Welcome!

I recently tried some alternative teks with small amounts.
- wet lime STB (1 part lime, 1 part rootbark and 7 parts water). Seems to be good. I simmered it in a hot water bath for a few hours and pulled while hot, haven't tried this cold yet. Very pure product, the crystals didn't even stick to the glass. But I suspect low yields... dropped my scales so I can't weigh accurately atm
- dry lime: (a moist paste of lime and rootbark powder, dried and ground) didn't work well with acetone or naphta.
- steam distillation of wet lime / rootbark. No good, lye might work better but hardly any spice is boiled off.

The STB tek with lye seems to be the most fool proof. If you have sodium carbonate and calcium hydroxide, you could make your own lye! It's an old slow process, I don't have the details but I can calculate the ratios if you want.
Heat some water containing sodium carbonate and lime for a few hours, decant/filter off the calcium carbonate that formed, and you have a lye solution. For this purpose it's probably not even necessary to remove the precipitate, the point is to make it stronger basic than plain lime!

wow..you can actually do that!? SWIM would love to know that little trick!

Ca(OH)2 + Na2CO3 --> CaCO3 + 2 NaOH
mols:
74.09g 106g 100.1 80g
So, that's a ratio of let's say 0.7:1 anhydrous lime:soda. Your materials may vary in their water content, fresh cleaning soda is Na2CO3.10H2O!
or rather
Ca2+(aq) + CO3 2-(aq) --> CaCO3(s)

The solubility of calcium carbonate is much smaller than of calcium hydroxide, that's why it works. But it's slow and tedious because the hydroxide is also pretty badly soluble... I haven't done it because lye is easily available around here but I read about it.

Who knows how much stirring or boiling is required... not a nice idea to stir/agitate a hot lye solution, this is very dangerous. Even lime is caustic, although it's just a nibble compared to the bite of hot lye, wear protection!

yes it's sold at grocery stores and other places as pickling lime about $2.25 a pound.