Search...
Home Subscribe
Pie
Home Subscribe
Recent topics Flagged topics Hot topics Best topics
Search...
Search within low tech Search permies
Advance search Google search
Register / Login
Energy efficient DIY wood stoves
  • Post Reply Bookmark Topic Watch Topic
  • New Topic
permaculture forums growies critters building homesteading energy monies kitchen purity ungarbage community wilderness fiber arts art permaculture artisans regional education skip experiences global resources cider press projects digital market permies.com pie forums private forums all forums
skip the mortgage Better Wood Heat DIY Rocket Mass Heater DVD GMC website Oehler complete underground house and green house set Full online Permaculture Design course and Appropriate Technology Course video Rocket Mass Heaters
this forum made possible by our volunteer staff, including ...
master stewards:
  • Nancy Reading
  • Carla Burke
  • r ranson
  • John F Dean
  • paul wheaton
  • Pearl Sutton
stewards:
  • Jay Angler
  • Liv Smith
  • Leigh Tate
master gardeners:
  • Christopher Weeks
  • Timothy Norton
gardeners:
  • thomas rubino
  • Jeremy VanGelder
  • Maieshe Ljin

Permies Poll - Have you made candles before?

 
Timothy Norton
master gardener
Posts: 4239
Location: Upstate NY, Zone 5, 43 inch Avg. Rainfall
1718
I like...
monies home care dog fungi trees chicken food preservation cooking building composting homestead
posted 9 months ago
  • Likes 3
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
    Send
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
Another entry into the Permies Poll pool comes to us from the more crafty side of the spectrum. Have you or do you currently make candles?



Comment below your thoughts. Bonus points for pictures of your creations!



Do you have interest in making candles? What kind have you made? Decorative or functional?

- Tim's Homestead Journal - Purchase a copy of Building a Better World in Your Backyard - Purchase 6 Decks of Permaculture Cards -
- Purchase 12x Decks of Permaculture Cards - Purchase a copy of the SKIP Book - Purchase 12x copies of Building a Better World in your Backyard

 
Timothy Norton
master gardener
Posts: 4239
Location: Upstate NY, Zone 5, 43 inch Avg. Rainfall
1718
I like...
monies home care dog fungi trees chicken food preservation cooking building composting homestead
posted 9 months ago
  • Likes 3
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
    Send
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
I have not made candles before, but I do have interest in casting some decorative beeswax ones.

- Tim's Homestead Journal - Purchase a copy of Building a Better World in Your Backyard - Purchase 6 Decks of Permaculture Cards -
- Purchase 12x Decks of Permaculture Cards - Purchase a copy of the SKIP Book - Purchase 12x copies of Building a Better World in your Backyard

 
Pearl Sutton
steward & bricolagier
Posts: 14662
Location: SW Missouri
10093
2
I like...
goat cat fungi books chicken earthworks food preservation cooking building homestead ungarbage
posted 9 months ago
  • Likes 7
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
    Send
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
Yes. I make useful ones, no scent, as I can't tolerate it. I pour them multi-wicked into glass jars with tops so they stay dry, for emergency light and heat.

I have also made the cardboard spiral wax things that we made in girl scouts for cooking

Random picture off the net


I pour them in tuna sized cans, and change the amount of cardboard to make them burn hotter or cooler, and last shorter or longer. They fit in a sterno stove nicely.

Gardens in my mind never need water
Castles in the air never have a wet basement
Well made buildings are fractal -- equally intelligent design at every level of detail.
Bright sparks remind others that they too can dance
What I am looking for is looking for me too!

 
Judith Browning
Posts: 8887
Location: Ozarks zone 7 alluvial, clay/loam with few rocks 50" yearly rain
2382
4
posted 9 months ago
  • Likes 9
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
    Send
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
We made a lot of dipped candles for light to use along with our kerosine lamps years ago.
Using what we had, we braided cotton string and melted down every old candle we could get our hands on.  

We learned a lot about size of wick to candle size and had many many smokey ones until we got it right.  

We had metal oil tins set in a kettle of water on the wood stove and could adjust the melt pretty easily.  No pictures at all...we just did stuff and didn't keep records.

...there was no 'google' to ask back in the seventies....foxfire was helpful as was the Whole Earth Catalog...and the old folks down the road  

"We're all just walking each other home." -Ram Dass
"Be a lamp, or a lifeboat, or a ladder."-Rumi
"It's all one song!" -Neil Young

 
Christopher Weeks
master gardener
Posts: 3274
Location: Carlton County, Minnesota, USA: 3b; Dfb; sandy loam; in the woods
1595
6
I like...
forest garden trees chicken food preservation cooking fiber arts woodworking homestead ungarbage
posted 9 months ago
  • Likes 4
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
    Send
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
I first made dipped candles at a Lake of the Ozarks amusement park called Fort of the Osage that's been closed for something like 40 years. :)

As a young parent, pouring melted wax candles in tin cans and declivities in the sandbox from old garage sale candles and crayons was always a hit with the kids -- one of whom has gone on to buy actual candle-making equipment from craft stores and second-hand shops and does it semi-regularly as a hobby.
 
Carla Burke
Rusticator
Posts: 8567
Location: Missouri Ozarks
4542
6
I like...
personal care gear foraging hunting rabbit chicken cooking food preservation fiber arts medical herbs homestead
posted 9 months ago
  • Likes 8
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
    Send
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
Yup! Mom went through a candle making phase, when I was a kid, and taught me - the weirder the candles, the better she liked them, so we did sand candles, ice candles, molded and canister candles, in the full spectrum of colors.

As an adult, I've rolled beeswax candles; emergency ones in used tuna or soup cans or lidded glass jars - often with a pack of matches tucked inside; fun little ones that looked like ice cream sundaes, in the restaurant sundae type cups, & cupcakes. I even tried my hand at a ridiculously simplified layered one, peeled into loops and curly-ques while still warm from the dipping(major fail, lol). I've used soy, beeswax & parrafin, and blended them a few ways, including with tallow or vegetable shortening.

I've even done the ones like Pearl pictured, with the rolled up cardboard - complete with the tallow/beeswax blend. That works great as a 'sterno' replacement, for cooking/chafing pots, btw.

The only thing...more expensive than education is ignorance.~Ben Franklin

 
Jay Angler
steward
Posts: 12420
Location: Pacific Wet Coast
6991
I like...
duck books chicken cooking food preservation ungarbage
posted 9 months ago
  • Likes 6
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
    Send
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
I went through the decorative candle stage along with my sisters. Problem is that we never did figure out that wick/candle ratio was a thing, and there weren't any convenient Wisdom Carriers in suburbia such as Judith had access to. Now my household is just far too dependent on the convenience of battery headlamps to mess with candles, and I do get concerned about air quality. Too many other pressing issues to work on to mess with candles. If the Cascadian Subduction lets go, candles will be the least of our worries! Some sort of low tech, easy to assemble on whatever land isn't covered in downed trees shelter, is higher on my list. Something along the lines of the Medieval Market hoop tent?

Visit Redhawk's soil series: https://permies.com/wiki/redhawk-soil
How permies.com works: https://permies.com/wiki/34193/permies-works-links-threads

 
J Garlits
gardener
Posts: 504
Location: Wabash, Indiana, Zone 6a
245
I like...
hugelkultur monies forest garden foraging trees books food preservation bike bee writing rocket stoves
posted 9 months ago
  • Likes 5
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
    Send
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
The family and I made some "pour into a jar" scented candles before. No more than melting blocks of wax, adding the scent and color, stirring, and pouring. We did get some soy wax one time and it was nice to work with. I liked it better than regular candle wax, which is a petrochemical.

j

Passionate advocate for living at a human scale and pace.
Help me grow the permaculture presence in Indiana https://permies.com/t/243107
Concise Guide to Permies' Publishing Standards: https://permies.com/wiki/220744

 
Riona Abhainn
pollinator
Posts: 717
Location: Clackamas Oregon, USA zone 8b
76
posted 9 months ago
  • Likes 4
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
    Send
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
I haven't and its not on my to-do list of things to try, but we enjoy buying them from local artisans and burning them at home periodically.  I'm surprised my MIL doesn't make her own.

I do Celtic, fantasy, folk and shanty singing at Renaissance faires, fantasy festivals, pirate campouts, and other events in OR and WA, USA.
RionaTheSinger on youtube

 
John F Dean
master steward
Posts: 6968
Location: southern Illinois, USA
2536
I like...
goat cat dog chicken composting toilet food preservation pig bee solar wood heat homestead
posted 9 months ago
  • Likes 5
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
    Send
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
I made a 7 wick one for cooking in an emergency.  I was a helper involved on cleaning out an attic and stumbled on maybe 50 pounds of wax that was given to me. I used an old plastic coffee can as a mold.

At my age, Happy Hour is a nap.

 
Tereza Okava
gardener
Posts: 3991
Location: South of Capricorn
2125
I like...
dog rabbit urban cooking writing homestead ungarbage
posted 9 months ago
  • Likes 3
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
    Send
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
as a kid (maybe a scout?) we made dipped candles. as an adult i now suspected the adults just needed the kids occupied for a long time.
i've since made candles from beeswax and recovered wax.
 
Timothy Norton
master gardener
Posts: 4239
Location: Upstate NY, Zone 5, 43 inch Avg. Rainfall
1718
I like...
monies home care dog fungi trees chicken food preservation cooking building composting homestead
posted 9 months ago
  • Likes 4
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
    Send
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
I realize that I might have everything I would need besides an appropriate wick to make beeswax candles.

Maybe a rainy day project!

- Tim's Homestead Journal - Purchase a copy of Building a Better World in Your Backyard - Purchase 6 Decks of Permaculture Cards -
- Purchase 12x Decks of Permaculture Cards - Purchase a copy of the SKIP Book - Purchase 12x copies of Building a Better World in your Backyard

 
gir bot
software bot
Posts: 1327346
1662
I like...
cooking pig
posted 9 months ago
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
    Send
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
Last vote in apple poll was on April 2, 2024

There are 10 types of people:
Those that understand binary, and those who don't.

 
The moustache of a titan! The ad of a flea:
Freaky Cheap Heat - 2 hour movie - HD streaming
https://permies.com/wiki/238453/Freaky-Cheap-Heat-hour-movie
reply
reply
    Bookmark Topic Watch Topic
  • New Topic
Boost this thread!
Similar Threads
More...