Make A Tallow Candle

This is a primitive candle made with Caribou Tallow in a wet sand mold using Willow bark cordage for a wick. This candle is totally primitive and could easily be made in a wilderness setting from materials gathered there.

Category:

Howto & Style

Tags:

• far
• north
• bushcraft
• survival
• camping
• candle
• wick
• cordage
• Tallow
• buck
• moose
• deer
• caribou
• beef
• pig
• bear
• primitive
• campcraft
• woodcraft
• howto
• how-to
• make
• home
• made
• homemade
• tutorial

[bisensee420]

lets see if it works,??? its animal fat guy, of course its going to burn. other then that, good vid, thanks for the imfo, will remember that trick, strange how some one who's lived his life in the wood's dident know that?? and yet, i used patoleum jelly to make my candles, and a peace of cloth. but all in all, wood is my light at night. keep it simple i always say.

[phreshayr]

@bisensee420 Yes you are right. Any woodsman should know that animal fat burns. Anyone who has thrown left over bacon grease into a camp fire knows that animal fat burns. NOW, what I was referring to was......will this candle melt and turn into a big puddle or will it hold it's shape. Will this "wick" function as a wick by wicking the melted tallow up into the flame or will the flame just go out for lack of proper wicking.

[GregGrimReaper86]

I have a bunch of bacon grease stored in glass bottles. If I were to heat this up and filter it several times to remove impurities would this work?

[phreshayr]

@GregGrimReaper86 I believe bacon grease would be too soft for candle use by itself. You may try a mixture though of bacon grease and pine or spruce pitch and see what happens. By itself, bacon grease would probably be better for a lamp fuel rather than a candle. You could certainly give it a try though and see. It might work.

[V5R7N]

Great job. Very informative. Thank you very much.

[phreshayr]

@V5R7N You are very welcome. Glad the video was useful for you.

[phreshayr]

@thebowhunter921 The wick is just regular cordage made from willow bark. I Haven't done a video yet on how to make willow bark cordage so you will have to do a search for others videos explaining that. I did do a video on making cordage from Fireweed though. I believe that fireweed cordage would work as well as a wick though I have not tried it yet. I hope this has answered your questions. If you have other questions, feel free to ask and I will try to answer them.

[phreshayr]

@thebowhunter921 Tallow is animal fat that has been rendered. This "fat" is from caribou but fat can be used from pigs dear elk beef moose as well as caribou. There may be others as well but it will need to be a firm product once rendered. Some fats may be to soft. Rendering is the process of gently heating the fat until it melts and then screening and clarifying it before finally allowing to re-harden.

[thebowhunter921]

How do you get tallow? and what is it? Also can you tell me how you made your wick for the candle?

[phreshayr]

@jefferson1232757 Thanks for the info. It would be interesting to do some more experimenting on this.