How do you test water?

How do you test lye water?

• I made lye water (I think) from ashes. I strained the ashes with water through a filter. The resulting water should be lye water. But I used both wood ash and non-wood ash. How can I test to see if what I made is lye, how strong it is if it is lye and if the lye was contaminated by the non-wood ashes (if lye can even be contaminated)?

• Answer:

  If you poured water through a filter containing wood ashes, you did indeed make lye. Lye is a very caustic alkaline solution, and to measure it's total alkalinity you will need a PH meter. Be very careful handling this stuff, it is nothing to play around with. In strong concentrations, it will take the flesh right off your body! It is by nature a very strong bleaching agent as well. AL