What is the difference between LYE and LIME?

Question

Can either be used to make soap?

Answer 1

lye is a mixture of fats and oils(this produces nice homemade soaps) and lime is an additive that is used to change the color texture and purpose of the soap(hand soap, body soap, or detergent). Yes they can both be used but use lime sparingly.

Answer 2

only lye can be used to make soap, when mixed with animal fat.  others have answered the other questions.

Answer 3

Lye is Sodium Hydroxide.

Lime is Calcium Oxide.

When they are added to a fat they both form a metallic salt with the fatty acids in the fat.

The Calcium Soap is fairly soluble and does form the ring around the bath tub.

The Sodium soap is soluble in water, works a cleansing agent, but is fairly corrosive.

Most metals react with fats to from some type of soap.  Some ON the old recipes used wood ashes which are higher in Potassium than Sodium and form a mixed soap which is much less corrosive.

Answer 4

besides all that a lime is a citrus fruit that makes good pies.

Answer 5

Lye is a hydroxide and lime(stone) is a carbonate. Even if you "slake" the lime to a hydroxide, the resulting soap is not very water soluble. You might even make a body cement/ paint that will assist in removing all your hair if you scrape it off. Soap makes water "wetter" and that's why it is used to clean. Calcium soaps are not very soluble and actually, the soap scum that forms in your bath tub is calcium soap that formed from the replacement of calcium minerals in the water with soap components (cation?). It needs a real strong soap to clean off. Below is a recipe and information link.

Answer 6

Big. Agricultural lime is ground up limestone.(calcium carbonate)

Builders lime has been fired in a kiln to drive of the carbonate as CO2, it reacts with CO2 in the air when it gets wet to reform as calcium carbonate (limestone) again.

Lye is a form of caustic soda, actually sodium hydroxide.

It has no calcium in it.

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Lime will not make soap except as a form of grease, Calcium soap is that grey ring around the tub, it is not water soluble.

Answer 7

Lye makes soap, Lime makes cement.