Swedish Candle

My first sloppy attempt at a Swedish candle. Straight out of dead standing pine. Used my 550xp with standard 18” bar and yellow chain. Not the best choice but it was in my hand and running
Couldn’t get the entire plug out. Said hell with it and lit the fire from the top figuring it would still get air and eventually burn down through it.
First vid is starting it.
Second is ten minutes after lighting. Have fire emerging.
Third is about half an hour after lighting. Going pretty well.
Considering it’s been laying on the ground for 4 days and we had some heavy rain it’s burning pretty good.

 

It started just fine even with the plug in it. Only difference is I had to start it from the top.

One hour in. I really just wanted to see if it would work at all. Think I’ll try some oak next time and make neater cuts.
Anyone have other recommendations for wood types?

 

Those are also called rocket stoves. I'm sure the all powerful Google can give you plenty of thought.

I have one good to go, out of white pine. I used a long blade drill down the center, I terse click get it has a hole drilled into the side.

I'll put flame to it eventually.

 

this is how i cut them ,then a squirt of charcoal lighter fluid ,im sure you know but cut them like you are noodleing not while standing up

 

Yes the crosscuts make it easier and possibly throw more light at night.
I’m looking for duration first. Duration is a good marketing tool in case I want to sell some to the campers

 

I’ve been just making a couple of cuts which seems to work fine once they are good and dry.

I start them from the top.

A little harder to start this way not there isn’t any wind but they are sure handy to get to the beach and start easy down there where the wind is usually blowing.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

I used google to refresh my memory and see where my errors are. As pointed out I’m essentially making a rocket stove.
So I’ll try a torch on the next log and compare. There are some advantages to it and it may just burn longer. Once that rocket stove design gets going you can hear the tiny roar of the draft doing its thing.
Then I’ll try both designs on hardwood. I have a feeling there will come a point where the diameter of the log will be too great for the fire to maintain itself.

 

The ones Home Depot sell are cedar rounds with just three plunge cuts in the top. Supposedly last an hour and a half. No air hole in the side, no noodled slots. Short fat rounds. Crazy$$ but that's retail and greases the wheels.

 

tried making my Swedish torch out of a spruce round cut green back in late Winter. Had it drying in the sun on my Southern exposure deck in lots of sun since then. Tried it a couple weeks ago and used liquid bacon grease as a starter while we camped. It flopped. Dont think it was dry enough. Used pine needle tinder to ignite the grease.
I would think birch or sugar maple would work the best for hardwoods IMO., Id like to try birch if i do another one.
Like to make the candle too. Seen a few videos online of them.
Birch seems to be the most popular commercial version ive seen at stores.

 

Never seen these before. We went to the neighbors this evening to sit around the fire pit and consume adult beverages. I had seen this thread this morning so I made one from standing dead EAB ash that I had dropped and pulled out to cut up tomorrow.

We used some citronella and used motor oil in it and it was pretty awesome. We lit it about 9:30 and it started falling apart so we threw it into the fire ring around 12:30. It took about 20 minutes or so to get it going good and had about 2 hours of blowtorch type flame out the top before it started degrading.

We were all impressed. It was really cool in the dark. We will be making more of these.

Noodled 8 slots using the full length of my 18" bar. Took about 3 or 4 minutes to make and that was after a couple tanks of gas working in a fencerow. A sharp chain will make it go a lot quicker.



Thanks for sharing. Awesome, I'm sure the PBR and vodka helped make it more fun too... LOL

 

I wonder if the bacon fat requires too high a temperature to light off to be optimal. Don’t know, just wondering.
Mine lit off just fine considering. Used some very fine, pretty dry pine tree branches gathered off another standing dead.

 

I would think cutting the log like a batch (rocket) stove and feeding it small sticks to get it going would work great.

 

Hmmm... seems like more of a job for Roger.... Roger the shrubber.

 

It was an idea we came up with the first morning while cooking the bacon. Usually i save grease to light the next fire when camping. Poured it down the center carefully and the top was absorbing it as well. Tried paper and cardboard, no luck, then pine straw and tiny twigs...5-10 minutes and no go. See my thread We Have Ignition...I hope!
Its sitting below the deck awaiting a second chance. I think your candle would burn better then the torch variation.

 

I've tried seveal different styles and like different ones for different burn times and ease of starting.

This style lights really easy, but it doesn't last as long. I made 20 of them out of one dead pine tree.

Red pine log from standing dead. it had lots of broken off limbs around the trunk every 24" to 30" or so. The pitch concentrates in the knots as the limb dies so I cut them so the limb knots were at the bottom of the slots. The knots are like the fatwood that is sold as a firestarter. I then drilled a 1" hole from the side below the end of the slots. I angled that hole up to intersect with the bottom center of the slots.

I was able to light it using just a two inch strip ripped off a old dirty blue paper shop rag.


Doing 20 of them sure makes a pile of noodles, I'm not even done yet... Once I got set up to make them, it went pretty quick.


I tried to line up the bottom of the slots with the pitchy knots to use that as a built in fire starter "fatwood".


Looking up into the upward angled 1" hole that intersects with the bottom of the noodled slots.


I tore 2'' off the edge of an old dirty shop rag to twist up. I lit the end of it and slid it up into the hole and it started the pitchy knots and it took off in 5 minutes. It did smoke a little while it was starting, This is the first one of these that I didn't use any "go juice" to start it.



This was 20 minutes after lighting it. This one burned hot and fast. It had just quit raining and was still sprinkling a little when I lit it. It was the smallest one from the log and only about 5" diameter at the top. It only lasted about an hour before the sides started falling over. I wanted to test this style with the pine and I used the littlest one as a test. It may have lasted a little longer down in a fire ring.

Overall I was happy with this type as being very easy to light, but the ones I have made from ash have lasted 2 to 3 times as long. The ash ones are more difficult to get lit. I may have to cut out some pine knots to dice up as firestarters for those.

I still have one more style I want to try with the pine, but I didn't think about it while I was making these yesterday. Instead of nooling the 3 cuts from the end, I'm thinking of plung cutting an X centered on the pith and then drilling the hole in to meet the X at the bottom. Maybe next weekend.

 

I was in Menards the other day picking up some boxes of firebrick for the woodstove and looked at the firestarter stuff. They had bags of fatwood for 5 bucks and change with the 11% rebate on so I picked up a bag.


They are way too big to put in the swedish candles as they come in the package so I chopped some in half and split them 3 or 4 ways each depending on the size.


I put 2 or 3 small pieces of these in the 1" hole I drilled at the bottom of the pine candles and lit them with a lighter and walked away. The candles took right off without messing with them at all. This seems to be a very reliable way to light them. I haven't tested this on the Ash candles yet but the pine ones are blazing within 2-4 minutes. I tested a few of the pine ones. I'll keep you posted on the Ash ones, but after seeing how the fatwood burns I'm anticipating that they will take right off as well.

So far at our friends and family get togethers (a bonfire is usually on the agenda) they have all liked the Ash candles best because they last much longer. I also see the advantages to having the pine versions that don't last as long. On a couple of occasions we had to get out the hose and put them out because it was a short party.

When drilling the hole to meet the noodled cuts, you have to make sure to clean the noodles out fairly well so there is plenty of air flow through the hole up into the slots.

 

I also tried a couple pine candles with just the two plunge cuts in the shape of an X down the middle of the log with the hole drilled in to meet the X at the bottom. They worked, but smoked for a while before taking off well. I'm thinking that there wasn't enough airflow moving through the candle at first. I'm not sure if that was caused by some noodles in the X or if the X was just too restrictive. When I get a chance I will try a pair with a regular X and one with a 3 way X and make sure the noodles are clear before lighting them.