Don't forget that the glycerin from making biodiesel can be made into soap too--great for those greasy veggie hands. I think a lot of people have rediscovered soap-making because of the biodiesel movement; and that a lot of people have been brave enough to get into making biodiesel because it isn't much harder than making soap.

you can also invest in some soapnuts

http://www.soapnut.com/

i thought soapwort could be used for personal cleaning, but apparantly it's more suited for clothing needs.

Just curious but is it possible to make "Fight Club" soap? haha

Great sentiment about the loss of knowledge about "how to do things". That said, there's a strong and growing "mod" trend in most consumer sectors, not the least of which being cars, computers and robotics. Beyond the techno, however, there's a thriving home craft, fashion/sewing, jewelry, furniture-making and culinary do-it-yourself culture alive and well in America.

Watch over the next several years and you just might find that there'll be a whole new wave of crafty sorts coming up the ranks to fill those we lose.

Now, off to make soap. :)

That's so funny, because I automatically thought of Fight Club too after reading Jacob's comment.

can u use plant oils besides the ones you used in this soap, like oils from sage and stuff?

--You should be able to use any oil to make soap. The key part is knowing the saponification index, so you know the lye to oil ratio.Search online forums for the index of more esoteric oils.

If the oil is very fragrant, like I imagine sage oil might be, then you only need a little of it to scent your soap. Add it at trace and you don't need to worry about the saponification index.

My grandmother used to make her own laundry soap in the 1960's. I remember Mom keeping a coffee can that we'd put cooking fat in and then give it to Grandma when we visited.

It was pretty rough soap but her clothes were as clean as ours. She'd grate it into her wringer washer - I don't think she had an automatic washer until 1980.

Personally I spin my own yarn but I wouldn't make my own laundry soap. Nice hand soap maybe if I had more time.

--Susan Miller Cavatch, and the online soap forums, have recipes for lausndry soap, among other things. There are recipes for shaving soap, liquid soaps, shampoo bars, and just about anything else you would like to clean. And, it doesn't take very long, but you get to enjoy it for months.

"We can't understand, let alone repair, most of the gadgets we use everyday."

It's not lack of comprehension that prohibits the technically inclined from repairing circuits, it's the fact that they use surface mount components too small to easily repair by hand, or they use multiple layer circuit paths (that is, the board my have circuit paths embedded in the middle which can't be accessed once the board is assembled).

This is the price you pay for mobile phones that fit easily in the hand.

On the other hand, the newer phone uses significantly less energy than its brick like brethren, so it's not a total loss.

--Oh, I don't use a cel phone, so I never worry about how to fix it.
Ruben.

Be careful when you throw around terms such as “loss of knowledge’. Most of your quandaries regarding soup, toothpaste and cheese are pinned to an understanding of basic chemistry. All civilizations had different skill sets that were germane to their local economies and specific technological sophistication. Could homesteaders of the 1800’s make flint tools or cast simple weapons from the copper oxides found in top soil? Can you, for example, hone your own cylinder heads, make a life cast of a human head, build a computer, build a working ‘waldo’ exo-skelton, weld, measure and mix self-catalyzing expansive casting elements, load a 35mm motion picture film magazine, repack rifle cartridges, cast a concrete foundation, ferment biodesiel? Not only do I not expect most of my peers to do these things - but as much as I find these skills useful, I don’t expect my children to know how to do any of them. These skills are just as relevant to my day-to-day life as soap making was to my great, great ancestors. And just as with soap making, I expect them to fade from the skill sets of my descendants. Yet so long as such knowledge is recorded and cataloged, I can relearn any action that any human has once performed. I’ve had to do so quite often in my short professional experience. While I find your desire to preserve these skills admirable, I would respectfully suggest that the information you can add to this knowledge base is more important than your actual mastery of the skills in question.

Wow, this comment really strikes to why I do what I do.

Thank you for your suggestion that my intellectual additions are important, but I would argue that subtracting from our knowledge base is much more important. Obviously, I do not want to purge knowledge, just stop using it.

For example, I think we should stop using our knowledge about cosmetic botox injections, missile design, industrial agriculture, stock market trading, oil drilling, crowd control, eavesdropping, marketing and advertizing. I'm sure you get my drift, so I won't go on.

This is a problem of fundamental difference in vision. History has taught us that material technology will not save us, while intellectual technology makes our lives much better.

As an obviously arguable example, antibiotics are creating superbugs, while hand-washing makes us safer. Of course we do not want to abandon antibiotics, though that is effectively what we are doing through overuse.

Industrial agriculture has poisoned more land and water than we can imagine, rendering it unusable, or on its way to unusable. Is it smart of us to degrade our farmlands like this. We have all heard of Peak Oil, how about Peak Soil?

I think that 95% of our life is very basic. Shelter, food and water. Basic utensils and amusements made from wood, metal and fabric. I think that technology is increasingly unable to overcome the problems that it creates. I think that we need to return to a greater level of self-sufficiency. I believe that inefficiency is generally better (read Cradle to Cradle). I think a more regional and communal life will be richer than the one we now live, though it admittedly will feature fewer disposable knick-knacks. I think that we can satisfy much of that 95% of life in a highly pleasurable way, through little things like cooking with our friends, using things we make with our own hands, and growing some of our own food.

Thanks for reading,

Ruben.

Just to let you know that I think the website is great and I wish you all of the best for the future.

A great article and I agree with your response to Hunter. Back to basics.