Homemade incense

[woodwight]

I love a good incense, but they are typically hard to find. Nag Champa and Super Hit are great but there are so many more aromas to experience. The other available choices are all dipped blanks, a kindof mass produced product made of who knows what synthetic scents, or an internet purchase that one can't smell smell before buying. I have been making my own cones from aromatic woods and resins and it has been just great.

one recipe goes like this:

.1oz myrrh resin
.2oz lignum vitae wood
.1oz red cedar wood
.05oz dammar resin
.2oz charcoal

all ground to fine powder

some water, a dab of mod podge, and I form tall skinny pyramids with my gloved fingers.

Any other incense makers about?

ww

 

[ouro]

Long before I knew about the spicey acacias (or even what spice was) I used to make incense from acacia inner bark. I made musical instruments out of acacia and it required scraping the bark off. After the outer bark is removed, I would scrape the inner bark with a knife blade and it would ball up in a big fluffy ball of tinder that smelled amazing and burned very well if rolled into a nice shape.

 

[woodwight]

Thats amazing. To have it right under your nose! Life comes full circle sometimes in strange ways.
I think incense and entheogen use are closely related, like the chicken and egg deal. Situation A, Incense burning is commen, inhaling haoma smoke is discovered in practice. Situation B, haoma smoking is commanplace, later fragrant but inactive resins are used symbolically to replace the sacrament.

ww

 

[Ice House]

I love a good incense, Any other incense makers about?

ww

I've never made my own but I would love to.

I recently returned from a trip to Gutemala and I brougt back with me quite a bit of Copal resin that is native to the Guatemalan jungles.

I would love to get it into a form that will burn properly so it can be used efficienly as incense.

Currently I just put a piece of the pure resin on my wood stove. It melts and burns and smells wonderful.

I know there must be a more efficient way of burning it.

 

[jamie]

^ you can use an oil burner. They sell them all over even at dollor stores. You stick a candle in teh bottom and it heats up the bowl part on top and you put resins or essential oils into it.

 

[woodwight]

Icehouse - To burn resins, I take a ceramic bowl filled with wood ash and bury an orange glowing coal from the stove under 1/4 inch ashes. Then the resin bits go on top. I'm jealous of your copal.

 

[gory dkalz]

Does anyone know if MHRB powder can be made into an incense? Well I'm sure it can be done.
I really think it would help bring the spirit of the plant into my sessions but don't really know how to go about making it.
Any ideas?

 

[d-T-r]

Couldn't see any other threads so i guess i'll throw a question in here for anyone who may know.

After almost running out of a free sample of some Mexican Copal i received, i'm looking to buy some more...

Does anyone have any other info on Peruvian Copal?

http://www.somaluna.com/prod/peruvian_copal_protium_grandifolium.asp

"Copal is sacred to the indigenous cultures of the Central and South Americas. It is burned year round in the churches in Mexico, but is best known for its use in the homes during Day of the Dead. It is said that the familiar scent of Copal helps the souls find their way back during their annual visit home"

I'm wondering if it's a suitable copal to use in Aya ceremonies, or is this scent best left for it's traditional purposes?

I may look into creating my own incense blends too after seeing this thread

 

[RebornInSmoke]

i havent read this thread yet as im in a rush, but ill give it a peep when im back in the house later.
i just wanted to recommend Mayur incence. its an established indian brand and they make all kinds of AMAZING aromas.
my favourites so far are the Tommy Hilfiger one (smells so divine its not even funny ) and the White Diamond one.

if you can find the tommy hilfiger one to buy i highly recommend it.
as someone who LOVES incense (watermelon oils, nag champa, doop, palo santo, the list goes on and on) i must say it really is one of the best i have ever had. sadly the shop i got it from doesnt sell it anymore!

oh well, today is payday. online shopping tonight methinks!



(and no i dont work for them)

 

[gory dkalz]

A little update on my MHRB incense question.

I ordered a bunch of ingredients for making incense and am going to
experiment with it to see if I can get something worthwhile out of it.
I should have everything by the end of next week.
If it turns out alright I will give you guys my recipe.

 

[flouro]

Incence!

Not a lot of information about how to make some I have found. Years of experimenting with burning natural ingredients would probably teach what to mix with what but as the information age is on; any books or internet sites to help a newbie?

I came through with this incence thing from never been consciously aware of it to somehow in the festivals picked some scents and now some time a go found this incence review site Olfactory Rescue Service that has been helpful to me with helping to get a grasp of the subject a little. Now I have few samples that I got from few different places and the variety of scents and the effects from the different sticks is really awesome.


-List/source of different aromatic herbs, flowers, trees, etc. names and identification data: dunno but would love to find one
-How to grow own plants: search engine key words due to no link to problematic sites: organic growing permaculture
-Distilling essential oils: distillation of essential oils
also various search engines have a lot of data with search words distilling essential oils and they come as videos and pictures too
-Wild harvesting: dunno but would love to learn

 

[woodwight]

@ gory decalz

Regarding the jurema incense, I played with a bit of mhrb and found it to be quite nasty when burned. It smells of stanky jungle spice on a dirty bbq grill.

Disapointed with the jurema, I ended up making a 'peru shaman' incense: palo santo and peru lacre as primary ingredients, incensio, white and dark copals to back it up, and charcoal for good burning. All the ingredients are potentially available to a natural crafting shaman.


The idea of sacred spice incense still intrigues me. I want to know more about the ancient haoma(eshpand) incense that was ritually inhaled, and the rumored acaia trees Moses encountered on Sinai. Caapi has potential as a secondary ingredient.


@flouro

The net has sparse information on incense making. My experiments always include an aromatic wood, resins, and homemade oak charcoal. A coffee grinder churns it all to fine dust. Then a little pile can be burned to test. When happy, some water with a bit of white glue is mixed in. I mold the paste into little cones. Search for somaluna to find a plethora of quality ingredients.

@dtr I like white and gold copals and they should be wonderful in aya ceremonies. The dark copals (copal negro) may not be the best for sharing, like an acquired taste.




If it smells nice, burn it
ww

ww

 

[gory dkalz]

Thank you for the info woodwight, but you were about 2 hours too late. :d
My wife and I just finished shaping our cones and they are on the back porch drying out.
I didn't use much mimosa, only about 5 grams out of an ounce of the total dry powder weight of the incense.

Once they are dry I'll test them out and let you know how it went.
They smelled pretty awesome when I was shaping them.

 

[gory dkalz]

Hmm. So my first batch didn't turn out too wonderful.
Smells more like a campfire than anything.
I'll keep messing around with it til I find something that works.
I may try to get some copals. It seemed to be lacking in flavor and was mostly just woody smoke.
I'm going to try the local flea market. I think I recall there being a vendor that sold all kinds of scented and essential oils.

Wish I had a soxhlet to extract my own.

 

[Dante]

Sounds really interesting, I will give it a try!
Last time I ordered from M-E, they gave me lots of nice samples of herbs and resins. I will experiment with those, and maybe I'll order some red sandalwood too (my favorite).