I wrote previously about using lard for candles and soap. While you can make soap (what I hoped to do), it is illegal to purchase sodium hydroxide (lye, the stuff they used to burn their hands in Fight Club) in France. Lye and oil combine to make soap and Lard is supposed to make nice, soft soap. You can also make bombs with this stuff, thus it’s unavailability. Don’t despair, we can make candles instead. To make candles that are hard at room temp like normal wax candles, I would need to use something called Alum or another acid. I have no idea where to get this stuff in France, so I will instead make straight, lard candles.
Since the lard is soft at room-temp and melts very quickly when heated, we need a container for our candle. I use old glass jars, baby-food size for my first experiment. The theory is simple, fill a jar with liquid lard, insert a wick (I used an old sheet, torn into strips and twisted up) and let solidify.
Left: Lard Lamp, Right: Lard Candle
On the left you’ll see the lamp I made. I got the idea from Instructables. Simply make a wick by wrapping metal wire around linen, sheet strips or cotton balls. Make it so it can stand up on it’s own and place it in a shallow can. Pack the can with solid lard and good to go. Here’s my wick before I put it in the can:
Cotton/Wire Wick
The wick stays up and the flame stays at the top while it sucks up the liquid lard like a normal lamp. It works pretty well and I imagine will provide many hours of light for about one and a half cups of lard. The lamp is better than the candle since the candle wick has started to fall over from liquifying the lard holding it up.
You can make lye yourself but I will not say how here. You can google it if you are serious about needing it (not that hard of a process).
I was just wondering what the smell would be like? Is it going to smell like you are frying food? Could you sprinkle herbs or other stuff in the lard to give a pleasant smell?
I loved your wick – that should sort it – tried loads of lamp shapes and shells but the wick always fell in the melted lard. Had some success just with a free standing candle in a dish, you just cut the block and stick the wick down the middle, but it burns quite fast. I think mixing with part beeswax or paraffin may work as well. We can get lye in Britain so going to try some soap.