Despite my fear that our government might be overly interested in someone who has a bit of chemistry background wondering about homemade chemicals, I think this is a fair question and concern for this forum.

I am, of course, talking about replacing many of our routinely consumed chemicals for modern living in a LTS situation. I'm looking to collect a set of recipes for these things in one place. Most primitive living skills type documentation doesn't even scratch the surface.

I know some fairly basic stuff like creating lye and soap, and maybe a few other things that would be useful. Here are a few things I'm thinking would run out quickly in such a situation, and this could include problems presented such as a Katrina-style disaster where supplies are impossible to find. I'm not going to include actual food/water needs. In no particular order:

1) Soap
2) Gunpowder
3) Toothpaste
4) Deodorant/antiperspirant
5) Leavening agents (not a sourdough yeast mother - chemical only)
6) Bleach/Chlorine
7) Cleansers
8) Lubricants
9) Simple Medicines
10) Fertilizer

I'm curious if anyone has found a guidebook that gives recipes for backyard generation of these things using common or easily attained materials, I'd love to hear of it. I'm also curious what you would add to this list. Although I know of recipes for explosives, and that they could be very useful (clearing boulders and trees for farmland) - I'd like to keep that out of the conversation. If you want to discuss anything of that nature, PM is more appropriate and should keep this from moving into any questionable territory. Gunpowder is probably controversial enough. :-)

If you have recipes that require any raw resources, please identify how you could obtain them or refine them as appropriate. Maybe even discussions of where/how to obtain any raw product is just as key as the recipes.

Looking forward to the insights...

Massacre,

I'm swamped right now but this is right up my alley. I'll write more in a few days but for now start tracking down old cookbooks, encylopedias, and "household tips" books from places like project guttenberg on-line libraries.

Most of your list is really easy to do.

-Blast

1) Soap
Lye from wood ashes, combined with animal fats or glycerin derived from animal bones and connective tissues. The fats get you a stronger general use soap. Glycerin gets you a milder soap. Herbal sources of plant surfactants can serve as a mild soap and can be used to make the soap more pleasant. Some forms of fine clays work well as a cleaning agent effectively carrying away excess body oils and grease.

2) Gunpowder
Potassium nitrate extracted from urine.

3) Toothpaste
Fine clay, salt, fine ground sawdust, a small amount of glycerin based homemade soap

4) Deodorant/antiperspirant
Epsom salts if available make an effective deodorant.

5) Leavening agents (not a sourdough yeast mother - chemical only)I think you provide your own answer.

6) Bleach/Chlorine
Lye can be used for some bleaching.

7) Cleansers
Fine sand, clay and sawdust can be used alone or with soaps. Also both vinegar and alcohol have uses.

8) Lubricants
Animal and plant based grease and oils can serve. If you in a location where mineral oils are available you could rig a small refinery to fraction off the crude.

9) Simple Medicines
Other than chemical purgatives your pretty much limited to herbal medicines. Chloral hydrate should be practical give a dedicated effort in chemistry. Given the chemicals I list ether and chloroform might be possible.

10) Fertilizer
Compost pile.

I don't think raw chemicals are generally cost, time-effort, effective goals there are a few that are easy and possible.

Alcohol.
Ferment in an anaerobic environment and distill.

Acetic acid, vinegar.
Ferment in an aerobic environment.

Casein.
Extracted from milk. Gives you a base for paints, glues and a simple form of plastic.

Tannins.
From oaks. Water extract from acorn processing, galls for concentrated tannins, and bark.

Potassium nitrate.
Extract from urine. Can be processed to get you nitric acid.

Methane, HS.
From a digester. Methane for fuel needs the HS extracted by running through iron filings which gets you Iron Sulfate which is the base for an effective ink when combined with tannins from oak gall. HS processed through water gets you sulphuric acid.

Given some way of producing electricity, solar, wind and hydro power sound good, your ability to extract and process chemicals opens up. As with all things as you get deeper into it it gets easier. Your ability to create one thing leads to many more options. Helped along by the fact that your not actually discovering or inventing anything.

Look up industrial processes from 1700s to early 1900s. Also a good source for formulas is:
"Henley's Twentieth Century Formulas and Trade Secrets"

I think some of the things you might want would need to be created through the use of some substitute.

Soap is one of the simpler things to make, but there are also natural substitutes, some plants, that can be sued for cleansing.

As far as creating a leavening agent, you would be remiss to not have a yeast starter. It not only is a leavening agent, but it also create alcohol, which if you could distill would give you a good santizer and possibly some fuel. In both cases, it would be expensive, unless you could get some modern commercial equipment, but without the yeast, it's never going to happen.

Fertilizers are also easy, compost. Plants can require generally three types of fertilizers, nitrogen, phosphates and potash. In order, composted green matter, composted bone meal, and ash. Composting green matter is easy, and making a pile of the weeds you pull, lawn clippings, raked leaves, etc, and jsut letting it rot will do. Bone meal, I've not tried, but I believe it can be done by making sure the bones are dried, nothing but bone, grinding them into as small parts as possible, then letting nature digest the rest. Potash, burn some hardwood, use the ashes. Some reading on organic gardening might offer a lot of information this stuff.

Heya Blast... I thought you might pop up on this thread. :-)

I have *some* info, but I admit I've never taken the time to actually piece it all together. I'll try to take all of this and perhaps put it into a workable document for consumption (and my own use of course).

Excellent information Art! That's a great start and I'll add in your ideas - hopefully I can find that book.

Again, good information. I guess I was assuming alcohol would be top of most people's list and Yeast is certainly something you would want to "create". I was thinking of chemical leavening, but maybe that's not necessary. And I should have included Alcohol on the list as it is a disinfectant, fuel, etc.

I don't think I'm going to sue any plants ;-) but yes a nice horticultural setup seems to be an important part of LTS - heirloom seeds, medicinal plants such as aloe, hardwood timber, and of course fruits and veggies all seem important. Substitution is fine and in fact, I'm keen on identifying safe substitutes to any products. Recipes are important because it's very easy to hurt yourself processing some of these things. And in a true SHTF TEOTWAWKI situation, getting non-renewable raw resources is going to be very difficult depending on your locale and ability to salvage.

I know in my area that I can find some coal and of course there's plenty of farmland and timber. Others may have ready access to salt and other mined materials, so even identifying where/how to find those seem like valuable information. Maybe even basic metallurgical skills such as smelting and forging should be included on this?

Lots of things would be better to lay in a reserve supply then to make them. I can go over to one of the Dollar stores and buy 4-bars of Ivory soap for $1.00. $30.00 or $40.00 will buy me a lifetime supply of soap.

It’s nice to know how to make things, but keep it in perspective as to time, materials, books and chemical cost to make something when you can buy it already made for next to nothing.

Here's just the book you need. I've got it around the house somewhere but can't find the box it's in. Found an on-line scan of the original 1872 book, free for download, no copyright. If you have decent broadband, go for the 85 MB PDF, otherwise the text file is smaller. Here's the cover plus TOC. Fascinating reading.

While I will readily agree that laying in a supply is an important and valuable exercise, it's not foolproof. Supplies can be stolen, destroyed, or washed away.

In a truly LTS situation, I would argue that knowledge is more valuable than a one-person lifetime supply. It can provide trade items, you can pass it along to help your family, friends and community without having to transport or give up your own supplies. It can replenish supplies that weren't stored up for a lifetime. I've got a lot of stuff stashed, but I know I don't have a lifetime supply of soap and toothpaste or really anything else. Certainly not enough for a family's consumption.

Skills like weaving, canning, carpentry, smithing, farming, hunting, identification of wild plants, &tc. are all very important should society collapse. Or should you find yourself stranded away from your supplies in some remote area. You can travel with knowledge, but it's a lot tougher carrying $40 worth of soap. ;-)