Hi,I realize that this question has probably already been answered but I can't find it in the archives.I am going to make some laundry soap but can not seem to get the fels naptha. My question is..I have a good bit of lye soap that I have made, can I use is instead of the naptha in this recipe and still come out with a good laundry soap? Thanks for your help. Milkmaid

-- milkmaid (inkina@cctc.net), May 16, 2001

Answers

Hi, I've made the soap with other types, too. Ivory works, as does a soap my parents pick up in Mexico. Just stay away from the deodorant types, I think. I found the fels naptha in Safeway here in Colorado. Jan

-- Jan in CO (Janice12@aol.com), May 16, 2001.

I take it you are going after a liquid soap. I would suppose, but I've never tried it. I use my homemade soap all the time, but I grate it and let it dry to a powder. 1/4 cup will do a relatively large load. It dissolves one HECK of a lot faster than store-bought powders - and it leaves the fabric softer than most fabric softeners! Also, you will use less bleach, as the whites get super white with it!!

-- Sue Diederich (willow666@rocketmail.com), May 16, 2001.

Can someone submit a recipe? You have me very interested. Thanks!

-- Amber (quillen6@netzero.net), May 17, 2001.

I couldn't find all the ingredients listed in that one recipe awhile back, so I grate either ivory soap or homemade soap into a pan, melt it down so it is liquid. Add that to 1 1/2 cups borax and 25 cups water. I mix it well, let it set over night. It keeps gelling up, so I have to shake the bottle before each load, but it works nicely. I plan on trying the grated, dried flakes as soon as this next batch of soap is ready to use. I got behind on my soap making, the kids were horrified. "will we have to use STORE BOUGHT soap? gross!" it was funny. :-) I cooked a batch of soap so we can have some sooner, poor kids! ;-)

Cindy

-- Cindy in Ok (cynthiacluck@yahoo.com), May 17, 2001.

Amber, the laundry soap recipe is in the archive. Look to soapmaking and then scroll down to laundry soap. Thank you all for your replies, I really appreciate it. Milkmaid

-- milkmaid (inkina@cctc.net), May 17, 2001.

Hi. I could not find the fels naphta soap around here so I ordered it from Vermont Country Store. It gets kind of expensive having to pay shipping. The laundry soap used around here for many many years is called Octagon. When I use up all of the fels naphta I am going to try a batch with the octagon. My recipe says to grate 1/3 bar of fels naphta soap into 1 pint hot water, stir until melted(heat gently if needed). All 1/2 cup borax and 1/2 cup washing soda(not baking soda) stir until mixed. Pour into large container, all 2 gallons water and mix well. Let set overnight, it will gel. Stir. Use 1 cup per load. For rinse/softener add 1/2 cup white vinegar to the rinse water. I mix it with only 1 gallon of water.

-- Faye (rcart@millry.net), May 18, 2001.

I use my own lye soap but have seen fels naptha, remember that it is in the laundry soap section of the store. DW

-- DW (djwallace@ctos.com), May 19, 2001.

If you're going to use real soap (as opposed to bar detergent we call bath soap or powdered laundry detergent) you'll get much better results in areas of hard water by adding some vinegar to the wash water to soften it. Here in South Georgia/North Florida our water is so hard that it's difficult to get homemade lye soap to lather no matter how much I age it. A spot of vinegar worked wonders.

={(Oak)-

-- LiveOak (oneliveoak@yahoo.com), May 22, 2001.

I made up a batch of the liquid clothes washing detergent with the Fels Naptha, borax and washing soda, but I have kinda a stupid question. Is it suppose to lather? I read in one of the earlier posts to add a little vinegar because of hard water. Will that create suds or do I even want suds?

Thanks for reading.

-- Dianne in Mass (dianne.bone@usa.net), June 06, 2001.