Talow-Candles-art - 7/31/11 "Hand Dipped Tallow/Beeswax Candles" by Baroness Onora O'Toole. NOTE: See also the files: candles-msg, candlesticks-msg, Candle-Making-art, lamps-msg, Med-Lighting-art, Rushlights-art, Oil-Lamps-art, beeswax-msg. ************************************************************************ NOTICE - This article was submitted to me by the author for inclusion in this set of files, called Stefan's Florilegium. These files are available on the Internet at: http://www.florilegium.org Copyright to the contents of this file remains with the author or translator. While the author will likely give permission for this work to be reprinted in SCA type publications, please check with the author first or check for any permissions granted at the end of this file. Thank you, Mark S. Harris...AKA:..Stefan li Rous stefan at florilegium.org ************************************************************************ Hand Dipped Tallow/Beeswax Candles by Baroness Onora O'Toole Making tallow candles (Didcrot) Melting, wick twisting, dipping, casting Overview In this entry, I have tried to recreate hand dipped candles were done in period, using tallow and beeswax in varying amounts to determine the best mixture for the longest burn time. Tallow candles are often referred to being a lower class' source of lighting, easy to make and inexpensive. Materials To start my project, I purchased fifty pounds of beef suet from a meat plant in Omaha, Nebraska. I then had to take it to a local butcher shop for it to be ground. The reason for having it ground was that it allows the suet to cook down much faster, and makes it easier to cook out the impurities as compared to trying to cook down an entire piece of suet, whole. Suet is the fat around the liver of an animal, and is a cleaner type of fat than the normal cuts from a side. Having previously rendered just normal beef fat down to make tallow candles and having to deal with the stench of the candles as they turned rancid due to the fat used, I found I enjoyed working with suet much better. Once the crack lings (meat particles that are cooked out of the fat) were cooked out of it, the tallow lost most of its smell, other than a slight greasy scent. Tallow can also be stored at room temperature for quite some time before it will begin to soften and break down. I was able to cook down the entire fifty pounds of suet in one evening, and then easily rendered the tallow down two more times, once a night. On the second and third night, I was able to scrap off any excess impurities from the bottom such as cracklings. By the time I used the tallow to actually make candles, it was as pure as I could get it with little to no smell to it. The end result in weight of the tallow cooked down was an estimated 40 pounds. I was unable to get all of it in the pot at the time I started dipping, so I left the remainder aside for another project at a later date. With the help of a scale, the estimated weight of the tallow that filled the dipping pot was 35 pounds. Nine pounds of beeswax was obtained through Bran the Dark, and used to substitute for the tallow/beeswax that was used with each batch of candles. Bran also supplied the flat braided, twisted cotton wick that was used for all of the candles dipped in this experiment. It was my hope, however, that I could have obtained some of the linen thread that had been twisted into wicking for a previous experiment, but at this time, Bran was unable to locate his spool. I had little time to search out an alternative. The equipment used was a square candle rack that sets atop a pole, with braces for support on the floor, and can be spun around on an axis thus allowing the chandler the luxury of standing in one spot, and being able to access any paddle on the rack. On this square, are eight hooks, one on each side, and one on each corner. From those hooks hang eight paddles, each paddle with a set often hooks on the underside, two for each pair of candles. The wick is hooked over each pair and once dipping has started, keep the candles from touching each other and the paddles make it accessible to reach all ten candles easily. The design for this rig is an exact replica of one found in an Earl y Colonial museum on the East Coast. To my fathers' recollection (he is the one that took the design and recreated it), it was dated to the late 1600's to earl y 1700's. To heat the wax and tallow, I used a double boiler system. One pot would contain the water, which was heated around a second pot inside the first, which held the tallow/wax combination. This would keep the tallow/beeswax from boiling, kept it from cooling too quickly and kept the wax/tallow from burning or igniting by being so close to the flame. In my research, I have found that there are many references to using tallow and beeswax to make candles. In the book from the Victoria and Albert Museum on Lighting, it states 'In the Middle Ages. wax was such a precious commodity that the Church insisted upon its exclusive use. A pound of beeswax cost as much as a laborer's day 's wage in the Middle ages, and was always three to four times as expensive as tallow.' Tallow was a poor mans commodity, but was often used even by nobility. There are advantages and disadvantages to both : beeswax smelled sweeter, burned brighter and cleaner, whereas, tallow was considered dirty, smelled and had a lack of brightness. For the common man, candle making was a chore for autumn months, being closely related to the butchering to supply the winter larder. In poorer households, fat saved from meals or from cooking, were set aside and then rendered down once a week to make dipped or poured candles, or rush lights. Common candles were made of beef or mutton fat, and on a good day a chandler could produce several hundred a day. There i s not much reference to the type of wicking used, since it is very hard to get a hold of candles that pre-date the 1600's. Leroy Thwing, in his book "Flickering Flames" mentions the following a bout wicks: 'An eighteenth-century wick was made of twisted cotton, it stood up straight in the cool part of the flame and collected soot at the top, resulting in a dim light and a smoky flame until it was snuffed.' It wasn't until the early 1800's that it was discovered that braided wick took care of these problems rather nicely. Previous to cotton, it is mentioned in the book "Fire and Light in the Home- pre-1820", that in the first century AD, that candles were made of pitch and wax which were cored with wicks of flax fiber. Wicks are also mentioned to be made from the peeled rush-like plant called Scarpas. As for equipment, there is such a variety of ways and techniques to dip candles. Its been written and discussed that everything from tying wicking to a stick and dipping repeatedly until a candle of sizable quality existed, or using a candle board (figure 1) with holes to place wicks through, tied to sticks on the other side, and lowered repeatedly into a pot of tallow and/or beeswax. Though, I have been unable to find it, I once found a wood cut of a sixteenth century chandler with a setup, not far from the same concept as mine. Instead of something that could spin on an axis, it was in the form of a three-tiered rack, with flat racks with hand les that held hooks for the wicks. There were three paddles per tier. Sadly, I have been unable to find this picture again, though I still seek it out. Figure 1 Techniques The technique that I use with my rig is to dip each paddle once in a turn, and then start over, going through all eight paddles repeatedly until the candles are of a decent size. One benefit that I have found from my own personal experience is that with this type or rig setup, I do not have to wait for each dip to cool. By the time I come back around to dip the next round, the paddle I first started with has cooled and is ready to dip again. In addition, the mot ion of the turning rig seems to help cool it down as well. On a good day, with an extra set of hands to help trim the ends of the candles off from time to time as wax accumulates at the bottom, I can make anywhere from three to four batches of wax a day. Each paddle holds five pairs or ten candles. That is a total of 80 candles per batch. My best day of dipping normal wax candles I made 320 candles. Imagine if you will if I had several helpers, and several rigs, how many candles I could make in a day, or in a week even it time was needed during the week to render the tallow down for the weeks worth of candles. One of the problems that I encountered with the way that I did the candles this time, doing one whole paddle at a time, was the fact that I had to wait between each dip for the tallow/beeswax to cool. This was frustrating for me since I am so used to doing mass quantities of candles all at once. In the span of time that it took me to make just this one entire set of candles (80) with the increased addition of beeswax to each batch, I could have made two to three batches. In Figure 1 above, taken from the "Old Lamps of Central Europe and other Lighting Devices", by Leroy Thwing, it is called a candle board, and was used in making tallow candles (by dipping). The wicks were strung through the holes and held there by bits of wood. Then when the board was held horizontally by the two handles, the wicks would hang vertically. Tallow was melted in a vessel of suitable size and the wicks were lowered into the fat. They were then withdrawn and allowed to solidify, the process repeated until the candle was of suitable thickness. In Figure 2, a picture taken from The Social History of Lighting by O'Dea, gives a good idea of the different levels of making candles, showing an example of dipped, poured, and moulded candles. Making tallow candles (Didcrot) candlewick twisting, dipping, casting. / Figure 2 Figure 3 !b) A YOHK SIIIRE DI P FACTORY Figure 4 Though there is no date, and little information on Figure 3 or Figure 4, it does give an idea of how it may have been done in period. One thing to note is that though Figure 4 is more than likely not of period equipment, as often times with many things, once a technique has been found to be tried and true, little changes in the way things are done over time. From this picture, it is easy to imagine a similar setup perchance in period, though we have no way to prove or disprove it. Testing (size & shape) I decided to do this experiment with the tallow and beeswax candles, not to see if I could dip them but to see how well tallow would burn with and without beeswax added to it. Beeswax is a naturally harder than tallow, adding length in burning time as well as cleanliness of burning. If a candle has been made properly, there should be little to no run off, the candle consuming its entire product efficiently with little waste. Each pair of candles was made from a piece of wicking 22 inches long, making each candle about 11 inches long if they were cut evenly. For my experiment, I trimmed off the excess wick to keep the flame moderated, making the candle and small stem of wick only 9.5". All candles were burned at the same time, starting on Monday night. These candles were burn tested over the course of three days, the experiment ending when one of the candles finally burned out. Monday, the first day, they had been brought in directly from a garage where the air temperature was just above freezing. The candles were hard, solid and cold. They burned down very little on the first night, for a total of two hours of burn time. Tuesday, having had time to sit in the house, at a normal 65 degree temperature for 24 hours, I lit them upon arrival at home, and let them burn for another four hours, finally snuffing them before going to bed, for a total of six hours. Wednesday, the final day needed for the burn test, having been in the house for 48 hours at room temperature, they burned for an additional 59 minutes before the candle from batch #2 burned out. At this time, observations made of this test were that the pure tallow candle would have been next, and had towards the end of the test, created a bit of wasted run off. But with the progression of beeswax added to the batches, it was evident that it was extending the burn time on the candles, and #7, being the best one out of the batch, had very little run off and still had a sizable piece of candle left at the end of the test. #8 had a mishap on the second day of burning where a piece of the wicking clumped and fell off, sticking to the side of the candle, and continued to burn, thus using up more tallow/wax and skewing the end results of this candle. Instead of trying to repair the candle, I let it burn on day tree to see what would happen. I feared that with the candle being slightly warped on the side, with a runnel in the side to allow the melted wax run off at an increased rate. However, upon beginning the burn test on day three, I found that the problem corrected itself with no further mishap. Dipped candles may not be pretty but they are effective and for the poorer community, was an efficient source of light. When looking at candles, there are ways of telling between dipped and moulded or poured. Dipped always have a curved end to them, even if they've been cut off to square the bottom, the ends are always a little more rounded. Figures 5, 6, and 7 show pictures of dipped, moulded and poured candles from the early 1700's to 1800's. If you look carefully at Figure 7, it is easy to spot out the candles that were likely dipped due to the rounded ends, and slightly fat look to them towards the ends. Most poured and moulded have flat or squared ends due to being in containers where they can be trimmed evenly, every shape coming out exactly the same. Poured are often cut square on the bottom since they are normally a larger size and used in flat based candle stands. Figure 5: Tallow-dipped candles with cotton strand wicks. Late 18th/early 19th century. Figure 6: Tallow molded and dipped candles with plaited cotton wicks. 7 ins. Long 18th or 19th century. Figure 7 Dips, Candles & Highlights Conclusions After working with this project for over a week between rendering the suet down into tallow, dipping each paddle with a different mixture of tallow and beeswax, I found that there is quite a bit of work that goes into this type of candle making. I can see how, i f with the proper setup and number of hands, how it can be done in a more efficient manner. When I do this again, I've learned a few things about working with pure tallow that will aid in speeding my process along, such as taking the tallow off of the flame, letting it cool some, and using water to harden the tallow between dips. When tallow is fresh, and has been rendered down a number of times, there is little to no smell, and the flame seems to burn fairly clean. Time will only tell how well they smell and burn on a warm summers evening, or after they've been exposed to the air and elements for several days/weeks. Tallow has a pleasing soft yellow look to it, unlike rendered beef fat that has the look and consistency of Crisco. It is less dense than beeswax and so the layers in dipping are compacted closer together, giving it a decent burn time. This time of course may be lengthened or shortened depending on the size, air temperature, and conditions of the candle upon burning. Though there is very little evidence, other than a few pictures, and accountings of the poorer community using dipping as a way of procuring their own light sources, it is a period practice, and like some things in the Middle Ages, recipes, how-to's and methods were passed down by word of mouth, and little written down. When chandlers established guilds, their methods became secret and often too were not written down or the books were closely guarded. Hopefully with time, these books will be translated or transcribed into an accessible form for those of us wishing to know the deeper secrets of candlemaking, the science of shedding light on the Medieval world. Bibliography: Books- Laing, Alastair. Lighting - The Arts and Living. London: Crown, 1982. Thwing, Leroy. Flickering Flames. Rutland, Vermont, Charles E. Tuttle Company, Inc, 1972. O'Dea, William T. The Social History of Lighting. London, Routledge & Kegan Paul Limited, 1958. Smith, Elmer L. Early Lighting From Tallow to Oil in Early America. Pennsylvania. Elmer L. Smith and Melvin J. Horst, 1975. Thwing, Leory. Old Lamps of Century Europe and other Lighting Devices. Vermont. Carles E Tuttle Company, 1963. Caspall, John. Fire & Light in the home pre-]820. England. Consort Royal Satin, 1987. PADDLE 1 CONTENTS: 100% TALLOW TEMPERATURE: 180 DEGREES FER. NUMBER OF DIPS: (SEE NOTES) est. 50 WEIGHT OF BATCH (10 CANDLES): llb loz HEIGHT OF TEST CANDLE: 9.5" WEIGHT OF TEST CANDLE: 1.5oz BURN TIME: 6-hrs 59 min NOTES OF PADDLE 1: It took 35 lbs. of pure tallow to fill the dipping pot that I was using. When I first began dipping, I left the pot of tallow on a low flame. After 26 dips, and some frustration, I realized that the wick was not holding the tallow. The tallow in the pot was so hot that it was melting the previous dip off of the wick. I took the pot off of the heat at this time and set it on the floor of the garage, and waited for it to cool down. One thing to note: beef tallow does not cool down quickly. It can take up to six hours at room temperature to begin to harden all the way through. Still frustrated, I mentioned to my husband what was happening and he went to look on the Internet for any information that might help. He found another group that had done tallow candles and upon experiencing the same problem, resorted to dipping the candle in water between dips to cool the tallow faster. After trying this, I found that my candles did accumulate tallow faster, but it still took me 50 dips to get them of any size that would fit in a candlestick. I will note however, that I do not like doing this, since at times you will have droplets of water that will stick to the tallow/wax and upon the next dipping, will create water bubbles in the wax, that when the candle is burned will cause a fizzing and sputtering noise as the water is evaporated from the tallow/wax. Observation: Though this was not the first candle to bum out, and was comparable to 2 and 3 in size and shape, I theorize the reason for this is due to the fact that it had fifty layers of tallow, compared to the averaged 32 dips for each of the following batches. Picture 1 (35 lbs. of pure tallow) Picture 2 (Paddle 1 - start) PADDLE 2 CONTENTS: 94.3% TALLOW, 5.7% BEESWAX TEMPERATURE: 180 DEGREES FER. NUMBER OF DIPS: est. 32 WEIGHT OF BATCH (10 CANDLES): llb 3.5oz HEIGHT OF TEST CANDLE: 9.5" WEIGHT OF TEST CANDLE: 1.5oz BURN TIME: 6-hrs 59 min NOTES OF PADDLE 2: This was the first candle to burn out in the test, leaving only a little drip off on the side. This batch was also dipped in water between dips to get the tallow/wax to cool down between dips. Learning from the first paddle, I shut the heat off after the beeswax was completely melted down. My theory on why this candle was the first to bum down and not the tallow was that with the tallow being dipped fifty times to make it of considerable density to make an adequate candle, this one only took 32 dips. I feel beeswax is a denser substance than tallow, taking up the same amount of space, if not more with fewer dips. SincePADDLE 2 the tallow was not so tightly compacted to itself as in the first batch, due to the denser quality of the beeswax, it made it easier to burn, thus burning just slightly quicker than the pure tallow candle. Two pounds of beeswax was added to the dipping pot, bringing the level of the liquid up to the top rivet in the pot from the handle. This is how I marked the usage of material in dipping. Yes, there is a discrepancy between the amount of beeswax added compared to the amount the pure tallow candles weighed by .5oz. I believe the loss of material is noted in the fact that there was dripage on the floor after each dipping, thus a loss of material. Picture 3 (Paddle 2-start) PADDLE 3 CONTENTS: 88.6% TALLOW, 11.4% BEESWAX TEMPERATURE: 180 DEGREES FER. NUMBER OF DIPS: est. 32 WEIGHT OF BATCH (10 CANDLES): lib 4oz HEIGHT OF TEST CANDLE: 9.5" WEIGHT OF TEST CANDLE: 2oz BURN TIME: 6-hrs 59 min NOTES OF PADDLE 3: This batch, like batch 1 and 2 were dipped in water between dips. Another two pounds of beeswax was added to the mix and after it melted down completely, I shut off the heat and proceeded to dip. Towards the last ten dips, I did not use water since it seemed to be cooling effectively on its own. At this time, the temperature had started to drop drastically outside, and the wind had picked up. I was in a garage with heaters but with the wind, it cooled things down fairly quickly, lowering the air temperature. This helped the wax set up faster. Observation: This candle during the burn test had the most run off and drippage from being burned. Picture 4 (Paddle 3 - Start) PADDLE 4 CONTENTS: 85.7% TALLOW, 14.3% BEESWAX TEMPERATURE: 180 DEGREES FER. NUMBER OF DIPS: est. 32 WEIGHT OF BATCH (10 CANDLES): lib 3oz HEIGHT OF TEST CANDLE: 9.5" WEIGHT OF TEST CANDLE: 2oz BURN TIME: 6-hrs 59 min NOTES OF PADDLE 4: This is the first batch that I did not have to use water to cool the layers between clippings. After the added beeswax was melted, I shut off the heat. Only 1 lb. was needed to be added to this batch, indicating that the beeswax is of a denser quality, adding a greater mass to the mixture, using fewer resources. This is also the last batch I did for that day due to time of day and the cold worsening on Sunday. Picture 5 (Paddle 4 - Started) PADDLE 5 CONTENTS: 82.9% TALLOW, 17.1% BEESWAX TEMPERATURE: 180 DEGREES FER. NUMBER OF DIPS: est. 32 WEIGHT OF BATCH (10 CANDLES): lib 5.5oz HEIGHT OF TEST CANDLE: 9.5" WEIGHT OF TEST CANDLE: 2oz BURN TIME: 6-hrs 59 min NOTES OF PADDLE 5: This was the first batch made on Monday. The temperature outside of the garage was in the single digits with wind gusts up to 40 miles an hour, making it below zero with wind chill factor. This required two pairs of socks, long johns, two sweatshirts, gloves, two scarves and a large oversized coat, not to mention the board I stood on to keep my shoes off of the cement. There was no need to use water to cool the wax between dips since the air temperature was barely above freezing in the garage. All the candles developed a nice ripple effect as the wax and tallow cooled as it rippled down from each dip. One pound of beeswax was added to this batch, and the heat shut off after it was fully melted. Picture 6 (Paddle 5 - Finished) PADDLE 6 CONTENTS: 80.0% TALLOW, 20.0% BEESWAX TEMPERATURE: 180 DEGREES FER. NUMBER OF DIPS: est. 33 WEIGHT OF BATCH (10 CANDLES): lib 7.5oz HEIGHT OF TEST CANDLE: 9.5" WEIGHT OF TEST CANDLE: 2.5oz BURN TIME: 6-hrs 59 min NOTES OF PADDLE 6: One pound of wax was added to this batch, and the heat was turned off after the wax had melted. Upon my last dip with this batch, I noted that the candles were almost too big to fit in the test candlestick for size, and upon weighing the batch as a whole, noted the increase in weight. One thing that could have happened was the loss of count, though I did try to keep track of every dip, there were times where one or two were forgotten here and there. PADDLE 7 CONTENTS: 77.2% TALLOW, 22.8% BEESWAX TEMPERATURE: 180 DEGREES FER. NUMBER OF DIPS: est. 30 WEIGHT OF BATCH (10 CANDLES): llb 5oz HEIGHT OF TEST CANDLE: 9.5" WEIGHT OF TEST CANDLE: 2.5oz BURN TIME: 6-hrs 59 min NOTES OF PADDLE 7: With this batch, I cut back the number of dips to make the candle of a bit more normal size and weight. One pound of beeswax was added and the heat was turned off after the wax had melted. Picture 7 (Paddle 7 - start) PADDLE 8 CONTENTS: 74.3% TALLOW, 25.7% BEESWAX TEMPERATURE: 180 DEGREES FER. NUMBER OF DIPS: est. 30 WEIGHT OF BATCH (10 CANDLES): lib 4.5oz HEIGHT OF TEST CANDLE: 9.5" WEIGHT OF TEST CANDLE: 2.5oz BURN TIME: 6-hrs 59 min NOTES OF PADDLE 8: One last pound of wax was added to the mixture, and the heat was turned off after the beeswax was melted. Observations: During the burn test, I had a bit of a problem with this candle. Part of the wick fell off and continued to bum along the side of the candle where it was stuck. This warped the candle and caused more wax to burn and runnel off along the side. I feel that if this had not happened, the candle would have burned the longest. MISC. NOTES FROM THIS EXPERIMENT Shown below is the first three days of rendering of the 50 lbs. of suet that was procured from a local meat factory. To say the least, it was a rather nose opening experiment. I had taken the box of suet to a meat market where they ground it down for me and repackaged it. I took this home and began to cook it down. Following are my notes to Bran the Dark, my sponsor, when he asked how it went for the first day: (for pure entertainment factor) Log of day one -Tallow Making: First pot of gunk boiled over. Smells awful. Skimmed cracklings and foam off surface, boiled for a while longer. Took bowl with pour spout and dipped out as much pure fat as I could into bucket, poured remains into another bucket....Yuck! Second pot of gunk boiled over. Still smells awful. Repeat same process from pot #1 . Third and final pot (yes, all 50 lbs. done) didn't boil over, since I learned to sit and watch it when it began to foam slightly. Still smells awful. Repeat latter process from pot 1 and 2. Now I have three Tidy Cat 30 lbs. buckets on the floor. One with mostly YUCKY water and little fat, another with mostly pure fat (full), and the last with what wouldn't fit in the other two from pot #3... Note: Bucket with 99% fat was still warm in the morning, six hours later... but hardening...finally. (Side note: When I moved the buckets to scoop out the hardened tallow to boil down for a second time, there were three square melted marks/rings in the linoleum floor of my kitchen from heat of the contents of the buckets from the night before.) As an observation, once the tallow had been rendered down three times, the smell was mostly gone. I later realized that it was the water, with the cracklings and by product in it that caused the worst of the smells. Once the tallow was separated from this, there was little smell to the tallow. Day 1 Cookdown - Pure Suet Day 1 Cookdown - End Result Day 2 Cookdown - half done Day 3 Cookdown Start of Burn Test ------ Copyright 2002 by Heather Blazicevich. . Permission is granted for republication in SCA-related publications, provided the author is credited. Addresses change, but a reasonable attempt should be made to ensure that the author is notified of the publication and if possible receives a copy. If this article is reprinted in a publication, I would appreciate a notice in the publication that you found this article in the Florilegium. I would also appreciate an email to myself, so that I can track which articles are being reprinted. Thanks. -Stefan. Edited by Mark S. Harris Talow-Candles-art 3 of 21