DIY Emergency Oil Lamps

We no longer use seed oils for cooking, but we had nearly half a gallon of canola oil in storage from our last purchase a few years ago. We hated to give it away since it is no doubt rancid, but we also hated to throw it out and be wasteful.  We knew there had to be something we could do with it. A while back we did a bit of searching and found a DIY project for a homemade emergency lamp that could use lamp oil or cooking oil. We decided to try it out and use the lamps as our centerpiece for Thanksgiving dinner.

We read that with cooking oils, it is best for the wick to be as close to the oil as possible in order for the oil to better travel up the wick since cooking oils are not specifically designed for this purpose. With this in mind, we started with the smallest jar. Since we like to experiment, we made two larger sizes to see how they compare over time.



Materials:

Glass jars with metal lids

Cotton wick (or cotton strings for wicks)

Cooking oil

Paper clips or metal bottle caps

Fir tips, cinnamon sticks, and/or cloves (optional) for decoration and scenting the oil


We happened to have 1/4" cotton wicks on hand, so we used those. While they work, I personally think that a smaller diameter would be better. The 1/4"size burns well, but they have a tendency to fray which can cause the flame to get rather large.

As mentioned above, we used canola oil. 

First, we tapped a hole big enough for the wick in a metal canning lid.



Then we cut a piece of wick long enough to wrap around the inside jar and pulled it through the hole. If your wick tends to fray and you have difficulty threading it through the hole, you can wrap a piece of tape around the end. It makes it much easier to move it through the hole.



Next, we added fir tips, cloves, and cinnamon sticks to the inside of the jar. We put the bottom end of the wick in the jar, poured the oil over the top, and capped off the jar. Since we didn't have metal bottle caps, we twisted a paper clip into a wick holder to keep the wick from falling down into the jar. This system worked well, but the paper clip and lid do get warm. If you have it, a bottle cap might help keep the larger lid from getting so hot.



We let the jars sit for a time to allow the oil to travel up with wick. We then lit the first lamp for a trial...and it worked quite well!


With the fir, cinnamon sticks, and cloves, they are pretty enough to give away as gifts!


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