How to Make Candles out of Pine Resin (With Pictures)
By Arminius
The pine tree is one of the most overlooked natural resources as it has multiple survival uses. The entire tree is edible, from the bark to the pine cones. You can make pine needle tea or use the roots as cordage.
The most versatile item is the pine resin, you can use it to make candles, glue, treat wounds, to start a fire, a water-proof sealant and many more.
To tap a pine tree, use an axe or a machete to cut the bark. Tie a bucket around the tree at the bottom of your area. The bucket must stay firm against the tree as it will collect the pine sap. Hack “V” shaped notches in the cleared area pointed to the bucket. You can gather even more sap if you stick a beak like metal object to direct the sap to the bucket.
Pine candles shine brightly and give you one of the greatest scents—pine wood.
Necessary Ingredients
- At least one container to melt the resin in (a tin can in this case)
- Another container that will be used for the candles
- Some rope to make the wick
- A knife
- A fireplace or someplace to melt the resin
- And, of course, the resin
I thought that I’d use more types of containers. It’s always fun to experiment.
Step One: Melting the Resin
After you light the fire, fill your container with the resin. Don’t be scared to fill it to the brim as it will melt down and fill in all the gaps.
Also, it will be even less if you want to filter it out, so it’s fine to go all out.
WARNING: The resin might catch on fire if the heat is too high. Just take it off the fire with some pliers, and blow the flames out. Make sure you never hold the can—it gets extremely hot. Be sure to stand next to it while it melts as it may burn to ash if you’re not careful.
While all the resin melts, start working on getting the candle holders ready.
Step Two (Optional): Filtering Out All the Yuck
After melting it all down, you will need another container and something to filter out the bark and the pine needles. I used an old fish landing net.
Get the filter ready, and pour the hot resin over it and into the container. You will need to work quickly because it cools off fast and might clog up the holes of the filter. For this to work, you will need to move the resin around a little bit so that it can go down into the container.
Step Three: Making the Candles
After getting your container ready and cutting the rope to the perfect size, you are ready to make your candles. You might have to put the filtered resin back onto the fire to get it ready for pouring once again.
Pour a little bit of hot resin into the candle holder; it will help to fix the wick.
After this, dip the rope into the resin quickly for it to soak some up. This is necessary to get the wick standing straight while you’re pouring the resin.
Now you just have to put the wick in and leave it to rest for a few seconds so it can harden.
Finally, you will have to fill it up. You might also need to keep the wick straight with your hands. It will melt the resin that’s holding it and may try to fall down; just use toothpicks to keep it at the same spot until it hardens, which will take roughly 10–15 minutes.
Enjoy your homemade pine resin candles.
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What happens to the resin as the candle wick burns?
It works as normal wax, so just melts down, it needs a lot of heat to burn to crisp
Good! Thank you for this simple way to make candles! Love your site. So many GREAT tips.
If you cover your collection bucket/can with a lid with a small cut-out where the “beak” is to let the resin drip in, you won’t have to fool with the filtering task. You might have a speck or needle or two to pick out by hand if you feel like it. Wire or tape the lid on so it won’t blow away.
Thanks so much for the information…..adding this one to my collection.
We have mostly fir trees on the west side of the mountains in Washington. Will this work as well with fir as with pine?
I never tried making candles with fir resin but I don’t see any reason why it wouldn’t work.
Awesome idea .Great tip Claude, God bless, if anyone out there knows about how to connect solar panels controllers battery and inverter please email at crystalsabundantlife@yahoo.com
Make sure to buy Claudes book the lost ways if you want all the help you need for home.made principles and.how to survive when Shtf.
GOD BLESS
We did this back in the 30″s when I was a kid in Idaho.
Lots of white pine to choose from.
Thanks for the memory.
Wow, I love this idea, thanks!
Is there a preferable or specific time of the year to do this?
No. As pine trees are evergreen it doesn’t matter.
This is great but can you use fire trees?
Would like a little more info on the gathering step. Maybe better/more pics.
Do the cuts seal over in time?
Will it kill the tree?
What are best tree types?
Will the cut area keep giving sap, or is it limited?
If done properly tapping will not seriously injure the trees. They can be tapped for well over 20 years, the wood is not damaged during the tapping process.
It’s best find a mature, live, good-sized, tight-barked pine tree for the best results.
Pine trees that will give the largest amount of resin : White Pine, Jack Pine, Blue Spruce.
The cut area will give limited sap. But in a couple of months you can harvest again.
How much do these candles smoke ? I know in a survival
situation it wouldnt matter. But I dont want to soot up my
house just burning a pine pitch candle for the scent.
The candle gives off a strong black smoke.
how to overcome that??
to make the candle less smoky
Thanks in advance
this type of candle should be used outdoors only as the resin has a high flammable content and will burn your house down tried and true even mixed with beeswax it becomes dangerous for indoor use
Lots of great questions. I cant wait to look back for the answers. In my part of Texas we dont have pines, but “mountain cedars” galore. Would this also work with them?
I never used cedar resin but I don’t see any reason why it wouldn’t work.
what about mixing an amount of old candle wax in ? burn cleaner , last longer, ? anybody ?
One idea is to have muffin paper liners ready. After pouring, before setup of Gunk, put some in each liner 1/2 way up. Pull liner top together and twist let harden. put is zip bag to use as firestarter. Use in a jet/rocket stove under a tree to let residue smoke dissipate. It will start faster & get hot level up faster, so no smoke will show. When jet/rocket stove is burning, little to no smoke shows as long as proper wood – sticks are used. (ie: squaw wood – lower limb sticks on trees break it off, no cutting. Doesn’t break? still living green wood!)
where can i buy one ?
This is awesome, thank you so much! I’ve been looking into different sustainable materials to make candles out of, because I don’t have any lard or tallow readily available to me at this point!
Love this idea! Is frankincense or myrrh resin a good resin to use for candles?
hi! I found it very interesting to use the sap to make candles. but what about the pine cones? we need recipes for those also. in fact the cones are easier to collect. thanks in advance.
this type of candle should be used outdoors only as the resin has a high flammable content and will burn your house down tried and true even mixed with beeswax it becomes dangerous for indoor use
Could the pine resin be mixed with the bacon grease to make a less smoky and more indoor friendly candle?
I read this in a book some time ago and did not even think it was possible. Thank you so much for the information and I’m definitely going to try this.
This method of “tapping” does harm the tree. You’re wounding the tree to force the tree to create wound seal to help/heal the damage you’ve caused. I’ve collected pounds and pounds of conifer resin over the years by just taking the drops off the tree underneath the wound. There is no reason to harm the tree with as many trees as we have.
Funny!
I agree with chillbill. The size of the cut I see on your tree photo definitely causes irreparable damage to the tree. The open wound allows bacteria, disease and decay to set into the tree. I doubt any arborist worth his/her salt would recommend that size of cut to a healthy tree and I would not recommend that to someone who has such a stand of trees, if they want to keep them healthy and stable.
Pine pitch has been used for a long time to seal containers, I have an 18th century canteen that is sealed with pine pitch on the inside, it gives the water a nice little zing to it!