Making incense

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Making Combustible Incense...The Easy Way:

On Incense Blanks
If you want to make cone or stick incense, but do not want to hassle with grinding herbs, mixing pastes and just generally getting your hands dirty here is the way.
YOU NEED: A disposable baking pan or one just for this purpose. Most oils are not very toxic, but they sure taste bad! Some oils you would like to use (if you can test your oil on some incense charcoal first, please do) Unscented incense blanks. (You will want about 1 ounce of oil per 100 hundred sticks or cones.)
TO MAKE: Lay your sticks in the baking pan (if you are doing cones, get a large ziplock plastic bag instead) and pour the oil over them. Roll the sticks around until they are saturated (you may want to let them sit for about 1/2 hour). When the sticks or cones are saturated, lay them out on newspaper to dry. When the incense is still slightly damp store it in ziplock bags, or wrap it in tinfoil or greaseproof paper. If you have made a large quantity, you may want to refrigerate it (be sure to keep it away from foods that might pick up the scent).
Incense blanks (cone or stick) come in two varieties: wood based and charcoal based. While everyone will surely have their preference, in my experience the charcoal based blanks are easier to work with and produce a higher quality product. They soak up less oil, but produce a more pleasing aroma and less smoke than the wood based blanks. If you plan to make a lot take time seeking out a good supplier.
Cutting Oils
If your oils are particularly thick or costly you may want to cut them with a liquid. Use isoprophyl alcohol (rubbing alcohol) or grain alcohol (do not drink this stuff!). If you can get some DPG (Dipropylene Glicol - a synthetic, perfumers cutting oil), you will find that it is superb for this purpose. For particularly thick oils add about 1/2 oz of your cutting agent per 1 oz of oil. Experiment and use your judgement. The cutting agent will take on the scent of your oil and allow it to be absorbed better. Try the link above for a few scent recipes.

Making Combustible Incense... The Not So Easy way:

You will need the following ingredients and implements on hand:
powdered wood (sandalwood, red sandalwood, cedar, etc.) benzoin sumatra resin orris root gum tragacanth (gum arabic can be substituted, but you will need about twice as much arabic as tragacanth and your drying time will be longer) salt petre/potassiun nitrate water, spring or distilled is best fragrant material (herbs and/or oils, resins not recommended) two bowls, one for water and one for mixing a stirring implement mortar and pestle, coffee mill or grain mill (for grinding your ingredients to a fine powder) measuring spoons (down to 1/8 teaspoon if possible) small kitchen scale wood or bamboo sticks (if making stick incense)
Step 1	First step is to grind your ingredients (if not already powdered) into as fine a powder as possible
Step 2	Mix together the ingredients for your base 6 parts wood 2 parts benzoin sumatra 1 part orris root If you are using herbs for your scent, now is the time to add 3-5 parts of your herbs to the base.
Step 3	Add gum tragacanth to the base mixture. You will want between 1/8 to 1/4 teaspoon of tragacanth per 2 teaspoons of incense mixture.
Step 4	Weigh your incense mixture on the scale. Measure out 10% by weight of potassium nitrate. Try this approximation: One Tablespoon of potassium nitrate powder weighs about 20 grams 1/2 Tablespoon of potassium nitrate weighs about 10 grams One Teaspoon of potassium nitrate weighs a little more than 6 1/2 grams 1/2 Teaspoon of potassium nitrate weighs a little more than 3 1/4 grams 1/4 teaspoon of potassium nitrate weighs a little more than 1 1/2 grams 1/8 teaspoon of potassium nitrate weighs a little more than 3/4 grams So if you have 20 grams of base, you want to set aside 2 grams of potassium nitrate; if you have 10 grams you want 1 gram, etc.
Step 5	Note: If you are making stick incense, you will want to follow the directions below. Take 1 to 1 1/2 teaspoons of water per every 3 teaspoons of your incense mixture and place it in a bowl. Disolve the potassium nitrate in the water completely.
Step 6	Add the water and potassium nitrate solution to your dry ingredients. Add any oils you plan to use at this time. 5-10 drops, combined, should be more than enough. Mix the ingredients into a sticky dough (it is best to do this with your hands).
Step 7	To make cones, simply take small potions of the incense dough and shape it -- take care that you do not make the cones too thick. Be sure to press the bottom of each cone down onto a flat surface to ensure it will stand.
	Make stick incense is not so easy. Instead of adding your solution to the dry ingredients, add any oils to dry ingredients and mix well. Take your sticks and dip them, one at a time, into the water solution and then roll them in the dry ingredients so that the incense adheres to the stick. Set each stick aside to dry for 5-10 minutes (stand them upright by sticking in a ball of clay), then repeat the procedure until the stick achieve the desired thickness.
Step 8	This is the hardest part -- waiting for your creation to dry! Sticks will most likely dry overnight, but you may want to let them dry longer. Cones will take at least overnight. I recommend 24 hours or so. If after 24 hours they are not dry, something went wrong. You can easily tell when sticks are dry... generally touching them will tell you. As they are thinner than cones, this is usually all it takes. Cones however, may be dry on the outside and still be wet inside. To tell if a cone is dry, squeeze the largest end lightly in your fingers. If it holds its shape, it should be dry. It the incense crumbles, you can test to see if it is dry and you will know that next time you want to add more Gum Tragacanth to your mixture. Try the link above for a few scent recipes.