Home › Soft Soaps › Almond Soap (Genuine almond soap is made)

Almond Soap (Genuine almond soap is made)

Genuine almond soap is made from oil of sweet almonds, 50 pounds, and soda lye of 36° Baumé, 25 pounds, the latter being gradually added to the former at a temperature between 125° to 150°, and the whole stirred constantly until the mixture is a smooth paste. It is then transferred to a cooling frame, perfumed with attar of bitter almonds, and then left for The next day, the lye, which probably may be at 12 degrees (Baumé) must be taken out , and the boiler filled afresh. The lye drawn from the lime and at 8 degrees, is poured in with it to evaporate. By this method a lye is several days to set and ripen. produced at a medium of 9 or 10 degrees, but it must be evaporated till, according to areometer, it shows 34 degrees. After the cooling it will weigh 36 pounds. This evaporation of the lye is to increase its causticity , and to cause all the dirt contained in it to precipitate to the bottom, which can be done in a day if it is sufficiently strong.

The clear lye is then drawn off from the dirty deposit, and put either into vitriol bottles or into an iron vessel well covered. If vitriol bottles are used, they must be filled with water in which some lime has been dissolved , to take away any acid remaining in the bottle, which would, if this precaution be not taken , absorb much of the causticity of the lye; and this must be done several days before using the bottles. The dirt and deposit from the salt remaining at the bottom after the boiling , can be added to the lime in the weak lyes.

We have not made the experiment of using the lye stronger than 11 degrees before evaporation, as we have learned from France that it must not be stronger than 11 degrees. Yet, after mature experience, it appears to us now that a lye can be obtained quite as good by adding more soda and lime to the lye, and thus increasing the strength to 18 or 20 degrees, by which the evaporation is spared. In this case more vessels are wanted, which must not be of wood, but of iron, because the wood will color the lye, which must be especially avoided for fine soap, for the only means of obtaining a perfect soap, free from defect, is to use none except the finest and whitest lye, and oil or grease of the greatest purity.