I have made wood ash lye, its very tricky as its very difficult to test strength,if doing it, consider super fatting and very good idea to do zap tests before using it on yourself. I make soap, and you are not using any ash in the soap making, you need a liquid, hard or combo hard and soft fats and lye to make soap..

I am aware that clean light ash , mixed with sand ideally can be used to deal with lice in any fowl that will dirt bath, ash mixed with fat can be used in different ways almost like a salve but others are better choices healing wise and herbal wise.

however using ash to help prevent bugs from coming in is a great idea, mixed into bedding, dusted in corners or even into walls.

I just put away a 5 gallon bucket of hardwood ash yesterday.
Of course, I left it in the middle of the yard just in case, even though it was in the metal ash can for about a month.
The object was to make lye, but as Farmgal mentions (and I always trust what she has to say) strength is tough to measure.
Be aware...this stuff can get pretty potent and is highly caustic...not caustic like concrete mix that causes a slight rash and irritation...I mean it can get down right dangerous to handle.
Heating with wood, I produce a good amount of hardwood ash every year...so I figured I would save a bucket of it and try it out.
I always test out my projects on a small scale until I learn enough...no book or website can replace hands on experience.

Hi Denob, if you are going to start playing with wood ash to make lye, start with small amounts and use the cleanest, fluffy white ash you can get, use the rougher for the garden and the charred bits for bio-char in the garden.

Its a interesting project to work on for sure

I heat with wood too and just spread my ash on some parts of the garden.......

Used it during ice storm of 98. And other times. Spread around parking, paths and entrance hill. Immediate traction and draws sun/heat to the ice

I leave my ash in the bucket for at least a week, then spread it along the base of the skirting on the cabin. In 5 years, I've probably found about 3 ants in the house.

So a light wood ash is said to help sweeten the taste of tomato's grown in that soil.. I have tomato's in two different area's, one area is rabbit poo and the other area is rabbit poo with a light 1/4th inch of clean hard wood ash.. Both plots are producing and so far as I shove two tomato's are people and ask them which tastes sweeter (they think they are different cherry tomato's lol) but they are the same kind.. so far.. sweeter..

Now there is one factor that could be throwing this whole thing off and that is the fact that both plots are fixed up with my chopped sheeps wool in the soil, while it is there mainly to help hold any water that extra bit when possible, I know that the studies do say that the plants also feed off the wool itself. The tag wool is marked at VALUE OF 9-1-2 NPK they also have CALCIUM, MAGNESIUM, IRON, SULFUR that is bioavailable to the plants over the composting process.

I have to admit that I am really glad that I did the chopped wool bits in the soil for them this year, wool can take up to 20x its weight in water and hold it for slow release. Its like a 0 mile peat moss for me garden.. LOL

Well thanks for reviving this thread...I had completly forgotten about the wood ash project. i have a five gallon bucket of fluffy whitish ash saved up. Gonna put it on the list for the fall.

I leave my ash in the bucket for at least a week, then spread it along the base of the skirting on the cabin. In 5 years, I've probably found about 3 ants in the house.

Now there’s a good use!

I leave my ash in the bucket for at least a week, then spread it along the base of the skirting on the cabin. In 5 years, I've probably found about 3 ants in the house.

Now there’s a good use!

I learned that trick from one of the worlds greatest teachers (YouTube). Another good trick I learned was about mice. When we first bought our place, it was almost over run with mice. I used to sit in the living room and shoot the mice with my pellet pistol. Then I learned about Irish Spring soap. When we renovated, I scrubbed the back of all the baseboards with a bar of Irish Spring Original soap and we haven't had even one single indication of mice in the house during the years since.