[Artemisia] The making of Lye

[James Sena]

Different woods will give different ratios of Sodium to Potassium as 
well.  For instance a different result from Poplar to Aspen to Oak - 
could be a fun (though messy) experiment!

Brendan

On 1/23/2014 2:29 PM, Mark Chapman wrote:
> Additional comments to add to Judy's.
>
> Both Potassium and Sodium Hydroxide will degrade, (actually becomes a
> salt in chemist terminology) with exposure to CO2, from the air. So
> limiting the sloshing and any other sever agitation is useful. Siphon
> rather than pour.  Simmer rather than rolling boil to reduce the volume.
>
> The floating egg thing is traditional, but pH strips will be more useful
> in real life testing.  (I can give anyone a few, rather than buying a
> box, which will last many years of occasional use.)  You will want the
> pH 1 to 14 strips. They are dipped into the liquid and in moments change
> color to indicate the pH.  In this case how basic a solution you have
> achieved, you are hoping to reach 14.
>
> Wear Nitrile gloves, and splash resistant goggles (your skin is much
> better in dealing with acids than bases, and eyes are particularly
> likely to be damaged by splashes.)  This stuff can blind you easily!
>
> It will be interesting to see how well aspen works,  the books say hard
> wood ash, my guess (with out research) is that something like oak is
> likely to produce a more alkaline ash than aspen.
> Ådne
>