Originally Posted by
mconlonx
You might have clicked through the wiki-link from post no. 5, but you didn't.
You're right - I should have checked the link. Live and learn!
Here's the thing about soap, the stuff we use at home every day. It contains lye (sodium hydroxide or NaOH). Take that away and you have the "stearates" mentioned in the link as soaps. They are animal fats that have reacted with various acids to produce a greasy substance that can dissolve away some of the dirt on our hands.
However, the lye is what dissolves the grease, leaving our hands clean and non-greasy. In ancient times, people smeared oil or grease on themselves and scraped it off with a blade-like instrument and thought they were "clean". In recent centuries, they found that the addition of lye improved their cleanliness (and their aroma!).
My main point: we don't want lye in our bearing grease. So home-brewers shouldn't use household soap in their home-made bearing grease. Sure enough, though, you were right according to the link.