Candle Making In Colonial Times Involved Use Of Bayberries To Extract The Wax
Candle making in colonial times was something that gave a lot of people work to do, and since that was en era in which there was no electricity to light up the nights, and oil was too expensive to use for the ordinary person, there was no other option than to use candles to illuminate the nights. In those days, candle making in colonial times involved using animal fat while only the rich could afford to pay for and get candles made out of beeswax that had wonderful smells and which also burnt a lot better.
Better Smelling And Cleaner Candles
However, candle making in colonial times really took off when it was discovered that it was possible to make candles that smelt real nice and which burnt very cleanly by using bayberry shrubs instead of the usual animal fat. In fact, it is still the practice to extract wax by boiling bayberries, and it even takes just as long today to do the extraction as was the case during colonial times.
Another notable aspect to candle making in colonial times was that to make candles largely required that they be made from whale oil. Still, people continued to harvest berries from bayberries shrubs because though it took a lot of effort, it was still the cleanest way to make candles at the time. However, it did take as many as eight pounds of berries to extract a single pound of wax, and even the process of preparing the berries for further extraction of pure wax took quite a few days. All this was however necessary as far as candle making in colonial times went because it helped to eliminate the foul smell of animal fat candles and also because burning those candles were a very messy thing as well.
However, the tradition of candle making in colonial times lives on and if you want to try your hand at this form of candle making, all you need is to buy bayberry wax that is easily available in various stores, and though you can now use molds to create different and wonderful candle shapes, the rest of the candle making process is pretty much the same as was in the colonial times. You would also need strands of cotton that will serve as wicks and along with tapers; you can create candles suitable for use in a home. Still, while candle making in colonial times may have seemed to be very rudimentary, it nevertheless required a lot of skill as well as plenty of dedication to make the candles properly.
