• Welcome to The Bushcraft Forum

    You are currently viewing the site as a guest and some content may not be available to you.

    Registration is quick and easy and will give you full access to the site and allow you to ask questions or make comments and join in on the conversation. If you would like to join then please Register

Chinese lantern..not quite but..

saxonaxe

Very Addicted
Messages
2,499
Points
1,410
About a month before the Forum's engineers started converting candle lanterns to oil burners, I had ordered from a Chinese website some oil burning candle lamps. Delivery time 30 to 50 days... I had almost forgotten about them until Annie mentioned the little brass lamps that were available. I had seen those at the time but wanted something bigger.....Anyway, enough back ground waffle.

Went for a walk today and found on my arrival home a little package had arrived.

DSCF6201.jpg


First off...I did not order Purple candles, ok..That's Mr Woo's idea of blue!!

DSCF6202.jpg


They burn well, that's Bio Ethanol before I trimmed the wick a little lower. They hold 50 ml and are silly money, 4 for a £10 including delivery.
Bonus is the lid is leak proof and empty they are featherweight.

I expected to wait nearly 2 months what with all the lock down in China, but no, they did well, so I'm pleased with the deal
 

Attachments

  • DSCF6201.jpg
    DSCF6201.jpg
    17.1 KB · Views: 18
  • DSCF6202.jpg
    DSCF6202.jpg
    13.2 KB · Views: 20
About a month before the Forum's engineers started converting candle lanterns to oil burners, I had ordered from a Chinese website some oil burning candle lamps. Delivery time 30 to 50 days... I had almost forgotten about them until Annie mentioned the little brass lamps that were available. I had seen those at the time but wanted something bigger.....Anyway, enough back ground waffle.

Went for a walk today and found on my arrival home a little package had arrived.

DSCF6201.jpg


First off...I did not order Purple candles, ok..That's Mr Woo's idea of blue!!

DSCF6202.jpg


They burn well, that's Bio Ethanol before I trimmed the wick a little lower. They hold 50 ml and are silly money, 4 for a £10 including delivery.
Bonus is the lid is leak proof and empty they are featherweight.

I expected to wait nearly 2 months what with all the lock down in China, but no, they did well, so I'm pleased with the deal
link please kind sir :)
 
Before I add the link...be aware. I filled this little 'oil candle' with Bio Ethanol fuel from B&Q. I use it in my Trangia etc.

It gave off a steady yellow flame which frankly was not as bright as a wax candle, and quite alarmingly it also gave off a barely visible smoke. I lit it to judge the lighting performance, left it for 10 minutes (literally) and smelled burning!! Turned on the kitchen light to find the room full of grey acrid smoke.
If I had been daft enough to light that candle in a tent and fall asleep, I would not have woken up..seriously.
I've cleared the kitchen but the smell lingers...10 minutes that's all it took.

It has to be the fuel, the candle is just a little ally bottle with a wick, having said that I only burn the Trangia outside so maybe the smoke /fumes are not noticed.
Late now, but tomorrow I'll try the candle with good 'ol meths, perhaps it will burn brighter and not be so deadly.


Strangely enough the yellow flame in the photo was about what I got with the Eco oil !!!.....:D
 
A lot of these oils do not mix very well.....might pay to clean and dry your wick before you try a different fuel.....rather than try to mix with what is still held in the wick from the previous fuel type.....just a thought.

The next fuel I was going to try before I decided on the gas lamps......was Kerosine.
I found that trying to match the wick to the fuel helped which is why I moved up to the 5mm Cotton wick for lamp oil.....and it works well.

Good luck with your trials......look forward to the results.
 
Stage 2...:D

Tried Meths in the little Chinese candle lamp today. It will hold 50ml but I put just 25ml into it. There are a couple of points to make. One is that the wick is very loosely woven and so the end, in spite of my pinching and twisting it tends to 'splay' with the result that individual strands will burn ( as any badly trimmed wick will) instead of the solid flame of a tightly woven wick.
I think Divebuddy's advice to use lamp oil is correct, after all it's advertised as an Oil Lamp and I've been burning spirits in it.
It started well, bright yellow flame, no smoke but after an hour the flame was much smaller and parts of the straggly wick were glowing red and I killed it after 2 hours when it was obvious the flame was too small to be of any use other than just ruining the rest of the wick. There was about 5ml of Meths left.

So, all in all, better off with a Tea Light...:lol:... until I can get some lamp oil and maybe a more ' Dense' type wick, cotton rope type stuff perhaps?
 
  • Like
Reactions: Bam
Definitely go for the indoor lamp oil. Also if you need to get new wick material, I got mine on eBay for £2.50. it came from Holland in two days.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Bam
Definitely go for the indoor lamp oil. Also if you need to get new wick material, I got mine on eBay for £2.50. it came from Holland in two days.


I'll do that DB, next time in Town I'll get some oil and send for a wick. I got the impression that as the lamp warmed up and the metal wick guide got hot, the Meths actually evaporated in the last 5mm of wick before it reached the flame, hence the wick burning after after an initial good 'cold' start. Reckon the oil will cure that problem. They are handy little ally bottles and at 4 for a £10 no bother to fiddle with until I get it right. :thumbsup:
 
Many years ago when I was a mere sprog learning plumbing as part of a B-tec course they did a demo with a coffee canister that had a tiny hole in one end. The can was filled with natural gas (from the main) and placed upside down on a wet workbench which formed a reasonable seal. The tiny hole had a match put to it and it burned like a candle. Over several minutes the flame burned lower and dimmer until the pressures equalised and the flame flashed to the inside of the can which immediately exploded.
Take what you want from this story.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Bam
Good point, although fortunately these little lamps have a vent tube built in the top which allows air to enter, so the lamp is never sealed as such, but a blocked vent might be interesting...
 
  • Like
Reactions: Bam
Back
Top