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Wax has a lot of heat potential per ounce but can be difficult to harness enough to make it worthwhile as much of the heat is used to melt itself and blacken your pot. Stoves fueled by paraffin wax (not to be confused with kerosene - often referred to as paraffin) generally incorporate a wick and are basically wide candles with enough wick(s) to cook. Unfortunately, paraffin stoves can produce a lot of soot and don't always work in the wind. Some candles only warm food and can't bring water to a boil, but may work ok for melting snow if you're willing to sit and tell stories in your snowcave while your stove does it's work. They are nice to have since they can be used as emergency heaters, zipper unstickers, match waterproofers, fire starters (melt over kindling), reading lights, night beacons and to help produce the right atmosphere for telling scary stories. These are also one of the few fuels left that you can take on an airplane.
Some waxes are worse than others for your lungs and some come with additional perfumes that might not be desirable.
Nuwick paraffin candle stoves strive to be so environmentally friendly that they use soy ink on their stoves. You might be able to bring water to a boil with these and they work best indoors.
The LIFE LITE line is one of the commercial beeswax survival candle options on the market. Beeswax is a renewable fuel and burns cleaner and longer than paraffin.
over 20oz Candlelier Candle Lantern
Candle Lanterns are built with a transparent windscreen/chimney so that you can use the candle as a light without it blowing out. Some are even built with a stove top to allow you to melt, warm and/or boil. These tend to be made with glass and are on the heavy side.
3.2oz Mini Lantern
Smaller commercial tea candle lanterns may be lighter than their pound-plus brothers but are still on the hefty side for an ultralight hiker.
0.5oz (without tealight) Aluminum can lantern/stove
Body - 12oz aluminum can
Floor - pressed in inverted aluminum can bottom
Chimney - plastic water bottle
Ventilation - 6 x 1/4" holes along top shoulder (if used as stove)
To operate - lift chimney and slip in lit candle
A lightweight homemade lantern can be as simple as using a cut down plastic bottle for a wind screen or a bit fancier and constructed to be mobile, hangable and/or useable as a stove. The one above is lightweight and functions as both a candle lantern and as a stove. This sootless system works great for slowly heating up and keeping tea hot or for melting snow while providing a nice night light. If you want to use an aluminum can as a teapot, you might want to make your lantern out of a Guinness beer can which will support just about any size can (including a 24oz Heineken can). See the Templates Page for template and Building Directions for more information.
Note - various sized lantern chimney/globes can be purchased or made in stainless mesh or glass for those wanting something more heat resistant than a PET plastic.
Paper Zen Lantern
A plastic chimney will work if you are careful loading lit candles into your lantern and don't build them too narrow or tall for your flame. In fact, if you are skeptical about using non-flameproof materials in a stove or lantern, consider that the Chinese have been making lanterns made form paper and bamboo (Chinese - deng 纸灯; Japanese - chochin 提灯) since 250 BC. Paper lanterns don't seem weather resistant or durable enough for most hikers' use, but hey - depending on materials and design, you may be quite surprised.
3.6oz Wax over corrugated cardboard in candy tin
Homemade candle stoves have also been around for centuries. It doesn't take much imagination to envision one of Merlin's alchemists in a darkened room boiling up a small tonic with the heat from a smoky tallow candle. Commonly referred to as Tuna Can Stoves or Buddy Burners, a simple and more modern candle stove can be easily made by pouring melted wax in a metal can (tuna or 7oz cat food is fine) filled with rolled up corrugated cardboard (center wick is optional).
Note: A clean metal can (such as a 12oz drink can or soup can) works fine for melting wax if you don't desire waxing a good pot.
Another popular setup for modern outdoorsman is using two tin cans. One can is used for a pot stand (with some ventilation added) and holding the candle, while the other is used as a pot for melting snow or heating up your drink.
Liquid Wax/Oil Burners
Plastic Liquid Candle
Liquid candles are just like solid candles in that they require a wick to vaporize fuel for burning but also need some sort of holder. Ready made liquid candles can be purchased in either refillable or disposable plastic containers such as the one above (also available in tealight 1oz size), all of which can be refilled (use a needle and syringe for or squeeze fill the non-refillable types) with various flammable fuels and oils.
Vegetable oils, candle fuel, lamp fuel and other liquid oils can be burned with a wick but can be quite sooty, depending on your lamp, wick (type and length) and fuel. Remember that some oils will solidify or gel at low temperatures encountered on winter treks.
Wood Oil Lantern
These can be a simple a a film canister or aluminum can with a tissue wick or as ornate as the carved wood version shown above. Ideally you will either want a good resealable lamp/stove so that you don't end up with leaks in your pack, or to carefully add just enough fuel (with syringe, straw or very careful pouring) to your lamp/stove as you would with a simple alcohol stove.
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Extendable glass holder version. |
Recessed base version. |
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The two versions above are made from film canisters, bottle tops, glass wick holders and fiberglass wicks. To refill, you need to remove the wick holder or bottle top, make a fuel drain hole in the bottle top or use a needle and syringe to inject the wick holder. |
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If you plan to use plastic containers for lamps, you may need to distance the flame from your plastic parts to prevent melting. You can use a glass tube (wick holder), metal cylinder, or rolled up aluminum to distance the flame.
Mini Pill Bottle with extendable/retractable glass wick holder
If you want to use a resalable plastic bottle (e.g. pill bottle) with a narrow opening, you may need to build it so that the wick holder can be pulled up high enough to prevent damage to the container while being able to be pushed back in for storage. Gaskets can be made from bicycle inner tubes or do it yourself gasket sheets found at auto parts stores.
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This lamp uses a fiberglass wick, a piece of rolled aluminum from a drink can used as a wick holder and has a modified lid to allow for the added height of the wick. An added benefit of drilling and sealing (JB-Weld) the hole n the original lid is that the annoying rotating childproof feature is disabled. |
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Another option for a narrow topped bottle lamp is modifying the lid so that the wick holder and wick will fit within the top itself. This can be done by drilling a hole in the original lid and epoxying on a second lid (show above).
43oz Stone Qulliq
Stone qulliqs (blubber lamps) have been used for centuries in Alaska and Siberia. If you are in an area where seal blubber is the only fuel available, a stove can be made from a carved out stone or a an empty tin can. Take a handful of seal fat and mash it down with a kautaq (caribou antler hammer) inside a kaugarvik (stone bowl) and put it in your qulliq. Then set several wicks made with arctic cotton (kanugujak) or moss around one side of the stove and light.
The most common and cheapest wax used in candles today. It is made from petroleum waste and produces smoke and soot. There is big talk these days about cancer caused by inhalation of paraffin candle smoke. Candles made form this wax are ideal for those who shop at the dollar store (or pound store) and don't worry themselves about cancer reports.
Made by bees and is the cleanest burning wax around. It burns much longer and produces more heat per gram than paraffin wax. Because of the lack of smoke and soot, these waxes are considered safe. It is also more expensive than paraffin per gram but their longer burn times may offset the price difference. Some hunters use honey burners or beeswax candles to attract hungry bears, which could be a plus if you are hunting but not such a desirable feature after a long day of hiking. This is probably the best choice of wax for hikers unless the chance of attracting bears and other critters is undesirable.
Beeswax composition:
70 % esters of long chain wax alcohols (C24-C44) with carbon acids (C16/C18)
13-18 % hydrocarbons (C25-C35)
10-15 % free wax acids (C24-C32)
1 % free wax alcohols (C34-C36)
Stearin candles are made up of stearic acid that is often mixed with palmaitic acid. This wax is produced by the saponification (mixing with a strong alkali) of vegetable and/or animal fats. Stearic acid is also used to add firmness to paraffin wax and increases candle burn time.
This wax is made of white mineral oil, gelliants, and butylated hydroxy toluene. Because of their softness, these waxes must be used in containers with ridged wicks. Ideal for those who like colors, smells and don't have allergies.
Ideal for vegan extremists.
Soywax
Soywax is made from hydrogenated soybean oil. Not the best candle material around as it may only melt the core of the candle and can be brittle. It does burn cleaner than paraffin (but produces more soot than beeswax), is considered safe to use and doesn't shrink when it cools.
Carnuba wax
A wax exuded by the leaves of the Brazilian Carnauba Palm nuts.
Ceresine
This is made from palm oil and coconut wastes modified with other vegetable waxes. It is a higher quality wax than paraffin.
BayberryMade from bayberries. A sweet-smelling wax that burns clean.
Tallow and other Animal Fat Waxes
Tallow is made from suet. Very smoky, sooty and produces an acrid odor when burned. Some of these candles were and can be made to be edible and were used on Captain Scott's final expedition to the South Pole in 1910-11. Ideal for those wanting to go medieval.
Stearic acid
This is produced by the saponification (mixing with a strong alkali) of vegetable or animal fats (also found in chocolate) and is used to add firmness to paraffin wax and increases their burn time.
Spermaceti
Made form the crystallizing oil found in the heads of sperm whales. A one pound candle made form this wax is the standard source of light for one "candle power." Spermaceti wax doesn't produce an acrid odor when burned, is harder than tallow or beeswax, doesn't soften or bend in the summer heat, and produces a pure bright light.
Seal Oil and other animal oils
Oil from blubber can be used with a wick and has been used for centuries in Alaska and Siberia.
Liquid Candle Fuels
Many brands are straight kerosene, while others are refined into heavier and cleaner hydrocarbons in liquid form (at room temperature).
Oils such as olive oil can be used for lamps, but tend to burn very sooty.
Wick Types
Non-Cored Wicks
There are commonly made of twisted or woven plant fibers such as cotton. Non-cored wicks are generally considered safe and can be made from cardboard, toilet paper, cigarette paper, bark and even fiberglass insulation to some degree. You can find ready made wick at craft shops in different configurations and even in large spools.
Cored Wicks
Usually cotton braided around a zinc, tin, lead, cotton or paper core. The core adds rigidity to the wick which is needed for candles that easily melt. In 1974 the US National Candle Association discontinued using lead-cored wicks and in 2003, the US Consumer Product Safety Commission banned lead-cored wicks because of health concern, but they can still be found in and from other countries. There are also new concerns about the burning of zinc.
If you are concerned about lead in your wick, you can rub a white piece of paper over an un-burnt wick and look for a lead streak. If it has a lead streak, look for a different candle or wick.
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