Candles in Colonial America were a necessity. Obviously they didn’t have electricity and oil for lamps was costly. Candles were the light of the night. The common people made their candles out of tallow, which is animal fat and it burned rancid like the Roman candles made of the same substance. The well to do used beeswax candles; the average family couldn’t afford such extravagance.
The common colonist was out in the field quite a bit and even the women worked outside some. They made the discovery of using bayberries that they boiled to get the wax. These candles didn’t produce a lot of smoke and they smelled very good. It took so much time to make candles out of bayberry wax that it didn’t become popular. Plus, eight pounds of berries made one pound of wax. To recoup the finest form of the wax took many days. Time was of a premium; there was a lot of necessary hard work to do.
The main candle they used for their home was a tapered candle. Repetitive dunking of the cotton strands into the wax made these candles. The wax built up around the wicks of cotton strips. When burning the wicks had to be maintained as they didn’t have braided wicks. When the 1700’s rolled around the whaling industry flourished in the colonies. This gave the colonial candle makers the choice of whale oil and they made spermaceti wax. Wax made from whale oil didn’t smell much better than that of tallow though it did hold up better in the summer’s heat.
To make candles by the colonial method get a non-waxed tapered wick and weight the end with a washer. Melt the wax in a melting pot, a tall coffee can will do. The container should be tall and narrow. A tall can allows melting less wax. When the wax is thoroughly melted shut off the heat. Place the can or pot on a surface that resists heat. Start dipping the wick into the wax. The first time hold the wick in the wax while the wax quits bubbling. The rest of the dipping needs to be just dip in and take the wick out. Hanging the wicks between dipping is a good idea if you make more than one at a time. Leave the wick out briefly between each dip.
The dipping continues until you get the diameter you want for the candle. This can be time consuming. Patience is a part of this process. You’ll hang the candles to let them harden. Clip the candles onto a coat hanger and cut the end so the bottom is flat. Once you go through this process with a few candles the big job candle making was in colonial times will be quite clear. Think of how many candles a household used in a year. Imagine reading by candlelight, sewing, cleaning a gun. Any task they did at night was by the light of a candle. What difference electricity makes.
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