, ash and lye are completely out of use. I think that the skills of making lye and using ashes will be very useful on a hike, since you don’t have to take soap or detergents with you, which means that the weight of the equipment will be less. In addition, this way you can make the most of natural resources, and without waste: they lit a fire, prepared food, then collected the ashes and washed the dishes. Environmentally friendly and for the benefit of yourself and nature. Of course, in the conditions of the city, it is unlikely that anyone will make lye, but in the countryside, in the country, this may well come in handy. Even if you do not wash, wash with alkaline water, it will still be interesting to cook it at least once in order to understand what our ancestors used.

Lobanova Sofia Yurievna

Senior Researcher

storage department

Sources and literature:

1. liveinternet.ru/users/murka7/post357146423/

5. . Semyonova M. We are Slavs. / Popular Encyclopedia. - St. Petersburg: ABC Classics, 2007

Kirill Sysoev

Calloused hands do not know boredom!

Content

It is hard to imagine modern life without chemicals to maintain cleanliness and disinfection. In addition to harmful detergent solutions and washing powders, there is a cleaner substance that is environmentally friendly, hypoallergenic and harmless when used correctly. This is natural lye. In urban conditions, rarely anyone will use this substance, but on a hike or in the country, you can try the technique - at the same time it will be easier to understand how our ancestors maintained hygiene.

What is lye

The name of such a class of chemical compounds as alkalis comes from this word. Lye is a natural substance obtained as a result of a decoction or infusion of wood ash. For commercial use, it must be diluted with water. This substance consists of sodium carbonates (soda, soda lye) and potassium (potash), has a strong alkaline reaction. To make it, you need to use the ashes of deciduous trees: aspen, oak, birch. A lot of resins will remain in the ashes of coniferous plants, which can interfere with washing or cleaning anything.

How concentrated the lye will be depends on the type of wood from which the coals are left. More substances are obtained from herbaceous plants than from woody ones. Potassium predominates in the ashes of young plants, while in older plants there is more calcium. Climate, soil and nutrients affect the composition of combustion products. Most potassium, about 30%, can actually be obtained by burning buckwheat straw, sunflower stalks. Up to 15% potassium contains birch ash.

Application

Ash lye was a readily available detergent with no alternatives previously available. It was used in household needs as a broad-spectrum cleaning agent. The lye solution is suitable for bathing, washing hair, washing, bleaching clothes, soaking leather before tanning, washing dishes, disinfecting floors, and some medical applications.

For example, our ancestors used this substance internally to reduce acidity, for poisoning, bloating, disorders of the gastrointestinal tract, used as an antiseptic. Ash soap instantly cleanses the skin, gives a feeling of natural freshness. Tooth powder was also made from it - crushed birch ash powder, which strengthened enamel, whitened teeth, and kept them healthy until old age. Nowadays, liquid soap is produced from soda lye, and solid soap is made from potash lye.

Use instead of soap and shampoo

Natural fabrics, which were boiled in an alkaline solution (1:10), became stronger, linen was worn longer, wore out less. If you wash clothes made of linen, hemp or nettle with a high concentration of this substance, then it will lose its properties and will quickly deteriorate. Even with this solution, artists used to bleach canvases. Lye, diluted with a decoction of medicinal herbs, was used for bathing and washing the head as a liquid soap, shower gel or shampoo. Natural hygiene products contributed to the natural cleanliness of the body, healthy hair.

Our ancestors did not have allergic skin rashes caused by caustic chemicals, they did not know what dandruff was, and gray hair came at the right time. Application:

1. Birch ash is best for washing and strengthening scalp hair, and a substance from burnt hazel can completely rid a person of hair.
2. For bathing, moisten the body with a suitable lye (up to 2 liters of solution), and for rinsing, take 10 liters of water.
3. Do not leave the substance on the surface of the skin for a long time.
4. It is necessary to wash well, avoiding contact with the eyes and mucous membranes.

Washing greasy dishes

Our grandmothers dealt with it with soda, mustard powder or lye. The plates were really clean and safe for human health, although more time had to be devoted to this household task. You have to wash the dishes every day. Detergents are a product of the chemical industry and are not completely washed off the degreased surface.

Until now, in some families, the dishes are cleaned with soda or lye. Modern highly foaming detergents, although they eliminate fat even in cold water, contribute to the development of diseases of the gastrointestinal tract and cancer cells. Our ancestors washed dishes with an alkaline solution (1:10) or undiluted lye. You can clean the dishes of fat with the help of wood ash - mixing with fat, it forms crude soap. This process is very simple, let's look at it in more detail:

• If the dishes are almost not greasy, add a couple of drops of butter or a little bit of margarine.
• Pour the ashes into the pan, pour in the liquid to make a paste-like consistency.
• Warm up the container.
• Thanks to hot water, a chemical reaction will occur, after which potassium salt is formed from wood ash.
• When it mixes with fatty substances, it forms a kind of soap that will clean your dishes.
• After cooling the contents of the pan, you need to spread the resulting paste along the walls.
• Rinse the container with clean water.

What happens if you drink lye

It should be borne in mind that the substance is chemically aggressive. Undiluted lye, if it gets into the eyes and on the mucous membrane, causes burns, especially since its ingestion can burn internal organs, the concentrate is dangerous for the human body. A solution of lye in the correct concentration is not only safe, but also useful both in everyday life and as traditional medicine. The benefit of this substance is provided by ash - a valuable starting product.

As a healing agent, it was often used in combination with salt. For example, for diseases of the throat, a pinch of salt and a pinch of ash were mixed, thoroughly ground to a homogeneous mixture. Then they wetted the finger in water, touched the powder with it and applied these particles to the diseased tonsils. The procedure was repeated several times, and the inflammation was removed.

An important role is played by what kind of wood ash is used for treatment, since each type of wood has its own properties:

Do not drink ashes with water as they can burn your mouth due to their alkaline properties. When you take it, it is forbidden to eat everything sweet, honey and fruits. Alkaline water can quickly quench your thirst. To do this, pour half a glass of ash into a linen bag and rinse it well with water. The remaining amount of ash, for example, a quarter cup, dilute with 2 liters of water. Then let it brew for a day, dilute with boiled water 1: 3 and drink.

Cold lye preparation

Pour wood ash without synthetic impurities into the prepared container two-thirds of the volume. Prepare warm water, add it to the dishes almost to the top. Next you need:

• Stir the resulting solution, wait until large wood particles emerge, and throw them into the trash;
• Set the container in the sun or closer to the fire, stir the contents by the fire at least once an hour.
• Approximately 2 hours before the ready time, it is necessary to stop stirring the solution so that the precipitate has time to settle.
• Infuse the liquid for up to three days. According to the experience of travelers, to obtain the required concentration of lye, you need to mix the solution in the evening and leave it by the fire. In the morning, place the container in the sun, and by lunchtime, the ash detergent will be ready.
• When the solids settle to the bottom, a yellowish, soapy to the touch transparent detergent from the ash, called lye, will remain in the upper part of the dish (if there is no yellowness and the liquid is not soapy, the infusion process must be continued).

Ash soap based on lye is the safest and most famous detergent from ancient times. Natural ingredients added to this soap soften its properties and make it suitable for both household use and personal hygiene. Let's find out how to make ash soap at home.

The basis of ash soap is an aqueous infusion of ash, called lye. This infusion is strongly alkaline and contains sodium and potassium carbonates. In ancient times, this infusion was used instead of the usual soap for washing and washing.

How to make lye

There are 2 ways: hot and cold.

hot way: put 12 tablespoons in a 5 liter container. (about 4 handfuls) of ash and pour 2.5 liters of water. Boil over low heat, stirring. The water will gradually evaporate. Let it brew for 8-10 hours. The ashes will settle to the bottom, and the fat-free liquid lye will remain at the top. Drain it carefully. The result should be about 1.5 liters of lye.

cold way: in a glass jar for 3/4 of the volume, put the ashes and add 1/4 of the water. Stir regularly during the first day. On the second and third days, do not touch. After that, carefully pour into a clean jar through a filter.

How to use lye

• for washing hair and personal hygiene you can use lye prepared in a simpler way. To do this, skip the water through one portion of the ash. This lye has a slight concentration and does not dry the skin.
• for dish washing you can use the recipe above, but with increased concentration. To do this, skip one part of the water through several new portions of ash. Get a strong and thick lye.
• for washing and cleaning lye prepared according to the cold method is suitable.

When washing and cleaning, concentrated lye is used, so it can dry out the skin. If desired, you can use gloves or other means to protect the skin.

Interesting: the concentration of lye also depends on the ash of which plant it was prepared from. For example, sunflower ash contains the most potassium carbonates - 30-35%, birch ash - 12%, buckwheat straw - 35%.

How to store prepared lye?

It is best to store lye in a glass container. It corrodes plastic cans, which will begin to leak over time.

Ash soap - natural detergent

A more convenient way to use lye is soap based on it. The technology of making ash soap has survived to this day. To make soap from ash, you will need a pot-type container. An important condition: it should not be aluminum!

Ash Soap Ingredients:

• 2 parts concentrated lye (prepared using the hot method, see above);
• 1 part melted pork fat;
• table salt (the exact amount depends on many factors, including the concentration of lye).

Ash soap preparation

1. Add pork fat to the lye and slowly heat over a fire. When the saponification process begins, the liquid will first acquire a milky color, then the solution will brighten. Gradually, the fat from the surface will turn into an emulsion, and the mass will thicken.

2. To continue the saponification process, add lye in parts of 100 g. Gradually, the mass will become transparent. The mass must be stirred regularly. The foam that forms is best removed.

3. When the mass begins to thicken, the so-called. soapy glue, similar in consistency to thick jelly. Such a mass will flow from the spatula not in drops, like an emulsion, but in a trickle.

4. When the soap glue is ready, you need to make a peeling. Slightly reduce the heat and scatter the first portion of salt over the surface and mix without touching the bottom. Gradually continue to add salt until the mass becomes like cottage cheese and floats.

5. Remove from heat, leave the container overnight to exfoliate the brine.

6. Carefully separate the soap and brine, then add a new portion of lye from a 1: 1 ratio. And repeat the process. The second brew will be faster.

7. This time continue to salt until the soap floats. In this case, there will be no curdled mass, instead it will turn out just a thick mass. For its upholding, 1.5-2 hours are enough. Using a colander covered with a cloth, filter the mass. Soap and brine will separate.

8. Leave the mass for 1.5-2 hours, and then decompose into molds for a day, then remove and dry.

The more boiling-salting processes the soap has passed, the better it is. To improve the properties of soap, you can melt it and add your favorite base or essential oils: for example, olive and lavender.

See for laundry, cleaning and hygiene

At the same time, the skills of preparing lye will be very useful and in demand in a multi-day trip. Without much effort, you can independently make for yourself any amount of a detergent that is quite appropriate in the field, effective and affordable, which will help a lot, for example, when organizing laundry during rest days (days) on the route.

Plus, you don’t have to take with you, in such a case, additional supplies of ordinary soap, washing powder or other detergents, which, although not by much, will still reduce the overall weight of your wearable equipment.

Getting lye from wood ash.

To prepare the lye, you will need ordinary clean wood ash from a fire, without impurities of plastic and other debris, and water. Ashes are preferred from hardwoods rather than softwoods due to the resins they contain. The ash of oak, birch, pine, and aspen has the highest alkalinity.

It is better to take narrow and high dishes for preparing lye; it will be much more convenient to drain it at the end of the process than from flat and wide ones. The material of the dishes does not really matter, but it is better to give preference to something metal, which then it will not be a pity to throw away.

It is not necessary to strive for very large volumes; for household use, the resulting concentrated lye is usually diluted with water in a ratio of 1:10, or even more, so 0.5-0.7 liters of pure liquor per person will be enough.

Obtaining lye from ash in a cold way.

In the prepared dishes, 2/3 of its volume, pour wood ash and pour warm water almost to the top. How to pre-clean or filter the ash does not make sense, only an extra waste of time and effort. We mix the solution well, wait until large wood debris floats to the surface and remove it.

Then we put the container with the solution in the sun or put it closer to the burning fire. It is desirable to mix the solution periodically, at least once an hour. 1.5-2 hours before the readiness time you have determined, all mixing must be stopped so that the ash has time to settle to the bottom of the dish.

Various sources recommend infusing the solution in this way for up to three days, but according to experience, to obtain a suitable concentration, it is enough to mix the solution in the evening, put it closer to the fire, and put it in the sun in the morning, then it will be ready closer to dinner.

After the ash has completely settled to the bottom of the container, a transparent, yellowish, slightly soapy liquid to the touch will remain in its upper half - this is lye. If the color of the liquid is simply transparent, without obvious yellowness, and it does not feel soapy to the touch, then the lye is not yet ready and the infusion process must be continued. The resulting concentrated lye is carefully poured into another container and used for domestic needs.

Obtaining lye from ash in a hot way.

It differs from cold preparation in that the diluted solution is not infused for a long time, but put on fire, brought to a boil and simmered for at least two hours, stirring occasionally. This method is undoubtedly faster, but at the same time more tedious and costly in terms of effort.

At the same time, this method is excellent for obtaining lye of very high concentration. To do this, you need to take two containers that are twice as large as the planned output of lye, and boil them together over low heat.

As the liquid in the first container evaporates, replenish it not with clean water, but with a hot solution from the second container, until it completely decreases. At the output, we get a strong concentrate in the first container and an empty second, where we drain the pure alkali.

Use of prepared lye.

Washing and washing clothes with concentrated, undiluted lye is not recommended, this can at least lead to dryness and irritation of the skin, and clothing fabric and threads can lose their original strength from exposure to caustic active substances that are part of the lye. For washing the head and body, the lye is diluted with water in a ratio of 1:15, for washing clothes - 1:10.

In addition, in urban conditions, any concentration of lye is not recommended for washing in modern automatic washing machines, since the particles of organic matter and salts that are insoluble in water are more likely to settle on the heating elements of the washing machine, which can lead to to damage or breakage.

Storage of finished lye.

It is better not to store ready-made concentrated lye, but to use it immediately. If such a need nevertheless arose, then a metal or glass container is preferable for its storage. Any plastic, with a high degree of probability, concentrated alkali will corrode over time.

Washing greasy dishes with wood ash.

In order to wash dirty and greasy dishes in the field, it is not at all necessary to waste time and extract lye from wood ash. In this case, it itself is a good detergent, since when mixed with fat it forms the same thing, only unrefined soap, which will remove dirt and grease from the walls of the dishes.

The only condition is that the dishes must really be greasy. If there is very little fat in it, then you need to add a little, just a few drops. Any fat will do, including edible oil or margarine.

Two or three handfuls of ash are added to a greasy dish, then a little boiling water is poured into it and the resulting mass is mixed to a paste-like state. Then the mixture is rubbed on the walls of the dishes from the inside and out, allowed to stand and cool for a while, and then washed as usual, rinsing with clean water at the end.

From the lye obtained from wood ash, ordinary soap can also be made if desired. However, this process is time-consuming and it does not make much sense to carry it out in cramped field conditions.

To make soap, in addition to lye, you will also need any animal fat, such as lard, or fish oil, or vegetable oil. The fat is mixed with lye in a ratio of 1:2 and boiled over low heat, with constant stirring, until all the liquid boils away, but not less than 4-6 hours.

As it evaporates, the lye will need to be added. Then let the mixture cool down. The resulting liquid, potash, soap will cleanse the skin, but will not be an antiseptic. You can give antiseptic properties to soap if you add pine resin to the solution during cooking.

I would like to note that such a soap may not work the first time and you will have to experiment to find the most appropriate ratio of the available ingredients.

You should start with a small increase in the amount of fat or oil, not lye, as a large concentration of it will dry and irritate the skin, which will only do more harm.

To obtain solid soap, salt must be added to the resulting liquid soap, the approximate amount is three tablespoons per initial liter of solution. As a result of the reaction, the potash soap will decompose into a liquid and a soap core.

It then must be separated from the solution and poured into a suitable form. After complete hardening and drying, we get almost ordinary laundry soap, well, as far as it is generally possible in the field.

LYE ASH LYE ASH- a solution obtained by dissolving alkaline salts contained in the ashes of plants. The ash of various herbaceous plants and trees contains alkali - potash, which can replace soda when washing clothes, washing floors, etc. Most of all potash is found in the ash from burning sunflower stems and husks (up to 30% or more), potato tops, wormwood , saxaul, especially black, growing on saline soil. From 10 to 20% of potash is in the ashes of the stems of buckwheat, castor beans, soybeans, corn, nettles, in the ashes of birch, fir, beech, etc.
Ash lye can be prepared in several ways. 1) The ash sifted through a sieve is moistened with a small amount of water, preferably hot, mixed and left for 10-12 hours. Then pour hot water (for 1 bucket of water 2 - 3 kg ash), mix for 15 minutes and stand for 5-6 hours. The liquid is drained and a lye solution is obtained. If the solution is opaque, it is filtered through a cloth. 2) The ash is placed in a tank of water (for 1 bucket 2 - 3 kg ash), stirred for 15 - 20 minutes, heated to a boil and the solution is allowed to settle. If the lye is not completely pure, it is filtered through a cloth.
Ash liquor can be used to soften water when locking, washing, boiling linen, for washing hands, dishes, floors, as well as for disinfecting contaminated linen, which is boiled with ash lye for 1.5 - 2 hours. When washing, lye ash should be diluted with water (1 part lye to 2 parts water).

Concise Encyclopedia of the Household. - M.: Great Soviet Encyclopedia. Ed. A. F. Akhabadze, A. L. Grekulova. 1976 .

See what "ASH LYE" is in other dictionaries:

ash- see ash; oh, oh. Ash / flax heap. Ash/flax lye. 3rd fertilizer ... Dictionary of many expressions

Soap (see), soap flakes, washing powders, briquettes, soap substitutes, synthetic detergents, alkaline substances, etc. Soap flakes (soap shavings) are crushed and dried high-quality soap, its content ... The Concise Encyclopedia of the Household