Commerically,it is sold as a drain cleaner.You can find it at your local grocery store.It is used in the production of "bath-tub" meth.
and becareful when handling that shit, ive witnessed some pretty fucked up events with people getting that shit on their skin
it was in fight club, some people make soap with it! you can probly order it from a soap making supply company! just a word of advice, home depot and lowes will look at you like your an idiot if you go in asking for lye....
see above post, i didnt say he was making soap, i said it was in the movie and that some people make soap with it!
and if youre asking for it and dont even know what it is, chances are you arent ready for whatever you plan to do with it. unless your cleaning your pipes out..
if you buy drain cleaner expecting it to be straight lye, you might end up with something that isnt straight lye. most drain cleaners arent. http://millersoap.com/soapingred.html scroll down on this page, it'll tell you how to buy pure lye.
I buy it in the supermarket.Some hardware stores also carry it.Depending on the country,it is also sold as caustic soda.You can also use wood ash but it is a fiddly business doing so.
if you have to ask this question, then you obviously shouldn't be attempting any chemistry, or extractions for that matter. I see that you're 15....another reason that you shouldn't be making your own drugs. If you were to get busted, your parents would be in a deep shit too, since you're probably going to attempt to do it in their own home.
I know this thread has been dead for a while. But just thought that I should add for future readers... Be carefull with that crap Lye is used as an animal poison.. It won't take much of the stuff to make a human seriously ill or dead.
you can also buy food grade lye in the canning section of of most grocery stores. It is very basic, and it will burn. Cuidado
lye is also the slang term for marijuana, but im guessing thats not the definition u were looking for...
what?? we have been canning for 20 plus years and i have never seen "food grade lye", nor have i ever come across a canning recipe for said "food grade lye".. could you possibly show some kind of evidence to this? also lye can be purchased at most hardware stores as was stated in the drain cleaner section.. it will say "100% lye" on the container.. its not hard to make sure you have the right thing.. we use it for making soap.. and yes it heats up to 180 degrees when its mixed with water.. dangerous shit.. thats why when you make lye soap you have to let the bars sit for 3 to6 weeks and let the lye deactivate,,otherwise you could get a nasty surprise while bathing..
ok i looked it up,, its used for baking not canning.... and its not available anywhere around here,trust me we are in the canning section every week being we can over 500 quarts of food a year.. from what ive read its used mainly in older baking recipes in place of baking soda.. or baking soda is now used in its place.. i wonder why? lol we make our own bread as well but we use a sour dough starter so baking soda,,or lye(wow thats creepy to think of being we make soap) isnt used in our recipe..but once again,we have never seen it sold anywhere.. wow you learn something new everyday...