Making Soap

I went to see my sister at lunch time and saw a copy of a magazine on her footstool. It had an article about how people used to make soap in "the good ole days." Man alive, it was quite a process. I always wondered about how they had all the ingredients and what the ingredience were. In this article the soap maker said that they used the ashes from wood that they put in a large colandar and poured water through slowly. (perferably soft water) The element that came from the ashes and permiated the water was lye. They took bacon fat and other meat fats they saved from cooking and put that in too. They also added kerosene to the mix and heated it over a fire stirring...for a time until they determined it was done. They put the mixture into flat wooden boxes and poured the water off that rose to the top as it hardened. While it was still somewhat soft, the stuff in the box was cut into bars.
I know I missed some steps. If you can fill in the blanks I would appreciate it.

I once got a soap kit from the store... I just melted the stuff in a microwave and put it into decorative molds. I hardly think it could rate as making soap!!!!