DIY candle wick for alpine backpacking

DIY candle

This post is about making a DIY candle wick for alpine backpacking camping. It is a modified tea candle. The ceramic fibre wick has a metal-sheathed that provides; stability, long life and heat-transference that helps it work effectively under cold alpine conditions.

Introduction to DIY backpacking candle wick

I suppose that most readers would have used ‘tea light candles’ for lighting and even warmth, in a small tent, while backpacking. They are light, cheap, modular and produce a useful small amount of light while camping. However, they usually burn out early with wick failure (wick burn out or collapse) leaving most of the wax unburnt. Mountain huts are littered with such candles that have no effective wick left above the wax line. In my experience the candle failure occurs for the following reasons:

•   The cotton wick has become the fuel for the flame and burns away because it has been starved of liquid wax. This is because the cold environment has caused a lack of heat feedback into the solid wax to keep it liquid.
• The wick has fallen into the liquid because all the wax around the wick has become molten

DIY backpacking candle

I have developed DIY alpine camping candles with long-life ceramic wicks that overcome the above issues and can provide a brighter light from the same little candles.

The range of candles are designed so that; the wick and candle container is perpetual. The wax reserve can be thermally insulated and the wax supply can be topped up with small chunks of cut-up tea candle as required.

All the wicks include; a non-combustible (ceramic) wick and a metallic support for the wick. The metal support is bent to form a stabilizing foot to prevent the wick toppling when much of the wax is liquid. Also the wick can included a copper foil heat feedback fin to keep the wax molten under cold alpine conditions.

Lastly, the wicks can be used in larger wax reservoirs to provide greater stability and a longer burn-time without need to top-up the wax

A DIY backpacking candle wick that is not a candle?

The last wick in this post is a tiny micro wick with a similar handle that is similar to the one used in the first wick in the above photo. It is not exactly a DIY candle used for illumination, but rather a DIY wick for taking a flame from a burning candle to make a source of ignition elsewhere.

It can be used to light another candle or start a stove etc. This is particularly useful when using my micro tent stoves (stick burning).

These stoves burn very hot and freely by using long self-feeding bush sticks for fuel. However, the delicate wood gas flame that can easily be extinguished if the rough bush sticks, irregular shapes, ‘hang-up’ while distracted and the ‘hang-up’ is not noticed.

“As you may expect by now, I am easily distracted.” However, it is very easy to restart the flame if there is an immediately available source of ignition on hand from a perpetual candle. Here is a video of such a quick reignition of the smoke from the smouldering wood (igniting the flame in a stalled tent stove). If nothing else, this demonstrates that the stove is a gasifier stove.

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A post shared by Tim Clarke (@telemarktim)

Addendum 1

Getting big candle wicks started is a challenge, particularly when it is very cold. This is because the mass of wax around the wick must first be melted so that it can move up through the wick to vaporise and support the flame. If you have alcohol for a stove (or other purposes), a little bit on these candles gets them warmed up quickly when lit and the candle will be off to an easy quick start.

Addendum 2

A comment from David below indicated that I had not adequately described the ceramic wick materials that I have used to make the candles, so here is a description to make amends.

I make the wicks from a range of ceramics. Zirconia felt ‘paper’ is my favourite but will not be available to most people who are not as geekish as me. However, ceramic house insulation material and fibreglass will suffice. I find that a short piece of thick woven fibreglass insulation cloth/fabric from automotive exhaust insulation specialists works well. It is cheap and easy to ‘unweave’ to get individual strands of the thick fibre bundles to make all sorts of wicks. Surfboard/boat repair fibreglass will do, but it takes more bundles to make a thick wick.

Tim