5 More Wood Ash Uses Every Writer Should Know

How can your character repurpose wood ash in your story? What is the most important thing wood ash is used for in every culture? What about slugs? How could wood ash cause a house fire? Find out on this episode! 

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How can your character repurpose wood ash in your story? What is the most important thing wood ash is used for in every culture? What about slugs? How could wood ash cause a house fire? Find out on this episode. Welcome to Writing Rural With Alley, the fiction writer's inspiration station for rural life and lifestyles from historical to post-apocalyptic, helping you bring your rural stories to life. I'm Alley and this is episode number 52, Five Wood Ash Uses Part Two. Stick around to the end to find out all the ways things could possibly go wrong. Now let's get into this. Burning wood in a fireplace, wood stove, or outdoor furnace that uses wood are among the many ways that people warm their homes. Historically, wood was the number one way people stayed warm. One thing that is always the same is that burning wood leaves behind ash and your character will have to do something with it. Today, we will cover five more things that they could use wood ash for. Number six, outhouse deodorizer. One of the most popular uses for wood ash is a deodorizer for the outhouse. While we all assume that pee and poop are making the outhouse smell badly, the truth is that it is the type of bacteria that is breaking them down that makes the smells far worse in the outhouse. Some bacteria produce the smells and others do not. You want to kill off the ones that make more smells and let the ones without more smells do their job. One way to do this is with wood ash. A bucket of wood ash can be kept in the outhouse with some scoop or cup. When someone uses the outhouse, especially for number two, your character will simply scoop the wood ash up and sprinkle it into the hole onto their droppings. It's as simple as that, but fair warning. Don't let your character drop the scoop if they like it. It's unlikely anyone will be retrieving that. Number seven, making a lye. Yes, you can make a lye from wood ash. Lye being spelled L-Y-E. It's not the same as telling a lie. Sorry, I had to add that in case my kids are listening. Making a wood ash into a lye is a super simple process and one that is illegal for me, at least where I live, to teach others to do because someone might use it to make meth. That said, a simple Google search or a search on YouTube does what I cannot. So why add to the list? Because it's important to historical and post apocalyptic stories with the things you can make from wood ash lie. The most important of these being soap. Soap is made from wood ash lye and animal fat, normally in the form of lard or tallow. Another important thing that people did with this was to tan hides. I would give you a sum up of how it works. Your character will take the hide from an animal, I'll say a deer, and do something called fleshing. Basically, there is a white color to the skin itself. The character will scrape off everything that is not white on the inside of the hide. The fur stays for the moment. This can get messy. Afterward, the hide will be submerged and weighted down to stay that way in the wood ash lie. A few days later, when the fur is easy to pull from the hide, it's time to take it out and scrape the fur off. Your character will need to be careful as lye water can chemically burn them. After the fur is gone, there is a grayish layer under it that will need to be removed in what is called graining. It can be tricky and take time, but once it starts, it is fairly easy from there. Then they'll flip it over and do the same to the other side looking for anything that they might have missed when fleshing. Next, they need to rinse the lye out of the hide. This requires soaking the hide in a bucket of water until it's soft and flexible. This will take a few days, so make sure your character gets new water every day. In this message, the next thing to do is to brine the hide. Basically, it is a saltwater soak. It will stay in the brine for 2-3 days. Then it will be rinsed thoroughly. After that, the water needs to be wrung out and the hide needs to sit until it no longer drips water. Don't let it dry fully. Then it needs to be oiled. The type of oil depends on the era and people group. Most people today buy tanning oil, but the Cree used boiled brains of animals mixed with butter and soap. Then the hide needs to be dried. If your character wants a soft hide, they will need to flex, stretch, and move it every 10 to 15 minutes until it is fully dry. Then they have a nice, soft hide. Hides can be used for many things,

including, but not limited to: 4:17

clothing, teepees, tools, string, and more.

Number eight: 4:22

wood ash fabric dye. Wood ash can be added to fabric dyes to make the colors more vibrant. This is most commonly done when the clothing is still in a fiber state. An example being yarn. It is typically used as an afterbath when a fiber is dyed. Your character will remove all large pieces of wood ash. Then they will add about one cup per one to two cups of water. Mix and let it sit for about two weeks. It is ready when the mixture is slimy between your character's fingers. The mixture will need to be diluted with water. The amount will be adjusted to whatever the character likes. If you guys can hear my dog barking in your background, I am so sorry. I'm pretty sure he smells a skunk. Then the cloth, fiber, yarn, or whatever they are using is placed into the mix. Some colors will only need dipped and others will take up to 45 minutes to change color, depending on what your character wants. Your character will need to be careful when handling the wood ash water. It could potentially burn them before diluting, and delicate skin could still be burned even then. The solution will need to be rinsed out before drying.

Number nine: 5:29

wood ash cement. Wood ash cement is something you will mold similar to how bricks are molded. While it is called cement, from what I understand, it is about half the strength of cement, but it is still very strong. Maybe just don't let your character build skyscrapers with it. Wood ash cement is made by first sifting the ash powder from the coals. The powder will then be placed in some mixing container. The amount doesn't matter as long as it fits. Add water to cover all of the ash and mix well. Once that's done, the extra water will be drained off. The ash and the water left are molded into tiny bricks, about two inches by two inches. I know, super tiny. Next, the little brick is placed in an oven or a fire and heated until it's glowing orange. The color is important to ensure that it is chemically changed as it should be. Then it is placed into water to cool it as quickly as possible. Only enough water to get the job done is important. Then the water and brick are mixed until the brick melts into the water. Next, crushed powder, sand, clay, or perhaps tiny gravel are added to the water brick mixture. This should be damp but not have dry pockets. Then it is reformed into a brick and left out to dry for roughly three days. It will be hard at the time and should no longer dissolve in water. This is the finished product. While there would be a great many uses, it would also take time to make enough of these tiny breaks to do anything, and your character will have to burn enough wood to produce the ash to make them. Your character will need to weigh the need against all of this to see if it is worth it to him or her. If you would like to compare this to how bricks are made, you can check out episode 33, historical brick making with my guest host, Elizabeth Jacobson. But after you finish this episode! Number 10, smell absorption, like baking soda. Wood ash can be used as a smell absorption that works like baking soda. Many off the grid home steaders and people in history and I assume in an Apocalyptic, will use this for everything from a cup to make the refrigerator smell better to using it in the outhouse and even sometimes to get the skunk smell off of dogs, that got a little too close. To sum up why wood ash, just like baking soda, has a high alkaline composure. When it comes in contact with the acidic odors, it neutralizes it.

Fun fact: 7:55

there are ancient Babylonian clay cylinders from roughly 2,800 BC with soap inside, and they are inscribed with a soap recipe of boiled fats and ash. This is still the main ingredient in modern-day lye soap. Now for everyone's favorite part, what could possibly go wrong? Before we get into the best part, if you enjoy this podcast, I hope you will take a minute to follow rate review on your favorite podcasting platform. And if you're listening on YouTube, subscribe and hit that like button. Don't forget to share with a friend. Now for everyone's favorite part.

Likely to go wrong: 8:32

your character adds wood ash into the outhouse hole to keep the smell down. While they are doing so, the scoop falls in the hole.

Also likely to go wrong: 8:41

your character adds wood ash as a fertilizer in their garden, but didn't mix it into the soil. When the wind picks up, the wood ash is blown away.

Possible to go wrong: 8:51

your character is adding sand to their wood ash cement and they add too much. This makes the bricks crumbly and completely unusable once they are fully dry.

Also possible to go wrong: 9:01

your character places a cup of wood ash inside the refrigerator to get rid of bad smells. One day, they bump the cup and the ashes spill all over the inside of the refrigerator. your character chemically burns their hands on wood ash lie.

Unlikely to go wrong: 9:20

your character decides to make a fireplace with wood ash cement. They spend years making enough two by two-inch bricks to make a fireplace.

Also unlikely to go wrong: 9:31

your character is making wood ash cement, and when they go to remove the bricks from the fire, they accidentally drop it and severely burn themselves. Also unlikely to go wrong, your character adds wood ash to the outhouse. When they accidentally dropped a whole bucket of ash, including the bucket down the hole. Improbable, but still technically in the realm of possibilities: your character is sprayed by a skunk, and some of it gets into their nose without them realizing it. They could spend hours rubbing ash in their skin and hair trying to get rid of the smell. Also improbable, but still technically in the realm of possibilities: your character is trying to make sure to get enough wood ash into the outhouse hole. As they lean in to make sure everything is covered in ash, they slip and fall headfirst into the outhouse hole. Thanks for listening. You can find this episode, show notes, and helpful things to learn more on my website, alleyhart. Com. That's A-L-L-E-Y-H-A-R-T. Com. Subscribe and follow up for more episodes. Connect by dropping me a comment on my YouTube videos. A new episode comes out every Monday. Until then, happy wordsmithing.