There are a plethora of reasons why you would want to burn a candle. It might be that you want to get rid of a noxious smell or that you want to save money on your electricity bill. It can also be a great solution to handling the power outage at your house when having multiple candles on hand. However, candles are useless if you can’t light them, specifically when you are unable to find a lighter. Don’t worry!
Learning how to light a candle without a lighter could give you numerous creative ideas to deal with the situation. This article will provide you with SEVEN simple methods to ignite a candle without a lighter.
Table of Contents
How to Light a Candle without a Lighter
1. Matches
Matches are the most conventional and easiest alternative to a lighter if you don’t have one. While not as handy as an electric lighter, they are very convenient to light candles, especially fresh ones with a new long wick, within a second.
Step 1. Grab a match: Grip the end of the match between your thumb and index finger to allow it to burn freely without scorching your fingers.
Step 2. Turn the candle on its side: If you flip the candle sideways, you may prevent burning. Placing your hand down into the candle will lead the flames to climb to your hand.
Step 3. Place the match properly: Head it against striking at the box side. If you have no matchbox, drag it over another raw surface, such as a rock,b brick, or sheet of sandpaper.
Step 4. Light the match: Drag its head over the striker to start a fire and wait for the wick to flame.
2. Spaghetti
If there is more than one burner in the container, you might need a few matches to light them all; otherwise, your fingers will be burned, and it might be a bit difficult to ignite with a match, especially if your hand cannot fit into the container. So, let’s test this little trick out by using dry spaghetti.
Step 1. Take out long spaghetti: This twice-as-long stick gives you a makeshift match that you can light your candle with.
Step 2. Light the spaghetti with a match: It’s easier to burn the uncooked spaghetti once than hold the little match to light all the wicks at the same time.
Step 3. Touch the wick: Put the burning side of the spaghetti into the wick and wait for it to light up.
3. An Electric Stove
The next best method for flaming a candle with no lighter or matches is to use your home’s heating equipment, such as an electric stove, oven, microwave, space heater, toaster, or any item that generates heat. These appliances can be used to light a candle through electric resistance; a gas stove will also be the most ideal.
Step 1. Turn it on and wait for the burner to warm up a bit: It will be faster to catch fire if the surface is hot enough.
Step 2. Touch the candle wick on the hot surface of the appliance: This will shine the wick and burn your candle in an instant. You can set as much candlelight as you like as long as you have a heating element.
Step 3. Turn off the stove: Once the candle is lit, switching off the heating element will ensure your safety by preventing gas leaks or any repercussions caused by the stoves.
4. Magnifying Glass
The previous methods have shown you how to light a candle with an electric stove and other heating elements in your house. However, when it comes to survival abilities in the wilderness, where you probably don’t have access to any heating elements, lighting a candle with a magnifying glass or lens is helpful.
Step 1. Prepare tinder: Take a piece of journal paper or a char cloth as tinder. You will probably tear dried leaves, grass, or bark into small pieces.
Step 2. Select a safe area: Choose a place where the fire could not burn anything other than tinder, such as a concrete pavement or anywhere with little greenery around.
Step 3. Keep the lens between the tinder and the sun: Hold the magnifying glass and adjust it until the circle of light gets as tiny and round as possible on the tinder or char cloth to produce sufficient energy and start a fire.
Step 4. Hold the circle for at least 20-30 seconds in one position: It will take a while to catch fire, so keep the loupe until the tinder starts to smoke. The heat won’t cause a flame if you move the circle around on the tinder.
Step 5. Light the wick with fire once the tinder starts burning: Use a long stick, branch, or a long dried leaf to allow the fire to approach the wick without getting burned.
Step 6. Extinguish the flame: Use water or a shovel to lay soil on the fire. If you are not careful in this final stage, you may unintentionally burst the surroundings into flames.
5. Battery and Aluminum Foil
While the lens works wonderfully during the day, you can burn candles without lighters or matches with four household items, including battery, foil, scissors, and some wool or fiber at nighttime, without a problem.
Step 1. Cut a 1cm wide foil: A small piece of tin foil or a gum wrapper needs to be twice as long as the battery with a three-fourths inch strip of aluminum foil.
Step 2. Make a connection in the center of the sheet: Not greater than 2mm.
Step 3. Place some fiber around the wick: This will give you a better chance of catching the flame.
Step 4. Hold the two ends of the foil against the two battery terminals: To make it more stable, you can pinch the two edges together.
Step 5. Let the sheet and the battery power come closer to the wool: The narrow middle strip immediately gets hot enough to make your candle shine. Make sure you follow this approach since you can set everything around you on fire if you are not careful.
6. Cotton Bud and Lip Balm
If you plan to broaden your survival abilities, find out how to create fires in all situations, how to start candles without flames, and how to light a candle without a lighter or match. The following technique will show a method of utilizing an ear swab and lip balm.
Step 1. Tear the wool on the top: It would help it catch fire easier when a spark occurs.
Step 2. Apply some lip balm on it: A stick of lip balm, lip gloss, or some chapstick (Vaseline) can make a long-burning candle.
Step 3. Make a spark right next to the ear sticks: Push down the metal striker to generate sparks at a 30-degree angle.
Step 4. Get the candle lit: Once the ear swab catches a small piece of fire that flies out, take it to the candle and light it up.
7. Flint and Steel
Among these ways to light candles, one more method you may have your candle lit while outside is with flint.
Step 1. Insert some paper in a fire-resistant cup: It can be some paper towels or toilet paper.
Step 2. Strike the flint with iron: Rub the flint against anything made of iron like a blade of an ax to generate a strike of light.
Step 3. Ignite the paper
Step 4. Light the candle: Once the paper burns, use it to light up the candle.
Conclusion
It can be frustrating to find a way of lighting a candle while you are in an urgent situation, especially when you can’t obtain a lighter. Despite being not as convenient as an electric lighter, all the given methods are still rather effortless to instantly light candles.
With the assistance of this post, you perhaps find ways to light a candle. Your safety always takes priority over any other matter. Was this article beneficial? Let me know how you feel in the comment section and share with your friends and family if you enjoyed this.
Other related articles:
- Ways to decorate a split-level house.
- Steps to wrap candles as a gift.
- Cool things for your room and house.
As a 3-year architect, my integral tasks have always created beautiful pre-design for many construction projects. I have been a part of the process of designing, planning, and developing buildings. And to bring such experiences into establishing Arthitectural is another dream comes true.
