Talk:Lye

This article was nominated for merging with Sodium hydroxide on 07:49, 8 March 2015. The result of the discussion was do not merge.

Lutefisk

Hey

Lutfisk is generally Scandinavian, not just Norwegian.

Changing...

J — Preceding unsigned comment added by 66.108.167.246 (talk) 20:26, 2005 August 30 (UTC)

Caustic lye as stain remove on porcelain?

Caustic lye . can it be used as a stain remove on porcelain ? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 68.195.9.112 (talk) 13:08, 2007 February 23 (UTC)

Cleanup

This page was marked for clean-up per MoS:DAB, and deleted the following (IMO non-disambig) information:

Lye is also an ingredient in the synthetic drug, methamphetamine. -- it's not an ingredient, just used as a base to manipulate pH. Or so I've heard. ;-) —Preceding unsigned comment added by 204.69.139.16 (talk) 15:16, 14 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Historically, concentrated urine was used as a cleaning agent known as chamber lye. Because urine has some grease dissolving properties it was also used as a mordant in fulling, the preparation of woollen cloth for garment manufacture.

I also deleted the Category:Classical Names. – sgeureka ^t•c 21:38, 24 March 2007 (UTC)[reply]

NaOH?

I'm no chemical expert, but if the article states that it's NaOH, shouldn't it be merged with NaOH instead? Opinion from a chemist please. Somecrowd (talk) 04:26, 23 April 2008 (UTC)[reply]

(Not a chemist), Wikipedia doesn't have seperate articles for Water and H₂O... Pokeman (talk) 09:16, 4 May 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Anti-Merge: Not all Lye is NaOH

Yes a chemist. Comments: There are several different types of lye. Yes, chamber lye is urine. Potash lye is potassium hydroxide (KOH). Caustic soda lye is sodium hydroxide (NaOH). Therefore, there are several types of lye that are not NaOH and it would be incorrect to merge Lye with NaOH. The reasoning for this is that not all lyes are NaOH. Similarly, not all lyes are sodium hydroxide, so it would be incorrect to merge Lye with Sodium Hydroxide.

This would be as incorrect as merging Bases into Sea Water. Technically, sea water and urine are both alkaline and are considered bases but Bases would be the master category and Sea Water and Urine could be sub-categories. Likewise, if a merge were forced, Lye would be the master category and sodium hydroxide (NaOH) would be one of many sub-categories.

The example of Water and H₂O does not apply and is irrelevant because water is always H₂O and vice versa. However, lye is not always NaOH. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 68.6.214.60 (talk) 02:55, 7 May 2008 (UTC)[reply]

From a materials scientist: if indeed lye is a master category and NaOH is just one type of lye, the article should be revised to incorporate the different types of lye (i.e. potash lye, caustic soda lye, etc). For now the article presumes that all lye is NaOH, which is apparently incorrect. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 212.153.252.230 (talk) 13:00, 8 May 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Against - As a user I came looking for Lye and not NaOH and it met my needs. Had a look at NaOH and that article is more suited for a chemist or science lab. Byeboer (talk) 06:27, 11 May 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Ok, I see. The problem is the first scentence "Lye is a corrosive alkaline substance, specifically, sodium hydroxide (NaOH)." Pokeman (talk) 17:19, 14 May 2008 (UTC)[reply]

I feel the opening sentence is still ambiguous. Could it be rephrased "Lye is any corrosive alkaline substance"? Or "a lye is a member of a family of corrosive alkaline substances"? The concise Oxford says:

"a strongly alkaline solution, especially of potassium hydroxide, used for washing or cleansing".

And Merriam Webster says:

"1: a strong alkaline liquor rich in potassium carbonate leached from wood ashes and used especially in making soap and for washing; broadly : a strong alkaline solution (as of sodium hydroxide or potassium hydroxide)

2: a solid caustic (as sodium hydroxide)"

So it seems clear that sodium hydroxide is at most only one possible meaning of the word. This is by no means clear from the article. Does the second sentence mean that lye was any of the alkalis leached from hardwood ashes? Rachel Pearce (talk) 08:57, 25 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Anti-merge OK but the whole page should be simplified

Lye is a generic word describing highly basic ("caustic" = pH around 14) solutions which are usually based on sodium hydroxide or potassium hydroxide in water (typical concentration 30 to 50%). "Solid" Lye is nonsense. I would recommend to keep this page pretty short and giving links (as it is now) to caustic soda (sodium hydroxide), potassium hydroxide (potash), where production processes should be described.Frade 14:27, 14 May 2008 (UTC)

UK/US usage

I believe that use of the word lye is now confined to the USA. In the UK, the word is regarded as archaic and the terms sodium hydroxide or caustic soda are used instead. Biscuittin (talk) 19:36, 17 May 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Not quite. In the UK, it is used in an archaic or traditional *context*, and as such therefore refers mainly to KOH rather than NaOH. If you went to a tannery in the UK, for example, and started talking about lye, they would all know what you are talking about. As frankly would any well-read person. This article is badly structured though: it needs to refer back to the articles on the specific chemicals themselves, and imo keep this article for those historical/traditional functions (which is something the single chemical articles tend to ignore) Tobermory (talk) 13:18, 27 July 2009 (UTC)[reply]

I think that it is worth adding a note to the article about the regional usage of the word. I'm a native English speaker in England and had never heard the word until recently. I have heard it in an American film and on a bottle of drain cleaner imported from the USA, I came here to find out what it was due to the word being alien to me. 79.78.60.213 (talk) 79.78.60.213 (talk) 15:04, 2 January 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Potash?

Under "See Also", shouldn't KOH be "Caustic Potash" rather than "Potash", which is K2C03? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 68.32.172.192 (talk) 02:40, 22 June 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Fight Club?

Is there a reason fight club is listed in the "See Also" section? —Preceding unsigned comment added by The Resisty (talk • contribs) 23:18, 13 October 2008 (UTC)[reply]

In Fight Club, the main charachter places Lye on his skin to give himself a burn Thejapanesegeek (talk) 14:19, 16 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

in Fight Club soap making is a major theme.--Paul the less (talk) 01:02, 14 August 2011 (UTC)[reply]

In Memento, instant film is a major theme. In Sleepless in Seattle, radio shows are a major theme. In Die Hard II, air traffic control is a major theme... need I go on? None of the latter articles should have the former in their See also seactions. Tomásdearg92 (talk) 14:59, 13 April 2014 (UTC)[reply]

"Hobbies"?

Any good reason why this is in Category:Hobbies? Sure, Lye can be used in one hobby, soap-making, but it's damn near everything can be hobby-related, by that criterion. It's not as though lye itself is a hobby. TJRC (talk) 22:07, 20 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Silence, so I removed. TJRC (talk) 18:23, 13 February 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Copyright problem removed

I removed a large section of text that was directly copied from this page, one of this page's references. This really damages the article, so it would be ideal if this text could be rewritten to avoid copyright violation. Alternately, someone could contact the copyright holder and ask for permission to use the text on this page. For more information, see wp:cv. Indeterminate (talk) 02:18, 3 August 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Update - it might have been added by the copyright holder. The content was added in this edit by User:CertifiedLye. I'll email the copyright holder to check that it was donated properly. Reverted in good faith. Indeterminate (talk) 02:44, 3 August 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Lye Water

Is it appropriate to mention lye water in this article ? There's currently no separate Wiki article on it. It's basically a simple solution of lye in water, used in some types of Asian and African cooking (but NOT meant for drinking). It's sold commerically in many stores, bottled and labelled very similar to drinking water, and there have been several cases of people getting severe throat burns from accidentally drinking it. Logicman1966 (talk) 08:17, 14 February 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Dutch page (Natronloog)

I tried to add the Dutch equivalentof the page, but I got an error: "Site link nlwiki:Natronloog already used by item Q5369270". I do not know what this error means, but I wondered if someone who does could link the Dutch page to this one (the Dutch page links to the English page perfectly). Previous comment added by Special:Contributions/145.97.213.155 15:10, 15 May 2013‎ (UTC)[reply]

The Dutch page refers to NaOH solution, not lyes (or their solutions) in general. Q5369270 refers to this article and its versions across various Wikipedias as recorded in Wikidata (there is no equivalent WP-en article). An explanation: nl:Natronloog is equivalent to de:Natronlauge, while en:lye is equivalent to de:Alkalische Lösung. Your attempt to link the Dutch and English articles would imply that the two German articles are equivalent. All this cannot be exactly true, so it spits out an error. Tomásdearg92 (talk) 02:21, 4 February 2014 (UTC)[reply]

food use

It would help the article a bit, I think, to have a picture of lye sold for food use, or of a home application of lye. Richardson mcphillips (talk) 01:19, 7 March 2015 (UTC)[reply]

German page

the german page is "natronlauge" (NaOH, potassium hydroxide) but should be the "Lauge" counterpart.

this would be "chemically" and from a linguisitc point of you be closer to the german use of "lye" - "Lauge". https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alkalische_L%C3%B6sung

It would help the article a bit, I think, to have a picture of lye sold for food use, or of a home application of lye. Richardson mcphillips (talk) 01:19, 7 March 2015 (UTC) — Preceding unsigned comment added by 212.64.228.99 (talk) [reply]

Missing? Category, "hair relaxer"

https://wiki.riteme.site/wiki/Relaxer#Alkaline_and_lye_relaxers

Proposed merge with Sodium hydroxide

The following discussion is closed. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section. A summary of the conclusions reached follows.

The result of this merger discussion was to not merge the two articles because they are of related yet distinctly different subjects. Airplaneman ✈ 19:14, 5 August 2015 (UTC)[reply]

two full articles about the same substance Ijon (talk) 07:49, 8 March 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Technically, lye and sodium hydroxide are not the same substance. Lye can refer to any alkali metal hydroxide, preferabbly either NaOH or KOH, while sodium hydroxide explicitly refers to only the NaOH solution. DudeWithAFeud (talk) 18:43, 14 March 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Disagree I was a student of applied chemistry and chemical technology. sodium hydroxide is an well known term. on the other hand lye is used for several metal hydroxides. so its inappropriate to merge this two articles together. ferdous ^(Chat!) 11:54, 25 May 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Disagree You said it yourself; they are two completely different substances. Both are full articles as well so merging wouldn't be too convenient at all. -PotatoNinja^{(Talk to me!)} 16:01, 18 July 2015 (UTC)[reply]

The discussion above is closed. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.

Use in photography

Just discovered a note in The Darkroom Cookbook mentioning the photochemical uses of Sodium Hydroxide. Red Devil Lye is specifically mentioned. Uses listed as a high-energy accelerator or alkali sometimes used to activate low-energy developing agents. Used with borax to make Balanced Alkali (Kodalk). — Preceding unsigned comment added by Peoplemerge (talk • contribs) 18:57, 7 October 2017 (UTC)[reply]

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Line doesn't make sense

In the last paragraph of "Hazardous reactions" there is the line "lye may also react with —producing hydrogen gas." This doesn't make any sense, any idea what it's supposed to say? vghfr, harbinger of chaos 21:39, 3 March 2024 (UTC)[reply]

New intro paragraph on historical production is dubious

At the time of this post, the second paragraph, added 14:42, 28 September 2024, claims that potassium hydroxide (KOH) was traditionally leached directly out of wood ash, and could be crystallized by simply evaporating the alkaline water that results. I have not yet been able to confirm or deny this from a high-quality source due to paywalls on relevant scholarly articles, but I believe this claim is dubious.

I did some hopping between related Wikipedia pages. The more chemistry-focused page for potassium hydroxide (KOH) claims that it is "made by adding potassium carbonate to a strong solution of calcium hydroxide (slaked lime)." Potassium carbonate (K₂CO₃) is the primary ingredient of wood potash, which is alkaline on its own. My layman's understanding is that the "lye water" referenced here is therefore mostly potassium carbonate, and would have to be further processed to actually end up as mostly potassium hydroxide. I am able to find a good number of low-veracity sources through online searches that agree, but nothing citable, so I'm posting a talk topic instead of editing anything. OpdqbdpbqO (talk) 20:27, 23 November 2024 (UTC)[reply]