3 Nephi 24--Fuller's Soap

3 Nephi 24 is to be compared to Malachi 3.  It is part of the words Jesus commanded the people of Nephi to write down when he appeared to them.  The beginning of the chapter speaks of the Second Coming and verse 2 caught my eye.  It says:

"But who may abide the day of his coming, and who shall stand when he appeareth?  For he is like a refiner's fire and like fuller's soap."

I think we all understand what a refiner's fire does.  It is very hot and it purifies gold and silver.  OK that's pretty straight forward.  But what is fuller's soap?

After researching a bit online, I found a pretty good definition:  A fuller was someone who cleaned and thickened (to make it "full") freshly-woven cloth. The process involved cleaning, bleaching, wetting and beating the fibers to a consistent and desirable condition. Fuller's earth was a type of clay that was used to scour and cleanse the cloth. Fuller's soap was an alkali made from plant ashes which was also used to clean and full new cloth.

I thought that was very interesting.