From: rvoris@world.std.com (Rebecca A Voris)
Subject: Re: Incense recipe? 
Date: Mon, 21 Mar 1994 03:19:13 GMT

I have two books on the subject of making incense, one of which is
useful and the other of which is occasionally amusing.  The books are:

The useful one: Smith, Steven R.  _Wylundt's Book of Incense_, York
Beach, ME: Samuel Weiser, Inc. 1989, 300 pp.

The amusing one (which will probably be easier to find, alas):
Cunningham, Scott.  _The Magic of Incense, Oils & Brews_, St. Paul,
MN: Llewellyn Publications, 1986, 165 pp.

     There are two kinds of incense: that which will burn by itself,
and that which won't.  The self-burning kind is the stuff formed into
cones, sticks, and so forth.  Non-self-burning incense is easy: mix up
whatever herbs please you and drop it on a hot coal.  You can buy
self-igniting charcoal which was made to be used with incense at
either occult shops or ecclesiastical supply shops.  This charcoal has
saltpeter mixed in it, so that when you hold a match to it, the
saltpeter burns and provides enough of a start for the charcoal to
catch.  You get a line of sparks marching across the coal.  I think
it's really neat, but then I'm a bit of a pyromaniac.  Put the coal in
a heatproof dish and drop herbs on it.  The coals usually burn for
about an hour.  You can get large clouds of smoke this way.  On the
other hand, the charcoal is both messy and dangerous.  It really does
get hot.  I am very careful to put it in something that will contain
both the fire and the heat.  The best solution I've found so far is a
good-sized stone ashtray with a trivet underneath.

     Self-burning incense is tricky.  I've had reasonable success with
the recipes in Smith, but not with creating my own recipes.  Do not
follow Cunningham's instructions for making self-burning incense.  He
has no clue what he's talking about.  Use his recipes that please you,
and ignore his techniques.

     From this point on, unless I say otherwise, I'm referring to
self-burning incense.  Incense requires the following ingredients:

- Aromatic substance: the stink-pretty.  This can be whatever you want.

- Base: a neutral or pleasant smelling substance that burns easily.
Fine sawdust is easy to get and cheap.  Sandalwood works beautifully,
but costs more.

- Potassium Nitrate: aka saltpeter.  To make sure it burns.

- Binder: glue, to hold it together.  Smith has a list of necessary
features, such as 'must not revert to powder when dry'.  Gum
tragacanth is best.

- Liquid: to make the binder become sticky.  Usually water.

One of the tricks to incense is getting the correct amount of
saltpeter.  Like I said above, I haven't figured out this one, so I do
it by the book.  The other trick is to get all the ingredients evenly
mixed together.  Here's the secret to doing this: mix the binder in
with the base and aromatics, and dissolve the saltpeter in the liquid.
This is why I tell you not to follow Cunningham's methods.  He tells
you to do exactly the opposite (saltpeter with dry ingredients, binder
with liquid).  I tried it his way before I found Smith, and it Does
Not Work.

     Good luck.
===

From: rhodgkin@nyx10.cs.du.edu (Rebecca Hodgkins)
Subject: Re: Incense recipie?
Date: Wed, 23 Mar 94 17:57:20 GMT

In article <2mj8bd$4hr@search01.news.aol.com>,
NSchmidt <nschmidt@aol.com> wrote:

> I strongly recommend Scott Cunningham's Incences, Oils and Brews
> from Llwellyn Publications. Scott has recipes for a wide variety of
> incences for varius purposes. Most of these are for powder incences
> to be used with charcoal but I believe he also talks about how to
> make cones.  i prefer using charcoal myself, as you don't need to
> include any binders or other extraneous ingredients in the incense.
> Good luck! Making your own incense is very rewarding and the end
> product tends to have better energy than storebought.

If you prefer making your own cone or stick incense, I suggest using
gum tragacanth, which can be obtained from most herb suppliers.

Start with a tablespoon of the gum and a large (12 ounces) glass of
water. Add a bit at a time until it is a stiff, paste-like
consistency. Add to this your powdered herbs and/or oils. Remember
that your oils will have a stronger odor, so adjust accordingly.

For stick incense, get some joss sticks from an incense store and
simply dip them in the mixture.

To create cones, make the mixture thicker and shape by hand.

Keep your mixture covered with a damp cloth, else it turns into a
hard, unusable lump.

Good luck

Dusk