[TheForge] Re: Lye soap

[Mike]

> Isn't a lye bath also used to clean a piece after any forge welding  
> was done to clean off the borax flux?

Lye is used to remove oil and grease from iron because it doesn't eat
iron/steel and -- ta-DAH! -- it converts oil and grease to
water-soluble soap!

Prolonged boiling in water removes borax flux.  I doubt that lye will
speed things up but I might be wrong.

> Also a lye bath to neutralize an object cleaned with muriatic acid?

Sure, but it's overkill to mess with (dangerous) lye when baking soda
would work as well.

>> For really dirty hands, grandma mixed ashes in some of it. 

For soap to clean grimey hands, add some borax to the soft soap
just before making into bars.  No chemical action, it just sits there
as an environment-friendly abrasive.

- Mike

-- 
Michael Spencer                  Nova Scotia, Canada       .~. 
                                                           /V\ 
mspencer at tallships.ca                                     /( )\
http://home.tallships.ca/mspencer/                        ^^-^^