How We Make Deer Tallow Soap (Plus experimenting with homemade lye from wood ash)

Just the video I needed before hunting season 👍

Always looking forward to the new video. Love the calm music 🎶

This is a really great video, have you tried grating the beeswax? Should help with the scary cutting job

Hey sweeties thank you for sharing your thoughts and video. I have psoriasis and would the moisturizer soap using the wood ash I wonder if that would help me? I was always skeptical on making soap from deer fat and wood ash idk maybe I will still make it 🤷 but I did enjoy watching yinz make soap 🧼 😁

Good job for your effort. Maybe you could have added more beeswax to harden it. You could possibly melt it down and add it in or at least a piece to see if it works. I was going to suggest heating the knife to cut through the beeswax and then you guys did. You just have to be careful not to get burned. Thank you.

To make soap with potassium hydroxide you need to cook it down (I use an old crockpot) until it gels up, about 1 hour, mixing every 15 minutes, with that you can dilute and make liquid soap or pour into molds, the color will definitely be much different than lye soap. The good thing about it is with the cooking process you eliminate the curing time and can use right away. I have never heard anyone using deer tallow, great way of not wasting anything!

Maybe add a pinch of store bought lye mixed with hard wood ash would do the trick...my thoughts were (if it wasn't lotion) to make a DIY detergent with it. But perhaps instead you can remelt it and add more salt and beeswax and turn it into a waterproof boot conditioner?

do you have a recipe and video on how to purify the deer tallow and do you also use it for cooking? as for the soap/lotion bars, i think you hit the nail on the head at the end there and that they’ll be great for those reasons. i also imagine that people would pay a pretty penny for something like that, hand-crafted from natural wild, pure, healthy, and beneficial ingredients. nothing is better for our own skin or hides. so whether accidental or not, i hope these end up being a joy and blessing to you in the coming months. i think you’ll really be glad it turned out this way.

I tried making soap but I don't think my lye was strong enough/didn't have enough of it. Like you, I decided to try it anyway. The end result was greasy, more like a moisturizer. My conclusion was that it takes a LOT of ashes.

I make soap but use the glycerin left from making bio-diesel. I use store bought lye but generally have a usable bar. On occasion I will make liquid soap to use in dish washing.

I so enjoyed watching this video! Thank you for making it. I want to try making my own lye and soap someday.

I just rubbed deer tallow on my dry feet and hands. Barely any smell.

I recently cut my finger badly (9 stitches), but just a flesh wound, thankfully.

So that was EXTRA stressful. 😬

Would love to see some small-scale tests/experiments with wood ash for soap, to see if you can get the results you were aiming for with local materials.

I have been making soap for 7 decades. Sometimes it just doesn't hold up in bars. Granny always used aged oak with no bark to make her lye ash. The reason I do not know. I have followed her ways with success. Your soap may be useful for waterproofing your boots or keeping rust off your garden tools. You take heart knowing you did a fine job. Goodness, you are young and you have years of soap making ahead of you. You will find your way with it.

The ugly non lathering not-soap would probably make a great leather conditioner! It looks very similar to Saddle Soap. Keep it in tins.

In the future, instead of cutting a bar of soap with a knife, you can use a cheese grater to get the amount you need.

You can still cut the ash soap into small cubes and mix them with the soap mixture before transferring it to the molds to get soap with lotion cubes.😊❤

Wood-ash lye is best made with de-barked hardwoods only. Also, vinegar is great to have on hand in case the lye splashes onto skin as it neutralizes it immediately, preventing a nasty burn. Thank you for the lovely video. Although I have experience in soap making, I have never used deer tallow; furthermore, your entire presentation was truly enjoyable as well as informative. Well done! :)

For some reason my cat absolutely LOVES this video 😂 and I do too!!

Thats really cool that you can make a lotion bar and ill have to look more into that. Awesome video!

these guys really looked at dwarf fortress and went, yeah i could do that too

- The most potassium is found in hardwood bark.
- Wood ash is mostly calcium and potassium. When water is added, the potassium dissolves creating potassium hydroxide. The particles left at the bottom is mostly calcium and can be fired and used as cement.
- Sodium hydroxide lathers up very well and is what we're used to. Potassium hydroxide barely bubbles, if at all, but cleans just as well.

I am planning to do this soon!

I've never seen your long-form content before, but this was a lovely watch! Have you heard of Sally Pointer? She has a video detailing her soap making process, using wood ash lye!

Sounds like your failed soap is now a luxurious shaving bar. I love using a shaving bar. It moisturizes so I don’t end up with dry skin. Let us know if it works for this. ❤

Love your videos, I watch every time they drop. You both teach me so much and I hope to one day purchase your courses! I remember you all mentioning a dream, or actual plan (?), of getting some land with friends to hand gather and home grow in a community. I love your reel about how sustainability is best in community and I would personally love if you went in depth. I nerd out about that stuff so hearing about your ethos, philosophy, and plans on how you all have built and are building a community through growing, foraging, and creating would be feverishly watched by me. Thanks again, keep doing what you're doing.