So I did a bit of experimenting, with wax and cotton balls. It worked great the first time, so I thought I'd redo it and take some pictures and write up what I did.
I first bought a bag of homebrand cotton balls, from woolies, which cost me less than 2 bucks, and a pack of of 60, 4 hour burn time unscented tea lights, which was around 9 bucks, but if I had gone to a cheaper store, I could have got them for around 3- 5 bucks or even less.
Then I took one candle out of the pack, took it out of its metal holder, removed the wick, and now I had a nice piece of wax. These come apart very easily.
candle out of holder
wick being removed (held in by tiny metal end piece)
What is left, a nice piece of wax (roughly 3.7 cm (1.5 inch) diameter by 1.2 cm high (0.5 inches)
I did some calculations, for those interested, and I came out at about 57 grams of wax per tea candle. I used a 1/4 of that, so roughly 15 grams.
As this was the first time I had done this, I was unsure of how much max to melt, so I just broke off a small amount, about 1/4.
in the foil candle holder
next to a normal candle for size comparison
I also chopped it up into smaller pieces, so it would melt easier. However if I were making a batch of these, I would just heat until they all melted.
I then heated it over a bic lighter, until it was all melted
wax all melted
Then I pushed the cotton ball into the wax and soaked up as much as possible. After I had done this, I picked it up, and made a rough ball shape, whilst at the same time, compressing it down to as small as it would go, and tried to catch the drips that came out in the tin foil holder. This way, as you use your fingers to make a ball shape, you coat the surface of the ball with wax, making it waterproof. No photos of this step, as my fingers were covered in wax, but I'm sure you get the idea.
cotton ball compressed, and next to normal cotton ball for size comparison
Then I set the ball aside for a moment to melt the wax that I had squeezed out of the ball. After this was melted, I put the ball back in, and just rolled it around in the remaining wax to make sure the entire outside was coating in a layer of wax.
(wax normally would be liquid, but by the time I set up the photo and got into focus, it had set)
Here is what the final product looked like.
1 inch wide, by about 1/2 inch tall, and very light weight
Here is a shot to show you how much tea candle I used to make two cotton ball and wax tinder balls
used just under a half a tea candle
How waterproof is it?
Well I figured, what use is your tinder if it’s not even going to catch a spark because it’s wet.
Well let’s just say your pack, or tinder box was submerged for a period of time, and in this case several hours.
So to "simulate" this condition I dropped it into a bottle of water, and left it for a couple of days. As you can see, it floated, so I shook it around, turned it upside down and on its side, and occasionally shaking it every now and then when I saw the bottle.
Upon taking it out the wax cotton ball was completely dry, no water had got inside.
I did some more testing, and found that I really don’t need to compress them down, as it decreases burn time, however the one I made above burnt for over 3 minutes, which is still quite decent. But if you only have a small container, compressing them down might be good for you.
So what I did next was melt a few whole tea candles, and once all melted dropped in about 10 cotton balls, and just let them soak up all the wax. This is the part of the process that takes time, unlike PJCB’s, I had to wait until the wax in the cotton balls had cooled and set, but this probably only took 10 –20 minutes, not too long at all.
So from my backyard testing I prefer these over Vaseline cotton balls quite a bit. They are not messy when handling them (once dry, and even when making them, they are not messy, as you have to do is drop them in the wax and wait. I’ve found that I find these easier to make, as I am able to get the cotton balls to soak up a somewhat standard amount of wax, and this way I’m able to get consistent burn times of at least 5 minutes.
Here is a pic of the WCB left over from the small batch I made. In all my testing I used the smaller ones , and whilst it is sort of hard to tell the difference from this pic, the large ones are double the size of the small ones, and burn for even longer.
Here is a pic of one of the large ones burning, this one burnt for around 8 minutes, and as you can see, with a large, hot flame, which was about 6 inches high most of the time. It was also rather windy that night as well.
However a problem I soon discovered was that these are quite hard to light with a firesteel. This is rather obvious, as the whole cotton ball is soaked with wax, and just like in other members tests, it was hard to light a cotton ball that had been drenched in Vaseline. It is not impossible, just hard as you have to break up the cotton ball, and then hope there is enough dry fibres to catch the spark and set the rest of the ball on fire.
One way around this is to light a regular cotton ball and then light the wax cotton ball with it. Or the other solution is to only dip half the cotton ball in wax, soak up as much as possible, and then pull it out. You will know when to pull it out, as you will feel the warmth of the hot wax on your fingertips holding the dry part of the cotton ball. This happens pretty quickly, as it soaks up the wax really well. After realising this, I found that I didn’t need totally waterproof tinder, as I have them stored in a watertight container, so this is how I will be making them from now on.
So I made a few to test and they all lit first time with a strike from my LMF army, and all burnt for just under 6 minutes. One thing to note was that the cotton balls from the bag I bought were rather small, and if I had bought the expensive brand, they would all have been larger and all the same size, as most of the cotton balls in the home brand bag were small, and only some were large/normal size.
Just to test it out, to get the size cotton ball I was after I combined three small cotton balls, all soaked in wax, and lighting it with a lighter, it burnt for a total of 13 mins 47 sec. That’s pretty good by my standards.
I know that this was a pretty long review, and that there have been quite a few threads on tinder, but it seems to me most members who use cotton balls and some kind of fuel or similar use Vaseline, and not wax. I know I will use half wax soaked cotton balls from now on, they just work so much better for me.
If I get a chance, I might make another batch and do a few tests like starting a proper fire, seeing if I can boil a cup of water with one CB, and a few other things.
Thanks for reading, and any tips on my “review style” would be appreciated, as I feel like I may take too many pictures and talk too much.
I first bought a bag of homebrand cotton balls, from woolies, which cost me less than 2 bucks, and a pack of of 60, 4 hour burn time unscented tea lights, which was around 9 bucks, but if I had gone to a cheaper store, I could have got them for around 3- 5 bucks or even less.
Then I took one candle out of the pack, took it out of its metal holder, removed the wick, and now I had a nice piece of wax. These come apart very easily.
candle out of holder
wick being removed (held in by tiny metal end piece)
What is left, a nice piece of wax (roughly 3.7 cm (1.5 inch) diameter by 1.2 cm high (0.5 inches)
I did some calculations, for those interested, and I came out at about 57 grams of wax per tea candle. I used a 1/4 of that, so roughly 15 grams.
As this was the first time I had done this, I was unsure of how much max to melt, so I just broke off a small amount, about 1/4.
in the foil candle holder
next to a normal candle for size comparison
I also chopped it up into smaller pieces, so it would melt easier. However if I were making a batch of these, I would just heat until they all melted.
I then heated it over a bic lighter, until it was all melted
wax all melted
Then I pushed the cotton ball into the wax and soaked up as much as possible. After I had done this, I picked it up, and made a rough ball shape, whilst at the same time, compressing it down to as small as it would go, and tried to catch the drips that came out in the tin foil holder. This way, as you use your fingers to make a ball shape, you coat the surface of the ball with wax, making it waterproof. No photos of this step, as my fingers were covered in wax, but I'm sure you get the idea.
cotton ball compressed, and next to normal cotton ball for size comparison
Then I set the ball aside for a moment to melt the wax that I had squeezed out of the ball. After this was melted, I put the ball back in, and just rolled it around in the remaining wax to make sure the entire outside was coating in a layer of wax.
(wax normally would be liquid, but by the time I set up the photo and got into focus, it had set)
Here is what the final product looked like.
1 inch wide, by about 1/2 inch tall, and very light weight
Here is a shot to show you how much tea candle I used to make two cotton ball and wax tinder balls
used just under a half a tea candle
How waterproof is it?
Well I figured, what use is your tinder if it’s not even going to catch a spark because it’s wet.
Well let’s just say your pack, or tinder box was submerged for a period of time, and in this case several hours.
So to "simulate" this condition I dropped it into a bottle of water, and left it for a couple of days. As you can see, it floated, so I shook it around, turned it upside down and on its side, and occasionally shaking it every now and then when I saw the bottle.
Upon taking it out the wax cotton ball was completely dry, no water had got inside.
I did some more testing, and found that I really don’t need to compress them down, as it decreases burn time, however the one I made above burnt for over 3 minutes, which is still quite decent. But if you only have a small container, compressing them down might be good for you.
So what I did next was melt a few whole tea candles, and once all melted dropped in about 10 cotton balls, and just let them soak up all the wax. This is the part of the process that takes time, unlike PJCB’s, I had to wait until the wax in the cotton balls had cooled and set, but this probably only took 10 –20 minutes, not too long at all.
So from my backyard testing I prefer these over Vaseline cotton balls quite a bit. They are not messy when handling them (once dry, and even when making them, they are not messy, as you have to do is drop them in the wax and wait. I’ve found that I find these easier to make, as I am able to get the cotton balls to soak up a somewhat standard amount of wax, and this way I’m able to get consistent burn times of at least 5 minutes.
Here is a pic of the WCB left over from the small batch I made. In all my testing I used the smaller ones , and whilst it is sort of hard to tell the difference from this pic, the large ones are double the size of the small ones, and burn for even longer.
Here is a pic of one of the large ones burning, this one burnt for around 8 minutes, and as you can see, with a large, hot flame, which was about 6 inches high most of the time. It was also rather windy that night as well.
However a problem I soon discovered was that these are quite hard to light with a firesteel. This is rather obvious, as the whole cotton ball is soaked with wax, and just like in other members tests, it was hard to light a cotton ball that had been drenched in Vaseline. It is not impossible, just hard as you have to break up the cotton ball, and then hope there is enough dry fibres to catch the spark and set the rest of the ball on fire.
One way around this is to light a regular cotton ball and then light the wax cotton ball with it. Or the other solution is to only dip half the cotton ball in wax, soak up as much as possible, and then pull it out. You will know when to pull it out, as you will feel the warmth of the hot wax on your fingertips holding the dry part of the cotton ball. This happens pretty quickly, as it soaks up the wax really well. After realising this, I found that I didn’t need totally waterproof tinder, as I have them stored in a watertight container, so this is how I will be making them from now on.
So I made a few to test and they all lit first time with a strike from my LMF army, and all burnt for just under 6 minutes. One thing to note was that the cotton balls from the bag I bought were rather small, and if I had bought the expensive brand, they would all have been larger and all the same size, as most of the cotton balls in the home brand bag were small, and only some were large/normal size.
Just to test it out, to get the size cotton ball I was after I combined three small cotton balls, all soaked in wax, and lighting it with a lighter, it burnt for a total of 13 mins 47 sec. That’s pretty good by my standards.
I know that this was a pretty long review, and that there have been quite a few threads on tinder, but it seems to me most members who use cotton balls and some kind of fuel or similar use Vaseline, and not wax. I know I will use half wax soaked cotton balls from now on, they just work so much better for me.
If I get a chance, I might make another batch and do a few tests like starting a proper fire, seeing if I can boil a cup of water with one CB, and a few other things.
Thanks for reading, and any tips on my “review style” would be appreciated, as I feel like I may take too many pictures and talk too much.
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