Candles and Lamps for Lighting, Heating, and Cooking

DIY Oil Lamps and Candles - When making your own candle, in general, the wider or thicker your wick is and the longer it is, the bigger the flame will be, but also the faster it will use your fuel source. This is useful information to know because then you can kind of control how much light or heat you want to generate and how much fuel you want to use. This is also the reason why the flame size varies in the videos below. Another tip is that you will want to use natural fibers like cotton for your wick rather than plastic para cord type fibers, since plastic will just melt instead of just acting as a way for the oil to get to your flame.

Some Safety Links - From what I have been able to tell in the things I have seen online, there doesn't seem to be too much of a fire danger in using oil lamps, but there a few scenarios to watch out for. The first one being that you don't want your wick to be too thick or too tall above your oil, or in the case of a canning jar type lamp, too tall above the lid. The reason is that it will create a large and unruly flame that could light something on fire that you don't want to light on fire :). To know the best height, it seems to largely be up to how thick your wick is, but here is one video where someone did some testing that can work as a start: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jlyyZOucAzY, and another one where someone talks about wick height: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J-RDSa2S3JA. As for another danger, this is in one of the links below and is specifically for Canning Jar type oil lamps where the lid actually seals and traps heat and pressure inside of the reservoir of oil, eventually forcing the oil up the wick faster and creating a huge flame. Since it's talked about below, I'll not go into more detail here. Last but not least, so far I haven't seen any videos or articles talking about this being a problem, but if you have too many wicks in your candle at once, one potential fire hazard that could arise is that the reservoir of oil that your candle is drawing from could catch fire. And the reason this can be a danger is that even though oil is not flammable and you can't actually light it on fire with a match or something like that, it is still combustible, which means that it will ignite on its own if it goes above a certain temperature. According to this article: https://culinarylore.com/food-science:how-hot-before-cooking-oil-ignites/, the temperature when this happens for vegetable oils is about 750 degrees F. and higher, which is pretty high. For reference, according to this article: http://www.shamrockaffiliations.ws/Paraffin_Wax_Flash_Points.php, the paraffin wax used in most candles today will combust or auto-ignite at a temperature of about 390 degrees and above, and the kind of set up it takes for that to catch on fire is something like these clay pot heaters where the heat is actually staying around the wax: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sQdQrtxhCHE. So altogether, it takes quite a bit of heat to combust cooking oil, even more than candle wax, and in most use cases it shouldn't ever combust, but there are some certain cases where it could if there is too much heat staying around the oil reservoir, either from it being trapped or possibly too many wicks too close together, and it is something to be aware of. That article above also mentions further down that vegetable oils tend to start smoking at a temperature of about 390 degrees and above. So this can be one way of knowing if the oil is starting to get too hot. And now after that long explanation, here are some links to a few more safety things.

Proper way of extinguishing an oil fire

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wUDs37RM41s - In case the actual oil reservoir gets too hot and catches fire, as talked about above, this video shows why you should never use water to extinguish oil that has caught on fire. Instead, you will want to cover it to starve it of oxygen.

Add Vents to Canning Jar Type Lamps

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c-lL1wQ-M_g - This video shows something that seems to only happen with canning jar or baby jar type oil lamps that actually seal and are airtight. To give a summary of what some of the commenters believe is happening and I would also say is happening, after a few minutes of the candle burning, heat and air pressure seems to build up inside of the jar, which forces an excess of oil to go up the wick of the candle. This then causes a large flame because so much oil is being burned at once. In order to stop this from happening, all that you seem to need to do is add some holes elsewhere on the lid as a vent so that pressure can't build up inside of the jar. This idea of adding vents to stop this from happening also seems to be confirmed in this video where the person has quite a few large holes and doesn't ever mention this problem happening: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jlyyZOucAzY.

Making Wicks - No matter what kind of Wick you use for your lamp or candle, according to some of the commenters on the Borax video below, soaking the wick in a solution of Borax and salt helps to keep the actual wick from burning so that it lasts longer, which also means you would have to adjust the wick height less often. So it's probably a good idea to always do that step.

Using a Mop Head as a Wick

https://www.amazon.com/cotton-mop-heads/s?k=cotton+mop+heads - According to a commenter on one of the videos I had seen about making an oil lamp, an all-cotton mop head works well as a ready made wick, and all you have to do is cut a strand off of the mop whenever you need a wick.

Using a rope type wick

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J_kQO0DC-gQ

Using string as a wick

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BKjTZXg_CIM

Putting Wick in Borax and Salt

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jZysaqpXNNQ - According to some of the comments on this video, this method of first soaking the cotton wick in Borax and Salt makes the wick last longer because the fire isn't able to burn the salt and Borax on the wick, which also means the fire uses more of your fuel source as fuel rather than the wick as fuel. The directions for doing this are to heat up 1-1/2 cups of water and put it into some kind of container. Then put 2 Tablespoons salt and 4 Tablespoons Borax into the water and stir until dissolved. After it's dissolved, you can put your wicks into the solution and let them soak in it for 24 hours. Once they have soaked, you then rinse the wicks and let them dry for 48 hours, after which they are ready to use in a candle. An optional extra step is to also melt some beeswax or wax and dip the wicks into the wax to make them stiff and easier to use in a candle.

How to know what width of wick to use if making one of the "Crisco" vegetable shortening candles below

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1koQ2sbX9yQ - Shows the reason why the wicks get drowned on some candles that are in jars. Basically, it's because the wick is too small and the flame isn't big enough to melt the wax on the sides of the jar as it is burning, and as the flame gets lower and actually does start to melt that wax on the side of the jar, there becomes an overflow of melted wax in the jar which extinguishes the wick.

Braiding string to make a bigger wick

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9DiTfQRx3XE - How to make a three strand braid to make a bigger wick. You can also use multiple strands in each of the three strands to make an even bigger wick.

Size of wick and flame you most likely need for cooking

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xbaxI8-CVZY - We have not tried cooking with a candle, but this video seems to show about the size of wick and flame you need to cook with a candle.

Oil Lamps

Using sand to keep the wick from bending

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VogDHKIcmYk

Using a Mason Jar with a Mason Jar lid to keep the wick straight

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nci6qS3DXYg

Using wire to keep a wick straight

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BTLZYUNhogw

Another video showing how to use wire to keep the wick straight - Easier to see than the video above

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vi_XdoIsQfY

Using salt to keep a wick straight

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p0dyLfy9x14

Using the bottom of a pop can to float the wick on the oil

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ei9Ez2Wnmcs

Using a cork to float the wick on the oil

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qHoj0Oe6O_g

Soda can lamp

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lrbCF74QSrI

Using wire to create an adjustable wick

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VaQ4JqTI-Hw

"Crisco" Type Vegetable Shortening Candles

Putting a wax candle into vegetable shortening to use as a wick

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RxSn84IZ_zI

Someone testing out a "Crisco" candle

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VU8l202u-zE

How to embed plain old string in the vegetable shortening to use as a wick

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BKjTZXg_CIM - Basically all you have to do is wrap the string around a pencil or something like that a few times, then lay that pencil over the container you are using for your candle. This will keep one end of your string at the top of the container. On the other end of the string, you then tie it to something like a bolt nut and let it fall to the bottom of the container. These two things together make the string stay straight. After that, you just heat the vegetable shortening until it melts and pour it into the container, letting it sit until it hardens again. Once it hardens, all that is left to do is cut the top of the string, altogether making a candle.

Links to Some Supplies

Fuel

Vegetable Oil - This is the cheapest fuel that we have found

https://www.amazon.com/Amazon-Brand-Vegetable-Gallon-Ounces/dp/B07MK2XKKV

Vegetable shortening - Depending on where you get it from, this type of fuel can be a little more expensive than the oil version, but it is also stiff and can be used to make more of a wax type candle like some of the links above show. Here are some on Amazon:

https://www.amazon.com/s?k=vegetable+shortening&ref=nb_sb_noss_1

and here is a Walmart brand that is only $6.00 for six pounds:

https://www.walmart.com/ip/2-Pack-Great-Value-All-Vegetable-Shortening-48-oz/386323727?

Oil Lamp Burners and Wick Adjuster - According to one of the reviewers, you can use a 1-1/4 inch drill bit to put these into other kinds of metal lids, like canning jar lids.

Lamp Oil

https://www.amazon.com/OIL-LAMP-CHIMNEY-HOLDERS-Lamplight/dp/B01CX0RRQO

Canning Jar Lid Oil Lamp Converters - Note: From what the reviewers say, these don't seem to have a vent hole in them that is talked about in one of the safety videos above, which is most likely the reason some of them talk about the flame getting so big. They also may have had the wick too tall.

Canning Jar Lids with a Hole Already in Them

https://www.amazon.com/Mason-Kerr-Canning-Burner-Converter/dp/B00OWM1NY4

​

​

Medicinals

Pau D'Arco - This is something we found out about when my brother got the West Nile Virus, and it was actually a bit of a miracle that we did find out about it.  If you don't know what the West Nile virus is, it is a virus you can get from mosquitoes that, at its worst, has left many people in our area in wheelchairs or having to use a cane, as well as in great amounts of pain because of the way it attacks the nervous system.  I don't know why, but our area just seems to have a lot of very severe cases :), and for whatever reason, there also aren't any treatments for it in the medical world either.  It's also an interesting virus because of the way that, like Lyme tick disease, it stays in your body the rest of your life, and actually comes back every now and then in full force when your body is weak.  The reason for mentioning all of that though is, as said above, one thing we found out about when my brother got West Nile that has really helped him is a bark called Pau D'Arco, that you can make a tea out of.  To give a little backstory, when he got West Nile, he has already always been quite weak from other health things, so when he got West Nile, he had a very severe case and was very close to dying those first few days of having it.  But one of the things we found out about from a friend who had gotten West Nile was this Pau D'Arco bark, and it really made a huge difference in his recovery, and even though he had such a severe case, has never ended up in a wheelchair, a cane, or having great amounts of pain.  As long as he drinks it every day, he also never has any of the symptoms of the West Nile come back either, unlike many other people we have heard about in our area.  Asa further testament to this, there was also one of our friends who had a very severe case of West Nile, and was in very great pain until we had a chance meeting with her and were able to tell her about this Pau D'Arco, and after she started using it, the pain went away.  And also a little while after that, because of some tests she was doing, she had to stop drinking Pau D'Arco, as well as stop a few other things she was doing, and sure enough, all the pain and symptoms of the West Nile came back.  So we don't know the medical reasons for why it works, but it does seem to work quite well for the West Nile virus anyway, and may work for other things too, and is just a good thing to have for times that there may not be a medical world able to help.

​

Here is a link to a place it can be bought.  We use the loose bark instead of the powder, and make large batches at a time by putting the loose bark into the water, bringing the water to a boil, then letting it sit until it's cool.  After that, we just strain out the bark:

https://www.starwest-botanicals.com/category/pau-darco-bark/

​

​

​

Colloidal Silver - Colloidal silver is a bit of a difficult thing to pinpoint just how well it might work for various things, because you will find a lot of things stated about it's abilities that are most likely not true. However, you can also find out things that are definitely known about it, and the main thing that is known from many sources is the ability of silver ions to kill bacteria. You can read about this in many places online like this: https://phys.org/news/2018-10-scientists-deeper-silver-bacteria.html, here: https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2015/05/silver-turns-bacteria-deadly-zombies, and here: http://news.rice.edu/2012/07/11/ions-not-particles-make-silver-toxic-to-bacteria-3/. You can also see it in action in a few videos on YouTube, one of which can be found here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AZrAOKBLG-Q. There is also this website that lists quite a few different studies that have been done with Colloidal Silver and viruses, and some of the ways it has interacted with viruses in those studies: https://colloidalsilverkillsviruses.com/. Although, they don't have links to the studies, so it's hard to know for sure if what is being claimed is true or not.

This then is where the idea comes from of taking it internally to fight bacteria, or externally on things like cuts to fight infection from bacteria in that cut. And this external use is actually sometimes used in the medical world for this very thing, according to this website and others you can find online: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Medical_uses_of_silver. There is also this PDF that talks about its use throughout history for medical purposes: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/26330393_History_of_the_Medical_Use_of_Silver.

​

In contrast to that, for using it internally, there was a website found here: https://draxe.com/nutrition/colloidal-silver-benefits/, that talks about some of the possible benefits of using it both internally and externally, giving some studies to back up those benefits, but probably the best way to find out how well it works would be to just look at some of the reviews on Amazon for the products mentioned below, and see what kinds of successes or failures they have had with it.

​

As far as taking it internally goes, it's good to also mention that there are some risks associated with it, but from what we can tell, it would appear those risks seem to be confined to taking large amounts of silver over one's lifetime, or taking large amounts over a short period of time. One website that talks about all of it quite well can be seen here: https://sovereignsilver.com/silver101/safety-toxicity/, and you can find many other places online too. To give a little summary, as far as we have been able to tell, the only concrete risks people ever talk about is a condition called Argyria where your skin turns permanently blue-ish because of the silver buildup in your skin from taking too much silver. Two other dangers that are sometimes talked about are liver and lung inflammation, but this is again from large dosages. And finally, they also sometimes talk about the possibility of someone being allergic to silver. You may run into other things too as you research silver, but those are the things we have run across.

​

Also worth mentioning, in order to know when those risks become involved, that website above also mentions that the EPA has actually given out guidelines for a kind of daily limit of silver intake in order to not have those adverse effects, and that daily limit being 350 micrograms. This is something that can also be seen at this website, in the section towards the top called, "A Closer Look at Silver,": https://www.foodsafetymagazine.com/magazine-archive1/junejuly-2017/risk-of-oligodynamic-silver-use-in-food-preservation-and-processing-operations/, where it also mentions mentions the World Health Organization has given a value of 10 grams over one's lifetime being considered safe. So altogether, according to the chart in that link above that uses the EPA's guidelines, it's worth mentioning they say how, if you use silver that is at 10ppm, or 10 parts per million, you only hit that 350 microgram threshold if you take 7 teaspoons a day of 10ppm silver. And it's also worth mentioning that the EPA does have a threshold of how much silver one is able to consume safely each day over one's lifetime.

​

So in the end, that all is a bit about Colloidal Silver, and the reason for going through all of that lengthy explanation :) is that, the reason it's here on this list is it could be quite useful in an emergency situation when there isn't an ability to get anything else, because of it's ability to kill bacteria like an antibiotic does, as well as possibly help with other things too.
 

As to what companies you might want to get silver from, there are many companies out there that sell it.  From our understanding of what is said in some of those websites above and others, some of the best bottles of silver you can get seem to be ones that have the smallest silver particle size, and also have a lower ppm value of 10-50 ppm.  From what we have read, they seem to work the best because having a small particle size means it takes less silver before an area of the body becomes saturated with silver. For example, if you were to put a cup of pebbles into a gallon of water and swish it around, the thing you notice is that there are large spaces in between those rocks that don't come in contact with the rocks. However, if you were to put a cup of fine sand or dirt into the gallon of water, the entire gallon becomes full of the sand or dirt, where there is very little space between each sand or dirt particle and the water that it is in. In turn becoming quite dirty water because the dirt and water were able to intermingle so much and come together so much, and in order to do the same thing with the pebbles, you would have to completely fill your container so that the space in between each pebble could be smaller and more water could come in contact with those pebbles. So you would have to use a lot more than just a cup of pebbles to get a similar effect. I don't know if that is a very good analogy :), but that principle is also the same with the silver, where the smaller the particle size there is, the more saturated an area can be, which also means more bacteria should come in contact with the silver. Just like the pebbles versus the sand or dirt, it also means you have to use less silver as well, which also means there is less of a danger of those side effects talked about above. So in the end, the ones with a low particle size and a low ppm value seem to be the best.

Here are a couple companies you can get silver from that seem to be this way, as well as links to buying one of their products on Amazon so you can see their reviews:

Sovereign Silver

https://sovereignsilver.com/

https://www.amazon.com/Sovereign-Silver-Bio-Active-Hydrosol-4oz/dp/B000OA6Z6O

​

Silver Biotics

https://silverbiotics.com/

https://www.amazon.com/American-Biotech-Labs-Biotics-Support/dp/B0013664GE

​

Here also is a website listing multiple different brands: https://top10supps.com/best-colloidal-silver-supplements/, that there should also be reviews on Amazon for.

There is also a great tool on that Sovereign Silver website where they show photos of how small many different company's silver particles are, so you can find out if what they claim is really true or not: https://sovereignsilver.com/product-comparison-tool/

​

In addition to this, you can also purchase at home kits to make it yourself.  So if you had a solar power generator, you would be able to keep making it, even if you could no longer buy it. There are many of these kind of Colloidal Silver generators online, but the particular one we have been using is one from a company called Silver Edge, found here: https://thesilveredge.com/micro-particle-colloidal-silver-generator/. The main reason for using their machine is that they claim it's able to create silver particles as small as .8 nanometers: https://thesilveredge.com/tem-image/, which as mentioned above, is always a good thing to try to find colloidal silver that is the smallest possible, because the smaller it is, the more area the silver is able to cover, and you also have the least risk of any side effects because you don't have to take very much of it to get the same effect as when the silver particles are larger. We haven't found any way to verify just how small the silver is that we get from it, and that above figure is probably the very smallest possible size rather than the average size, but that is what they claim anyway. That is also the size of particle that Sovereign Silver company claims to have when you look at the description of their product on Amazon in that link above.

​

But anyway, that's the one we have used, and it seems to be working all right for us. They also have a list of reviews on their website here: https://thesilveredge.com/customer-reviews-testimonials/. I'm sure there are others that would work all right too though. There was one website I found here that gives three other options: https://www.leaf.tv/4480003/the-best-colloidal-silver-generators/

​

​

​

Activated Charcoal Tablets or Capsules - You can read a lot about this online, but if you don't have anything else, as would be the case in an emergency or survival situation, Activated Charcoal can be a great way to help with things like food poisoning, vomiting, and in some cases drug overdose and chemical ingestion, and is even used in the medical world for this purpose. You can read more about activated charcoal being used for chemical and drug overdose situations here: https://www.poison.org/articles/2015-mar/activated-charcoal, and also read about some of the other uses for it here: https://draxe.com/nutrition/activated-charcoal-uses/. This website also has some information about what the side effects of it might be, some dosage information, and things like that: https://www.drugs.com/mtm/charcoal.html

For buying it, you can find it on Amazon here:

https://www.amazon.com/s?k=activated+charcoal+tablets

As for knowing which company to buy from, probably the best way is to look through the reviews and see what kinds of successes people have had in using that particular company.

​

​