History of Candle Making

Candle making is a relatively simple craft with its origins firmly grounded in ancient history. The necessary materials and equipment are ready available from craft and specialists shops everywhere, in fact you will probably find most of the basic equipment in your kitchen. This site will help explore this creative and satisfying craft.

The basic methods of candle making remain the same as in centuries past. Essentially , a candle is a cylinder of solid fuel with a central wick. Traditionally, most candles for domestic use were made out of tallow, a substance obtained from animal fat, and wicks were made from rush or flax. However tallow would smell revolting when burning, and rush or flax wicks smoked terribly. The only alternative material available for candle making was beeswax, which due to its costliness, was reserved for use by very wealthy and the church. And even then, because of the quality of the wicks, the candles very often did not burn evenly.

In the early nineteenth century, due to research and experimentation of a French chemist called Michael Chevreul, it was discovered that a substance called stearin could be separated from tallow. Stearin could be used to harden other fats, giving rise to the production of cheaper, ordour free, better quality candles. As the century progressed, petroleum oil and coal began to be used increasingly as energy sources. A by product of this industry was the extraction of paraffin wax. These two basic ingredients, stearin and paraffin wax transformed the burning quality of candles, and, with the exception of beeswax, repalced all other substance used in the candle making process. They remain the principal ingrediants today, though stearin is now made from palm nuts, and paraffin wax is a by product of refining petrol. Another great advance, which took place during the same period was the introduction of plaited wicks.

Experimentation with different materials resulted, in 1825, with another Frenchman M. Cambaceres, producing a wick made from plaited cotton threads, which was found to give a brighter more constant flame. There still remained, however, the problem of the ash which was produced by the braided cotton. It was eventually discovered that if wicks were soaked in boric acid they became self consuming when lit. Concidentally, it was just at that time, when candle making was finally perfected, that the use of electricity as a source of lighting became viable and widespread.

Today, the use of candles is enjoying s revival, and candle makers have access to a vast array of wax products, moulds and decorative materials with which to experiment.