Majic in an Oil Lamp (Using any oil or wax to create fire)

When I learned you can keep a (clean) fire going with more than just dry vegetative matter, or the mystery fluid sourced from a hardware store, I was amazed; a realization that occurred when I was 25. 

I was told that if you want to keep your car warm stuck in the winter storms of Canada, all you need is a candle - this is not true - so use a variation of the following.

You need only any oil or wax, a shallow open vessel, a lighter or matches, and dry tinder of a cattail fjord, cotton ball or any other.

Any rancid, inedible oil (also useful for soap making), bees wax, tallow, crushed or chopped fat cells (fat bits from the game animal, mashed slightly) or even a stick of butter will work, but I stick to rancid or bad tallows.

Place the oil or tallow in a shallow bowl or vessel and soak or rub some of the cattail, loose cotton thread, wasp nest, dried shelf mushroom, or cotton ball in the oil. Have the tip or part of the soaked wick poking out of the shallow pooled fuel. 

I set one of these up for a quick, small, heating source anywere . You can make the flame as big and hot as you want with more wick surface area emerging from the fuel - think Inuit fat lamp. I also use cooked oils that spill in the oven - the oil that you wouldn't want to eat because it is burnt and black; scrape it off and put it in the lamp base.

If the oils in food bones are old because I was unable to render them quickly enough, they will solidify at the top of the broth a yellow/brown colour, opposed to a creamy white; these too I will use in lamps. You would not want to consume rancid oils as this contributes to various mental and physical health hindering issues.

Good tallow from game animals is too nutritious to burn in a lamp and I eat it. Keep in mind that fat left laying around, will tend to attract critters.

Drown out the fire by mixing with the oils beneath, mixing the smoking ashes with the liquid oil will stop the lingering smoke and re-saturate the wick medium with oil for easy lighting later.

Because of the heat, bone becomes brittle with time and glass breaks; also, steel is not always available. The image shows a shallow carved soapstone dish (soapstone was apparently common for the Inuit lamps) loaded with oils and wicks. The sides have ringed grooves. I imagine any appropriately shaped stone will function for the purpose without breaking; this circular stone bowl can pool fat in the center with the char wick material circumventing the pool. When the wick is lit, the circular fire tends to want to conical toward it's self, concentraiting the heat for a pot positioned just above.

To start a fire in the oil dish without a lighter or matches, I have cotton balls that were soaked with tallows that had spilled and burned in the oven. I spread open in the dish some of the cotton wad to expose the thin fibers better, with some spots still clumped. Strike a ferro rod above the fibers.

Our body is a lot like an oil lamp. If we eat a lot of fat and oil we become blubbery and do nothing. If we then add some vegetables and green fibers to that diet, we have much more energy - we have nice burning of fuel. If all we eat are the vegetables, we have energy but it’s a fast unfocused (smoky) burn, like a pile of twigs. If we can’t breath well, and we breath through our mouth, we can’t use the energy of the fat and vegetables. If you put a cup over the oil lamp described above (or a wood burning fire), the fire will go out and nothing will happen.