Soapmaking

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Soapmaking is the process of creating soap from raw ingredients such as fats, oils and lye using the chemical process of saponification.

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[edit] History

References to soapmaking are found as far back as 2800 B.C., in the ruins of Babylon.

Soapmaking was mentioned in the Ancient Egyptian civilization in a papyrus from about 1500 B.C..

By about 700 A.D., soapmaking had become an established craft in Europe. Some of the main European centers for soapmaking at this time were Italy, Spain and France. English people began making soap around 1200.

During the American colonial era, the colonists would store fats and wood ashes and "cook up" batches of soap themselves. Using "pot ash" (water dripped through wood ashes) made potassium hydroxide in place of modern sodium hydroxide (lye) which generally resulted in softer soap. This could be remedied by adding salt to the mixture.

By around the middle of the 1800s, soapmaking was a major industry in the New World. Soap was starting to become an everyday item available for the masses rather than a luxury item.

Today amateur soapmakers continue to make batches of soap themselves.

[edit] As a hobby

Making homemade soap for fun is a growing hobby. There are now many suppliers who provide materials for the amateur soapmaker. Online tools that assist in creating soap recipes are also available.

[edit] Homemade processes

The following are some of the processes by which soap is made by soap enthusiasts.

[edit] In the media

In the film Fight Club, Tyler Durden obtains glycerin by rendering human fat in order to make soap. To the glycerin he adds nitric acid to get nitroglycerin, which he uses to destroy the headquarters of ten major credit card companies.

[edit] Sources

[edit] External links

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