Understanding Wicks

• A wick is a piece of string or cord that draws oil toward a flame. When you light a wick on fire, the action of the fuel being burned away draws new fuel into the wick. Because the wick keeps the flame away from most of the fuel, not all the fuel ignites and burns at once. A wick, therefore, must have a good ability to draw fuel up and to stand straight.
  
  

Different Kinds of Wicks

• Everyone has seen a hurricane lantern, which has a wide, thick wick that reaches down into a pool of oil located at the base of the lantern. This kind of wick emits very bright light. You can extend the wick to make the light bigger. You can reduce the amount of wick that has access to the air, by rolling the wick through a narrow channel that presses it flat and thereby reduces the burnable portion of the wick.
  Candle wicks, and many oil lamp wicks, are thick, round or square woven strings, sometimes with thin strips of metal inside that help them remain rigid. These wicks burn with a single, thin flame. To reduce brightness you can trim the wick. To increase brightness you can lengthen it.
  
  

How to Make Wicks

• For a wide wick, start with thick porous fabric. Fold it twice to create a thick column. Use a needle and thread to sew along its length so it will not unfold when ignited. For a thin wick, braid cotton strands loosely to create a bundle of threads with a larger surface area.
  Dip the wick several times in lamp oil. Thread the wick through something that will float on the surface of your oil candle without burning. This may be a piece of wood or cork, it could also be a piece of plastic or tin with a hole or slot cut in it. The key thing is that it be wide enough and non-flammable enough to keep the flame away from the oil.
  Place the wick and its holder on the pool of oil. For best results use only oil specifically created for use in oil candles or use slow-burning vegetable oils. Some industrial oils are very quick to catch fire and they can explode when ignited. If you are testing a new wick design, you may want to start with a very small quantity of oil in the lamp just in case something goes wrong.
  Light the wick and watch to see how it burns. Over time you will find out which kind of thread or fabric creates the size and color of flame you like best.