Anyone who is engaged in tourism, fishing, or hunting has probably already found a lot of different ways to get fire to make a fire. But when camping, you need to be ready for any turn of events and quick changes in camping conditions. To warm up from a sudden frost or disperse the deafening darkness, you can use a camping candle, which is easy to make with your own hands.
A camping candle in a canning jar:
But going on a hike, even for a short time, you never know what might happen on the way. Fire is the main source of heat and light, but it is not always possible to collect a lot of brushwood to build at least a small fire. It is quite convenient and relatively easy to take with you on hikes, fishing trips, and outings, a ready-made mixture for burning. So-called hiking or tourist candles will help you very quickly warm up or scare away wild animals, give you enough light to collect brushwood, and make a normal fire.
Making a camping candle with your own hands is quite simple, you will need an iron tin (I used an iron jar with a lid, from under-the-skin cream), paraffin, and corrugated cardboard.
It is very convenient to use as a container for a candle iron jar from the cream, candy or just a tin can, in short, will fit almost anything at hand.
You will need to cut corrugated cardboard into equal strips of thickness matching the depth of your canning jar.
These strips should be placed evenly throughout the can, they will act as a wick. They should be connected according to the honeycomb principle, for this purpose it is necessary to make cuts and insert one strip into the other.
Cardboard strips laid out in this way form something similar to a honeycomb, with this organization of a camping candle they are convenient to pour paraffin, it is not difficult to set fire to, and tanning they have the highest efficiency.
Next, you need to melt wax or paraffin over a flame and pour it into the prepared honeycomb jar.
It is desirable to pour paraffin exactly to the edges of the jar (just watch that it would not overflow), because it after cooling will have some shrinkage, it is not terrible, and on the contrary quite convenient.
Such a camping candle is stored for a long time, and will not get damp, even if moisture gets there, the paraffin will not let it to the cardboard, although I do not recommend keeping it in water and damp. To light such a candle will not be difficult, it can be done with ordinary matches or a lighter. The flame will be bright and quite powerful. I have not yet tried to light it, but I am sure that the burning time should be enough not only to warm up but even to heat water or cook something from dry rations.
If you use an ordinary canning jar for your candle, I recommend covering it with a plastic lid or an iron lid (to keep moisture out), which you can buy at any hardware store. You can also bend a special holder for a water mug out of wire, which can also be useful in camping conditions.
If you use an iron lid, this camping candle can act as a heating pad. All you have to do is light the candle, let the flame warm the jar a little, and then close the iron lid tightly, thus extinguishing the flame. Paraffin will retain heat for a while, and you can warm up a little. Good luck to you, on fishing, hunting, and tourism.
