Advanced incense making
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The method of pushing pipe
and filling pipe is a tested, safe and satisfactory method, nevertheless it
also has disadvantages : It costs time to produce a certain amount of
incense. To repeatedly do the same action again and again will certainly be
good for the magickal empowerment, when you want to produce an amount of say
50 sticks you will start looking for faster alternatives. |
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Some things of your own world
of experience are hard to explain : I have always had a fascinnation for
hypodermic syringes. They are instruments of great power : When the vaccine
has entered the circulation a border between two worlds has really been
crossed. Normally you wouldn't be able to enter the human body. It is also a
symbol of chemistry which rules the present society. When the syringe stands
straigt up it almost looks like a rocket, ready to take off to explore
distant worlds. When I learnt that you can just buy these artefacts in a
pharmacy I started to experiment. Surprisingly it is an instrument to make it
the incense maker a lot easier ! |
We need
When 'clay' has to come
out of syringes it follows that the diameter of the eventual stick equals the
opening of the syringemouth : the bigger the opening the bigger the stick.
But you may also imagine that the smaller the opening, the more force it will
cost to press out a relatively fixed mass. Think in this way about the
fenomenon of obstipation : your hole is too small ! Because we need
relatively much force we choose the kitspout to get it done anyway. The
kitspout makes use of the leverage principle and depending of the model also
hydraulics or pneumatics. The modern plastic injection syringe is built to
withstand huge forces but of course this also knows its limits. When your
incense mass is too dry it will lead to something that will break down : the
syringe, the kitspout, or when you're unlucky, your hand. I feel this word of
warning apropriate here, we will be working with big forces ! The angular
profile that we need will serve as some sort of a gutter in which we will
spout/press our incense stick. Check for the details in the side frame. |
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Making incense paste
The powder will be diluted
with water. The amount will never be clearly to say. Appoach it from the safe
side : add water bit by bit until you have a paste that feels allright. A
rough rule is that 90% of the dry weight of your powder must be water (eg
100g powder-90ml water)You will have to be patient in this fase cause in the
end it is a matter of experrience. Different from the last chapter we will
pack our clay now in some plastic and let it rest for an hour to let the
bonding agent do it's work. The reason for this is that out stick will have
to undergo more pull and push forces so that it has to be a little more
stiff. |
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Filling the spout
After waiting for about
an hour we take our clay and we knead it again. We now take the dowel out of
the syringe en we use the syringe now as pushing pipe, exactly as in
described in the last chapter. The syringe is now pressed full of incense
paste. Don't make it too full because the spouting will cost more force. Put
the dowel back into the syringe and push it in as far as you can. That's
going to look as an impressive instrument, doesn't it ? |
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Spouting sticks
Now take the spoutruler and
spout an amount of paste in the gutter. The exact amount is dependent on the
length of your profile but usually you would take about 15 cm. The spouting
itself could cost some effort but by pulling the lever of the kitspout at the
bottom side you will lower the force that is eventually needed for it. The
spouting itself is eventually a matter of handyness and tempo : you will
spout on the spoutruler, loosen the stick, you'll empty the ruler on the
drying plank and you start over again. The paste you spouted wrongly can be
used again in the next round. The quality of your incense paste will become
clear now : when you haven't added enough water it will be almost impossible
to get it out of the spout, when it is too wet, a strange problem occurs, the
so called "upturding" : the still wet stick is being travelling too
slow along the ruler and is being pushed by the mass that is still coming out
of the spout. |
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Drying
It is in principle enough
to take a wooden plank for the drying process. When all your sticks lie on
the plank you can wiggle it gently up and down : Because the sticks roll sidewarts
they will straighten automatically. With a long straight knife or with your
spoutruler you can cut them all at the same length. For drying it is useful
to take a space where there is as few air current as possible, where the air
stands almost still. The sticks will dry quite evenly so that they will stay
reasonably straight. To be honest, this is a part of the terrain that I still
haven't mastered completely. Stilstanding air seems to be the key factor.
Besides that it is relevant that the drying stick can evaporate water on all
sides. Because of these reasons I use as drying planks small windows with a
fine netting on it. I place them in a small cupboard in which the air can
circulate slowly. Nevertheless the results with a 'normal' plank are also
reasonable. Only when you are producing bigger quantities of incense you will
have to face the problem that you have to store them all, drying and storage
need their attention at that moment. For example : when you are making sticks
with a diameter of 2 mm you will produce 40 sticks with just 20 g incense
powder, you will have to get rid of them all ! |
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The result, a vast amount of
artisam made incense sticks
