Charcoal Trouble

Chronata

I like to buy the little charcoal disks for powdered and resin incense.

Trouble is...I have just gone through my second package...and I can't get a single one of them to stay lit!

Anyone have any suggestions?
Or are these just bad...and should I just stop buying them from the same place?
 

ruski_svet

My sister and I burn incense on charcoal. You have to keep the flame to the disk for a while- a couple minutes or so. It needs to really heat up and turn red. It should start turning grey around the edges.
We have trouble with the way the incense smells. We have two different kinds- one doesn't smell great anyway, and the other starts off nice but ends up a bit funky.
 

thorhammer

I used to use them, too, mate. You have to get the whole outside of the disc burning before you put it down - so that it's all sparking and glowing like the inside of a volcano :D. Like RS says, you gotta keep the flame on there for a fair while. Lighting the discs becomes something of an art form in and of itself :D I used to use a huge pair of tweezers that came out of my "zoo kit" - dissection kit for Zoology at Uni :D. I'd hold the disc with the tweezers and hold the lighter to the disc, moving it about tilll the whole thing was sparking and glowing.

My trouble was that they would always keep burning long after I went to bed, so I'd have to go to great lengths to douse them . . . usually messy :D

\m/ Kat
 

Moonbow

According to Sulis' tips on charcoals and resins, the charcoal needs to be kept in an airtight container because they can soak up moisture out of the air. Sounds like yours may already have done this Chronata, so maybe you need to dry them out a little.... maybe the airing cupboard?

I find holding them over the gas ring with tongs lights them easily (thanks Sulis), although they spit and curse a little doing it that way so stand back!
 

avalonian

I found them easier to burn when I bought a terracotta burner shaped like a cauldron with little holes in the bottom. I stand it on a candle dish in case any incense falls through and it works a treat, I don't know if it's because there are holes in the bottom so that the air gets to it, or because it's sheltered by the sides, but the difference from before is amazing.

:) :) :)
 
pros and cons of resin incense? The American Golden Topaz