Take a small waterproof wooden barrel and drill some little holes in the bottom. Set the barrel on stacked blocks, making sure that there is a space below for a glass container. Line the bottom of the barrel with a layer of rocks the size of your palm and then a layer of straw. When making lye, use only steel, iron, wood or glass pans or containers. Lye can act like acid and corrode some metals.

Fill the barrel almost to the top with cold ashes. The ashes need to be from a hardwood tree like oak. The wood needs to be burned hot enough that the ashes are white, not gray. Pour some rain water that you collected onto the ashes. Rain water is best because it's natural. There needs to be plenty of water in the barrel but not so much that the ashes start swimming. Hours later liquid will start dripping out of the bottom of the barrel and into the container. When it's full, stick another container under the barrel to catch the rest of it.

Measure out 2 pints of the lye water you created. Pour the water into a small cast iron kettle and boil it. Make sure that your gloves are on by now. The fumes will be strong so cook in a well ventilated area. Do not lean over the kettle or get any of the lye water on you or your clothes or you could get burned. You will know when the liquid is concentrated enough by putting an egg in the kettle to see if it floats. Throw the egg away afterward.

Add 6 pounds of lard to the kettle and stir. Boil mixture for about 30 minutes. Stir frequently. By this time the lye soap mixture should look like thick, creamy soup. When the soap mixture beads up on your spoon then it is done.

Pour your liquid soap into cellophane wrap-lined baking pans. These are your molds; the wrap makes the soap easy to remove. Place cardboard or a towel over the pans so the soap cools and hardens.

Allow anywhere from 24 to 72 hours for soap to set up enough to take out of the mold and cut up into bars. This needs to be done before the soap hardens completely or it will become crumbly and break.