Necessity is the mother of invention and at the risk of sounding cheap I am going to post this because maybe, just maybe, one of you guys is as “frugal” as I am. We had a citronella candle that was in a green tin holder that we would take camping with us. We recently started using it in the milking area to drive out the swarms of mosquitos that seem to show up just at milking time. We burned it down to the point that it was difficult to light because of the shape and the lack of a BBQ/Fireplace style lighter. That’s where necessity and invention (or up-cycling) collided. We needed the candle and the last of the long lighters had run out of fuel so I took the candle to my BBQ grill and went to work.
I lit one side of my grill and left it on low and I placed the candle holder on the opposite side and closed the lid to let everything heat up well.* While the candle was melting I cleaned up a tin can and smoothed the cut edge so that we wouldn’t nick any fingers using the new candle. I also took a piece of wire and bent it into a wick holder of sorts because I didn’t plan to stand there holding the wick in place long enough for the candle to re-solidify.
By this time the candle had melted so I used a pair of needle nose pliers to fish the little metal wick holders out of the melted wax. I placed my new wick, which was a piece of cotton rope cut to the length I needed and dipped in the wax, into the can and then I poured the melted wax into the new tin can.
I then let it sit until it was solid and low and behold, I had a new citronella candle that was usable. And to top it off, I didn’t waste the little green tin that the old candle was in. I used it to put a new candle in that I purchased from the store for $3 dollars less than the old style candle. Now I have two working candles and a whole lot less mosquitos. Have a great day and God bless!
*Please make sure that you exercise caution doing this. The candle will be hot, the wax will be hot, and the tin can will heat up after you first pour the melted wax in it. Please don’t burn yourself.