the many uses of wood ash

[Paul Wheaton]

So I was recently filling an email with info about wood ash and before smacking "send" I thought a bit of copy and paste was in order ....

Wood ash should never be stored inside. It could have hot embers in it that could survive for days and cause all sorts of problems.

Never let a bucket of wood ash get wet. This is how lye is made. If you have seen "fight club" - that kiss on the hand was done with lye. Extremely high toxicity and dangerous to boot.

Once wood ash is cooled, it is loaded with great stuff for a farm. When sifted, it usually gives up lots of goodies: chunks of coal for burning; nails, screws and other interesting bits of hardware; the sifted ash can be used in some gardens to raise the pH (make sure it is dusted thin enough so that you don't get that lye thing).

Anybody know of more uses for wood ash?

[rambler]

Dip a gunny sack in it & polish up plow bottoms.

--->Paul

[kreig]

You can mix it with water and make a solution to soak deer hides in as you are tanning them. They also make a pretty good camaflouge when rubbed on your skin( they take away the "shiny").

[homesteadforty]

Actually, your second thing about making lye is exactly what I do use wood ash for. Use it for soap and to soak corn to make hominy.

[MELOC]

one poster here used wood ash lye to unplug his drain pipes.

[farmergirl]

One of my neighbors dips the cut ends of potato starts in hardwood ash. Somehow helps them to grow well.

[Wisconsin Ann]

wood ash lye (leaching water thru the woodash) can be used in soapmaking and as the lye used to make biodiesel. easy to make, cheap. and you can control the concentration by using a good PH meter (or the more accurate PH strips).

Gramps used it for polishing his farm tools, like Rambler talked about.

It's also used to treat small fish and preserve them. (nasty stuff tho...ewwwwy)

EXCELLENT additive to most gardens, too. great way to get flowers bigger and stronger. (If your soil is depleted in Potassium)

[michiganfarmer]

wood ash had potash in it wich is potassium, and it helps plants grow.

[Pony]

You can also take the "white" from wood ash, and use it as a baking soda substitute.

[Cabin Fever]

You can use the lye solution from leaching wood ash to make lutefisk.

[GREENCOUNTYPETE]

well if it makes lye you can add cleaning your cast iron to the list , to clean cast iron soak in lye water solution , suspending the pan from the top of the barrel with wire it is supposed to remove the carbon deposits that form without making it rust or removing the black then season

i read the soaking it in lye on a site the restores and sells vintige cast iron
often the skillets become so crusted with carbon deposits that the prized wanger or erie name on the bottom can not be seen

i just spread it in the grass to get rid of it , but that sould be good as my old neighbor used to spread lye on his grass , made it grow good and thick.

[ErinP]

We've always dumped it down the hole in the outhouse. It breaks down the organic and eliminates odors, too.
Just make sure they're properly cooled!

[ladycat]

It makes a great dust bath for poultry: it kills lice and mites!

I wonder if you could use it as flea powder for dogs?

[ntjpm]

Hummm I think I am might have a problem. For several years we have been dumping our wood ash in a hole we had in our yard outside. (To fill the hole up). Did we create some kind of toxic hole that can hurt my children or ourselves?? Please help as this is the first time I have ever heard of this and now I am very worried. Thank you in advance, and if so can someone tell me how to fix it.

Tracy in WA

[MELOC]

your hole will be fine. the potassium hydroxide is fairly mobile and will leech away with the water from rainfall...feeding many plants as it goes. if the lye wasn't mobile in water, it wouldn't be so easy to make lye from wood ashes. i am sure the area around the hole is way high in ph...temporarily, but give it time and it will change.

i'm not so sure that "toxic" is the proper term. lye is definately an irritant and will burn the skin and damage soft tissue, but i am not sure how "poisonous" it would be.

[ntjpm]

Thank you so much for the quick reply, i would have been worrying about this all night. One more question, How should we dispose if our wood ash??

Thanks so much, Tracy in WA

[MELOC]

i would spread it around everywhere if you have a large enough lawn. just be sure to make dust and not dump the whole lot in any one place. only spread it on one area once a year and you should be fine. i use it in my driveway sometimes when it gets icy.

[ntjpm]

Thank you...........

[sulix]

keep some ash in a container in your car. if u live in 'COLD country and get stuck in Snow or ICE. it makes good Traction

[WolfWalksSoftly]

Originally Posted by sulix

keep some ash in a container in your car. if u live in 'COLD country and get stuck in Snow or ICE. it makes good Traction

I was going to recommend the same thing. Just rub on your tires or throw on your tracks..it really works.