How to Replace a Wick in a Pillar Candle

Sometimes I get a hair brain idea on how to make something, fix something or cook something. How to Replace a Wick in a Pillar Candle morphed into one of those hair brain ideas! I like to think that I’m a creative person, capable of coming up with both creative ideas and solutions, so when I ended up with a wick-less pillar candle, my brain started storming on how to fix it!

Here’s the back story: my family had an impromptu Thanksgiving dinner a few weeks ago. My mother’s health deteriorated quickly and family arrived from out-of-state as the situation unfolded. I’d made a turkey for this blog that didn’t happen quite the way I envisioned it (another hair brained idea; check out my post Twice Baked Turkey) plus had made a few of the “trimmings.”

So, on that particular evening, we gathered together to discuss options (for the full story, read You Be Bitches). The youngest members of our family decorated the table and placed two of my hurricane lanterns on the table. The hurricane lanterns already had orange candles in them for Halloween, so worked perfectly on a table setting for Thanksgiving.

Tiffany, who loves scented candles, decided she wanted to know the name (fragrance) of this candle, so popped open the hurricane lantern and attempted to lift the candle from its base. Unaware that the candle was attached to the base with a spike, she tugged and tugged on it, pulling so hard that the bottom paper of the candle detached from the candle, yanking the wick right out of the candle!

Thoroughly dismayed at the outcome, she apologized over-and-over-and-over again, saying “I’ll buy you a new candle”. I told her it wasn’t a big deal (because it wasn’t; things like this don’t bother me), that I’d just use it as a decoration instead of a lit candle.

But, it got me a-thinkin’ – how to replace a wick in a pillar candle?

It came to me in a flash – a bolt from the blue! Easy, peasy; I’ll just tape the wick to a long bamboo skewer and thread that baby back into the candle! So, I got out my now wick-less candle, tape dispenser , bamboo skewer and went to work.

Here’s what the project looked like – 2 spikes (one belonging to the candle and one belonging to the hurricane lantern) and a wick smashed to the bottom of the candle’s paper.

I took them apart and straightened out the wick.

Then, I taped the wick to one end of the skewer.

And, then I shoved the bamboo skewer into the bottom of the pillar candle and attempted to pull it through to the top of the pillar candle.

And, guess what happened? The minute the taped end of the skewer hit the candle, the wick came off the skewer (duh!)! So much for my hair brained idea! On to Plan B: use the skewer to jab the wick through the candle!

That, too, was totally unsuccessful with only the skewer peeking through! What to do, what to do?

Plan C: ream the skewer back-and-forth in the hole and make it bigger so that I can string the wick through the candle unaided (also a good way to get rid of pent-up stress!).

Voila! Success! The candle wick peeking out through the top of the candle!!!

I placed the candle’s paper bottom on top of the lantern base. Then, I placed the candle on the lantern’s spike.

Close-up of wick peeking up through top of candle.

Candle and wick back together again inside hurricane lantern.

A successful project that cost nothing and only took a few minutes, even though my original idea didn’t work! Project tip: don’t do this project on a granite countertop because the shavings from the candle will stick all over your granite and it will take a bit of elbow grease to get them off. I used one of my wooden chopping boards and even so, managed to get candle shavings on my granite!

Do you have another idea on how to replace a wick in a pillar candle? Or, have you any hair brained ideas for a do-it-yourself project that turned out even though not how you originally envisioned?

Happy Thanksgiving!

Tootles,

(other DIY projects)

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