in medieval times how do they make candles?

Answer 1

from beeswax, and rendered animal fats and bits

Answer 2

The Middle Ages are my specialty as an historian. But no, I'm just as happy not to have lived then. Some of the negatives others have mentioned are a bit cliched and inaccurate. From the archeology record, medieval people's teeth were actually not so bad. They didn't have modern dental care, of course, but then they didn't have sugar in the diet either. Teeth really get bad in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries when you have sugar but no toothpaste. Still, on the whole, they are right: life expectancy was around 35 years, famine was always a threat, an infection was a death sentence. 90-95% of us would have been peasant farmers with not much to expect in life but years of backbreaking labor with wooden (not metal) tools just to scratch enough food from the ground to avoid starving. As for the landscape - it's still there. Rock outcroppings that existed in the Middle Ages did not erode away to nothing since then. Lakes are still there. The forests are a lot smaller in Europe than they used to be, to be sure. There's something to be said for getting away to nature from time to time. But I'd rather not be at its mercy the way that medieval people were. And if you think that a horse is some easy, cheap, low-maintenance thing to care for - you must never have worked with real horses.

Answer 3

Boil animal fat, usually beef or lamb. Skim off whatever settles on the top. Let cool. Once cool, take of the top layer of fat; this is tallow. Melt this tallow down again. Put a weight on a string, and dip the string into the tallow for a few seconds. Pull it out, let it dry. Do this again to lay more fat on the candle to make it thicker until it is the desired size.

Some renfaires and other medieval reenactors do this sometimes, you can see the candles hanging from the strings (one on either end of the string).

Answer 4

Candles were developed independently in many countries. The Egyptians and Cretans made candles from beeswax, as early as 3000 BC. Early candles were made from various forms of natural fat, tallow, and wax. In the 18th century, spermaceti, an oil produced by the sperm whale, was used to produce superior candles. Late in the 18th century, colza oil and rapeseed oil came into use as much cheaper substitutes. Paraffin was first distilled in 1830, and revolutionized candle-making, as it was an inexpensive material which produced high-quality, odorless candles that burned reasonably cleanly and were used during the colonial days. The industry was devastated soon after, however, by the distillation of kerosene (confusingly also called paraffin oil or just paraffin). This excellent fuel for lamps relegated candles to their current status as primarily decorative items.

click here:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_candle_making

Answer 5

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RE:
in medieval times how do they make candles?

Answer 6

They saved animal fat and plant oil. The liquid was burned in little salvers or lamps. No wonder they threw nice smelling herbs on the floor with the straw!
Later, candles were formed from smelly tallow, which was rolled around a piece of wick. Carry on with the herbs and flower petals.

Answer 7

By repeatedly dipping a piece of string into a vat of molten wax (beeswax, for the Church and the really wealthy) or the tallow left over from boiling meat or bones (for the reasonably wealthy - these were smelly), and the poor had rushlights, which were only barely coated with wax or tallow and didn't burn very long, or very brightly. I think.

Answer 8

I suspect that the process for making candles has changed little over the years.

They probably brought a large pot of beeswax to boil and repeatedly dip the wick into the mix, allowing the wax to build up and cool.

Answer 9

With beeswax for the rich. With animal fat (tallow) for the less well off - put a wick (piece of string) in the fat and you will get a flame but it is smoky and it stinks horrible.

Answer 10

Used bees wax or tallow-dipped strings hanging from a stick that crossed the top of the vat,over and over again into the melted wax till they were thick enough-

Answer 11

from beeswax almost exactly as they do today, by pouring over a wick and left to set, exept they use fancy moulds now