Someone is trying to acquire skills that will help survive in a global catastrophe. Someone just found a new hobby. And someone managed to turn this hobby into a profitable business, creating real works of art. What is this about? On the independent manufacture of candles at home. In this article, you will learn how to make a wick from threads.
Required part
If you can still achieve some variations in the material for creating a candle, you will not succeed in eliminating one of its components. It's about a wick. On how to make a wick at home, we will go further. And now just consider what this important thread is.
The origin of the wick
It might seem logical that the wick should be a contemporary of the candle, but it is not. Candles appeared a little later. Centuries that way in fifteen. Initially, chips were used as a wick. Later guessed to use pieces of fabric. This was in those days when candles were not yet invented, and for illumination they used small plates with liquid combustible substance (mostly fat), which mercilessly smoked and smelled disgustingly.
However, if you think that the wick is the simplest particle that can be made from anything, then you are deeply mistaken. It is not as simple as it might seem. In order to know how to make a wick with your own hands, you must understand how and why it burns.
Processes in the wick
For a wick to be of high quality, it must consist of several interconnected fibers. This is important in order for capillary forces to act, which raise the liquid fuel to the source of combustion. The candle wick at the molecular level serves as a kind of pumping substation, which, among other things, makes it better to saturate the liquid with gas. As a result, the vapor pressure increases and the flash point decreases. All these processes, of course, take place at the microscopic level, but this does not become less interesting. And their understanding will help to make a high-quality wick, the most suitable for a single product.
What can you make a wick of
Throughout history, they tried to make a wick with their own hands from everything that burns. Thin chips, pieces of fabric, braided threads and even pressed poplar fluff - this is an incomplete list of materials.
Today, the most reasonable option seems to be to use cotton thread or fiberglass. The fundamental difference between these materials is that the cotton completely burns out and the fiberglass wick remains. If suddenly you have a legitimate question about who needs it and why, then perhaps you do not know a new fashionable trend - the manufacture of curly candles with a frame. You bought, for example, a candle in the shape of a cute cat, and when it burns out, you find a frame in the form of a skeleton of this very animal. Some connoisseurs of such ideas are simply delighted.
Interesting detail
When thinking about how to make a wick for a candle, pay attention to the fact that its size and diameter must be selected in accordance with the size of the candle itself. If it is too thin, it will simply go out. And if it is too thick, it will mercilessly smoke. In automated production, these parameters have long been calculated. But when you make a wick for candles with your own hands, most often you have to achieve the right proportion by trial and error.
Another trick is that a long wick also smokes. And as fat, wax or paraffin burns, it inevitably lengthens. In the Middle Ages , this problem had to be handled manually. In the houses there were always scissors with which the ends of the wicks were cut off. They were called wick scissors.
In our time, this problem was solved in a very original way. The wick for a candle (which in the vast majority of cases is a thread woven from thin fibers) began to be made using the technique of asymmetric weaving. As a result of this, the tip bends to the side and completely completely burns out.
How to make a wick at home
If your candle will be made of wax, you will need a thick wick with free (not tight) weaving. If the initial material will be paraffin or various fats, the diameter of the wick should be small, and individual threads should be twisted quite tightly.
This is because these substances have different viscosities. In order for the wax to successfully be able to climb the capillaries of the wick, wide enough passages will be required. If the same is left for less liquid paraffin, then it will simply lack the necessary traction, and the candle will burn dimly, unevenly, or even go out altogether.
Necessary impregnation
When you make a wick for candles with your own hands, remember the need to impregnate it before direct use. This process is not particularly laborious. However, it will take time, since the soaked wick must be thoroughly dried.
Impregnation is carried out so that the wick burns better and less sagging from wax or paraffin is formed.
Various solutions can be used. Here are a few options.
- For 500 ml of water: 5 grams of ammonium chloride, 10 grams of borax, 5 grams of sodium nitrate and 5 grams of calcium chloride.
- For 550 ml of water: 30 grams of hydrated lime and 8.5 grams of sodium nitrate.
- For 700 ml of water: 1 gram of ammonium chloride and 1 gram of sodium nitrate.
The wick is immersed in the solution for at least 15 minutes. And then hung out to dry. It is recommended to dry the blanks for at least five days.
Among home craftsmen, a solution that requires fewer specialized chemicals is popular. And although it is somewhat inferior in quality to the mixtures described above, but since we are still talking about how to make a wick at home (trying not to turn the house into a branch of a chemical office as much as possible), we will consider this option.
It is done as follows: take 2 tablespoons of ordinary table salt (not iodized), add 4 tablespoons of borax there and stir it in one and a half liters of warm water. When the solution becomes homogeneous, you can send there preforms of wicks for soaking.
For better preservation of wicks, even after complete drying, they can be additionally saturated with molten wax. To do this, dip them in pre-melted wax three to four times. After this procedure, the wicks must again be dried. However, wax impregnation is needed only if you want to prepare yourself material for future use. The wick will be able to fulfill its direct function in the candle you made without this last stroke.
Wide field of activity
After you have already figured out how to make a wick at home, think about where you can apply it. In truth, working with candles is a very exciting experience. And from a cute hobby, it may well transform into a decent income item.
Candles come in many types. The simplest are household ones. Their only function is very mundane - to provide light in the event of a power outage. They have a simple cylindrical shape and a boring translucent white color.
Table candles are already more attractive. In their manufacture, various dyes are used. Their shape varies from cylindrical to twisted. Such candles may well serve as an important element in creating an atmosphere for a romantic dinner.
Scented candles are made with the addition of substances with a pleasant smell. In some cases, they can be used in aromatherapy. Thus, you can not only cheer yourself up, but also improve your health.
Gel candles are very popular nowadays. Firstly, because they are unusual, secondly, because they are beautiful, and thirdly, because they burn absolutely without any smell. Make them easy. All that is needed is a transparent container (preferably in the form of a bowl), some colored sand, beads or decorative figurines (this already depends on the flight of fantasy), a wick and molten gel mass, which the composition is poured into.
So go for it! All in your hands.