Chapter XXVII: The Making of a Bayberry Candle

GROWING wild all along our eastern coast from Nova Scotia to Florida is the bayberry-bush, once well known and valued, now overlooked and almost forgotten, although a wealth of sweet smelling wax is held in its tiny berries.

A quart of bayberries, a little time, a little trouble, and we have a beautiful green wax candle, hard, brittle and smooth, that hot weather will not melt and whose expiring flame yields an incense sweet and aromatic.

There is a peculiar joy in using the raw material fresh from Mother Nature’s hands and starting at the beginning of things—a joy unknown to those who work only with materials that are manufactured—and to get the most out of the work of making bayberry candles you must begin with the bayberries. First locate your

=Bayberry-Bushes;=

then, just the time when out-of-door exercise begins to be a delight, the latter part of September or early in October, gather the berries and take them home for future use.

The bayberries, which seem to be nothing but tiny stones covered with a coating of wax, do not decay quickly, but shrivel up into small gray pellets that will keep, it is said, a year or more.

Look for a bush that is stiff and irregular, generally growing low in closely crowded patches like the blueberry, though at times reaching the height of eight feet. It appears to thrive best and is most often seen in sandy soil, but it will grow in almost any kind and flourish even amid the rocks on a barren hillside.

=The Leaves=

are oblong and from two to three and a half inches in length (Fig. 448). They usually have several teeth, or notches, near the tip and are quite narrow at the base. Sometimes they are scattered and again in close bunches. The young leaves are a pale green frequently tinged with red; when matured they are a bright green, glossy, and of a leathery texture and they are very fragrant when crushed in the hands. The bark is brownish gray and the young stems light, or golden brown.

=The Berries=

are quite small and grow in thick clusters on short stems. Fig. 449 gives the berries, drawn from nature and of actual size. They are green at first, but, when ripe, turn a light silvery gray. As it will take about one quart of berries to make one candle you may adapt your picking to the number of candles you want.

Keep the berries in a dry place until

=You are Ready to Make your Candles,=

then into a six-quart preserve-kettle pour three quarts of berries and fill to the brim with cold water. This allows two quarts of water to one quart of berries. Put the kettle on the range and let it boil steadily four hours—actually boil, remember—and whenever the water gets three inches below the brim fill it up with hot water. The boiling berries will perfume the house with a spicy balsamic odor that is delightful. When the four hours are up set the kettle back and let the berries simmer for an hour or two, then farther back where it will simply keep hot. At night take them off the range and set away to cool without removing them from the kettle. The cooling down from the boiling point to the point where the wax begins to form should be very gradual to obtain the best results, therefore the simmering and keeping hot after boiling.

Having put the berries away for the night, try to forget them, and do not be tempted to disturb the wax as it forms and floats in little cakes on top of the water, for breaking through the gathering crust will cause much of the wax to sink and cling to the berries beneath. When left undisturbed until morning, the wax forms into a large cake, hard and ready to be lifted out.

=The Bayberry Wax=

is never, at first, free from impurities, such as bits of dried leaves, stems and occasionally whole berries, and it must be strained. Break up the wax and put it in a porcelain-lined, shallow saucepan and set it on the range where it will melt slowly; then strain through a fine wire strainer into a shallow bowl or soup-plate. Let the wax become quite cold and hard, melt and strain again, this time through a piece of cheese-cloth or fine sheer lawn. So much for the bayberry wax. But there must also be

=Candle-Moulds=

for making bayberry candles, and not many of us possess these old-fashioned treasures. Even if you happen to be one of the fortunate few, you will find it takes a great deal of the precious wax to fill these old moulds, and the candles made in them are really larger than you need; so the home-made candle-moulds will be best in any case.

From a sheet of legal-cap writing-paper cut a strip eleven and a half inches long and four inches wide (Fig. 450). Take an ordinary adamantine half candle, which is neither tallow nor wax, and, placing the paper on the table, short edge toward you, lay the candle down on it and bring the edge of the paper over the candle, as in Fig. 451. Press the paper down firmly and roll the candle away from you, in this way wrapping the paper closely around it. If the edges are not even, unwrap and try again. To have a perfect mould you must keep one edge of the paper exactly on a line with the bottom edge of the candle. When the paper is wrapped around the candle to within one inch of the end of the paper, brush glue across the end of the paper as in Fig. 452. Bring the edge over the roll and press down (Fig. 453).

Take another candle of the same size, stand it on a piece of paper and, with a lead-pencil, draw around the bottom edge, pressing the pencil point close to the candle. Cut around the circle you have made, leaving a border on its edge half an inch wide, as in Fig. 454, and slash the border up to the inner circle, as in Fig. 455.

Draw another circle, this time using the roll with the candle in it to mark the size, and cut around it, leaving a border three-quarters of an inch wide, then slash the border as you did the first. Cover the laps of Fig. 455 with glue, set the roll containing the candle exactly within the penciled circle, and turn up the laps, one at a time, lapping them over one another in regular order, as in Fig. 456. Hold the laps in place until they are firmly glued to the roll, then make a dot with your pencil on the bottom exactly in the centre of the circle, and lay the roll aside for the glue to harden while you prepare

=The Candlewicks.=

Candlewick comes in balls. It is composed of cotton strands which must be braided to make a finished wick. Cut from the wick several pieces nine inches long, select three strands for each candle, tie them together in bunches of threes, and braid, as shown in Fig. 457.

Take the candle from the roll, and in the top edge of the roll cut two notches directly opposite each other (Fig. 458), then melt the candle and pour it while hot into the mould, emptying it again directly. This will give the inside a coating of wax which will keep the paper from absorbing the bayberry wax.

Puncture a small hole through the dot in the bottom of the mould and, after waxing the end to stiffen it, thread one of the wicks through the hole from the outside. Cut off the knot and draw the wick up to within half an inch of the end, then separate the strands, spread them out flat and glue them to the bottom (Fig. 459). Glue the last disk you made, over the wick on the bottom of the mould, arranging the laps in order as you did those of the first. Be very careful that none of the slashes run even the shortest distance across the bottom, and do not use the moulds until the glue is perfectly hard.

You will need a separate mould for each candle, and when all are ready

=Make a Stand of a Box.=

In the bottom of the box, cut three round holes just large enough to admit the candle-moulds (Fig. 460). Set the box in a small meat-platter to catch any spilled wax, and slip three moulds into the holes, allowing them to stand on the plate. Draw the wick of each up tightly and run a long hat pin through all three, resting the pin in the notches at the top and bringing each wick in the middle of its mould (Fig. 461). If this is done properly the wicks will not sag, but will be held taut by the pin.

Break up and

=Melt the Bayberry Wax=

slowly, never allowing it to get hot enough to smoke, and fill each mould up to the hat pin. In a short time the wax will settle and leave a hollow at the top of the candle. Fill up the hollow each time this occurs until the wax remains even across the top.

Leave the candles in their moulds until they are hard and almost, but not quite cold, then draw the hat pin from the wicks and, taking one mould, begin at the top and peel off the paper, carrying it around and around spirally, as in Fig. 462. Insert the blade of a penknife between the bottom of the candle and the bottom of the mould, and cut around the edge. Remove first one layer of the bottom, then the other layer, after which you can draw the candle from the remainder of the mould.

Cut the bottom end of the wick close to the candle, and also trim off the top of the wick, making it about one inch long above the candle (Fig. 463).