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.