Preparedness for when

[Deleted User]

tina_malteser wrote: »

I can fish:j

Can you gut too?

mardatha

I can do game birds rabbit and hare. I cannot touch fish YEUGH!

GreyQueen

The candlemaking carries on apace. I discovered that even 3 hours after I'd poured the wax, the UHT milk cartons were still slightly warm to the touch and that the wax had done a big ole slump around the wick, more than an inch down,

Interesting. I have topped up the UHT candles with some more wax which is a close colour match but must remember to withold some in future to do a top-up. Hardup Hester did post something about this on her blog last year.

I am now em-Pr*ngling some cylindrical candles, mostly white although a stubby green one has been poured. Which will no doubt slump and then have a white infill because I haven't any more green. Lessons learned.

It's good to experiment. I'm having a lot of fun for the price of a pkt of wicking and the gas to boil the water.

bluebag

GreyQueen wrote: »

The candlemaking carries on apace. I discovered that even 3 hours after I'd poured the wax, the UHT milk cartons were still slightly warm to the touch and that the wax had done a big ole slump around the wick, more than an inch down,

Interesting. I have topped up the UHT candles with some more wax which is a close colour match but must remember to withold some in future to do a top-up. Hardup Hester did post something about this on her blog last year.

I am now em-Pr*ngling some cylindrical candles, mostly white although a stubby green one has been poured. Which will no doubt slump and then have a white infill because I haven't any more green. Lessons learned.

It's good to experiment. I'm having a lot of fun for the price of a pkt of wicking and the gas to boil the water.

Have you ever made buddy burners using corrugated cardboard and a tuna tin, with melted wax poured in, pretty good in the outdoors but takes an age to boil a cup of water, would tide you over in an emergency though.

Hardup_Hester

Hi GQ
Thanks for the mention, I'm not sure why 'the slump' happens, but it does, I often end up with unintentionally 2 tone candles because of it. Still as long as they burn the colour doesn't really matter.
Hester

GreyQueen

bluebag wrote: »

Have you ever made buddy burners using corrugated cardboard and a tuna tin, with melted wax poured in, pretty good in the outdoors but takes an age to boil a cup of water, would tide you over in an emergency though.

I've seen them in books but done in shallow tins with lids such as old polish tins. It's on the to-do list. Didn't know what they were called, though.

One thing I'm noticing is that my shredded wax took up quite a volume but it really reduces when melted. I shall soon need some new old candles, if that makes sense.

You can also pour melted wax into cardboard egg carton cells, with a bit of dryer lint or other burnables, and then have firestarters. Or drip it from a candle into a small box of matches to waterproof the striking ends.

Hot candle wax; hours of fun for all the family.

bluebag

GreyQueen,

I do have to be quite careful in my house with regard to actual candle making, in my deeds is a clause from 1910 forbidding candle making on the land. I don't know if any of it still applies?

I wouldn't mind betting some hard nosed insurance adjuster would use it to try and avoid paying insurance money if I burned the blessed house down doing it, and if you knew me in RL you may think that highly likely! LOL

GreyQueen

:rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:

But does using the kitchen count as "on the land"? I'm sure a legal eagle could make a case.

I don't have the nerve to do HH's melt-the-wax-straight-in-the-pan technique from her blog although she did counsel you not to do this at home. I got my big lug-eared stainless steel pot (£1 from a boot fair about 20 years ago, it's great) and just set 3 standard size food tins in it. They needed to be at least half way full with shredded wax to sit upright in the 3 inches of water at a rolling boil.

I have a 1950s tea tray, very strong and with a deep lip, on a newspaper, beside the stove and the cartons and tubes are sitting on that. Apart from the wicking, I bought nothing in, which is how I like to do my crafts.

I have one tall pinky-red UHT candle (with darker red infill) plus one slightly shorter one, ditto infill. One stubby green cylindrical one (white infill to come) and one taller cylinder in plain white. The third cylinder is taller and I've been tinting white wax with a little plum coloured wax so expect it'll be pale pink when it is unveiled. I've stopped now and hope the white wax left is sufficient to top up the slumpies tomorrow.

All in all, a great way to spend a chilly rainy afternoon.

[Deleted User]

GreyQueen wrote: »

and that the wax had done a big ole slump around the wick, more than an inch down

You could always make the candles by dipping instead.

BTW. Wouldn't Smarties tubes be the ideal size for candles?

GreyQueen

Bedsit_Bob wrote: »

You could always make the candles by dipping instead.

BTW. Wouldn't Smarties tubes be the ideal size for candles?

But that presupposes that I'm not a lazy sausage........ :rotfl:Melting and pouring is pretty fast and easy and if I have to back-fill a slumpy bit, well, it's no biggie.

ETA I haven't got any Smarties tubes and prolly shouldn't go get any as don't need any extra calories. Plus I prefer pillar candles to the skinny ones.