So. The wool I scoured in the soda ash solution is now dry. It does not feel greasy. It smells like a sheep (duh!) and there are still bits of VM and BM stuck in it, which will flick/comb/card out.
I am cold soaking a larger batch on the pool deck now. For this batch, I will use a half cup each of borax and sodium carbonate. I'm going to increase the amount of hot water on this to maybe 3 or 4 gallons on the wash and the rinse, which means using the spider tub.
According to what I've read, ancient natron deposits are not composed entirely of sodium carbonate. Borax and other salts of volcanic origin would be present as well. Natron has been used in a variety of ways from extremely ancient and prehistoric times. I am confident in the historicity of using it to scour wool. The only problem would be whether a particular culture group would have been able to easily obtain the soda.
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