Natural Lantern/torch

[Mosnan]

Hi,

I was wondering if anyone had any tips for making a natural lantern for a base camp without using fossil fuels.
I know a few woods have a high resin content and wondering if anyone had rigged any thing up that could be used instead of a tilley lamp.

Regards,

Nicolas

 

[andyn]

couple of thoughts:

beeswax candles

pine resin melted down into an oil lamp and wick added

birch bark concertinered in and held in a split in a staff with work for a torch for a while

 

[Grooveski]

A chap my dad used to work with made tapered wax torches that done the job for a couple of hours.

He heated a big vat of wax then took a length of bamboo cane, tied a triangular piece of material to it, popped it in the vat and spun it round so the material wrapped round the cane a bunch of times.
The shape of the material created a taper which was only a layer thick at the bottom and about and inch and half at the top. The ends of the tie-on cord poked out the top as a lighting wick.

Don't know what kind of wax or material he used(don't remember any paraffin wax smell so probably just candle wax - I daresay beeswax would do).

They were pretty good.

 

[crazydave]

how about a jamjar full of randy gloworms

I was shown by a dutch lady what they did in the war by making oil candles similar in fashion to oil lamps except they prefered to use brilliantine. she used baby oil but think any oil would do

 

[galew]

The use of animal fats in oil lamps has been around for ever, A hollow in a rock or other container with the rendered animal fat and something for a wick. Veg. oil can also be used.
To render animal fat, boil the fat in water and skim off the oil.