Do-It-Yourself Olive Oil Lamp
An olive oil lamp is a surprisingly safe and simple lamp that you can do-it-yourself. It produces light, as much as, or more than, an ordinary candle, and is an alternative to kerosene-style oil lamps. The concept of burning oil from vegetables (olive oil) in the home rather than petroleum based kerosene seems more appealing, less toxic, and safer.
The Romans and other ancients regularly burned olive oil in their lamps, so, the concept is sound. Pure olive oil will not produce smoke, while other types of vegetable oils may produce some residual smoke while burning.
For those who are curious, the cost of burning olive oil in this lamp will depend on wick size (flame size and corresponding oil consumption), while my own experiment consumed 2 ounces (1/8 cup) of olive oil in 5 hours. This calculates out to about 10-cents per hour depending on how cheap you can find pure olive oil. An ordinary Votive candle may cost about 3 to 5-cents per hour to burn, although probably not as bright as the oil lamp.
Instructions how to make your own olive oil lamp
You will need an ordinary metal coat hanger, a wick (ordinary candle wicks are good), a canning jar (these are heat treated and can withstand the hot temperature), and needle-nose pliers.
The wick shown in this photo is a typical kerosene lamp wick. Using a scissors, I cut the wick in half (length wise) so it wouldn’t be as fat as what is shown in the photo.
TIP: A coat hanger is somewhat difficult to work and bend into a coil, while an easier approach is to use #12 gauge bare copper ‘ground’ wire, available at most hardware and ‘big box’ stores. It’s softer and easier to work with.
Grip the pliers firmly to the metal wire of the coat hanger and twist back and forth until the wire snaps.
Using the needle-nose pliers, grip the end of the wire and then wrap the wire around the pliers about five times around. Do this somewhat loosely so as to make it easier to slide the wind off of the pliers afterward.
Use a screwdriver to assist in pushing the wound wire off of the pliers.
The wound wire will serve to hold the wick.
Form and bend the wire while using your pliers to shape it such that the wound portion of the wick holder from the previous step will sit on the bottom of the jar, in the middle of its diameter as shown in the photo (looking down into the jar). Bend the rest of the wire up the edge of the jar so you can form a handle to support it on the jar’s lip edge. Refer to the final side view image of the olive oil lamp.
Bend back the top portion of the wick holder. This will allow the wick to point somewhat upwards when we insert it later.
Form a hook to hang over the edge of the jar as shown.
Pry apart one of the upper winds so that the wick will slip through as shown.
Once the wick is through the wire, pinch the wire enough so the wick is ‘just’ secure and won’t fall back through. Not too tight though, or you won’t be able to easily feed the wick later – after it burns some…
Trim excess wick. Too much wick and the flame will smoke. Too little wick and the flame will be small.
Fill the jar with pure olive oil to a level part way up the wick holder. Pour the oil over the top of the wick to speed up the soak.
After the wick is fully absorbed, light the wick. You will notice that olive oil is not nearly as readily flammable as petroleum fuels and will take longer to light. This very fact assures that if the mixture is spilled, the oil will not ignite.
Insert the flaming wick assembly back into the jar.
Enjoy the lovely soft flame of your olive oil lamp! Pretty neat, yes?
Important Note:
As with any open burning flame, use care and caution. Respect the flame!
The author assumes no responsibility of any resultant fire.
Common sense required.
Genco Extra Virgin Olive Oil – 1 Gallon
Update:
Alternatively, you may feed the wick all the way through the center of the coil as pictured, with the last spiral pinched tight enough to hold the wick, but not too tightly.
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A smaller round wick, like a piece of string, burns slower.
Mine went over nine hours on less than two ounces of oil.
I LOVE these!
Sooooo love this! Going to try it! Thanks!
Nice article.
Let’s say that I want to put more oil in the jar. Would you adjust the wick assembly?
Be well.
Absolutely. Just make the wire assembly such that the wick is taller. The one I made in the photos holds about 1/4 cup oil before covering the wick. Designing one which will hold a cup of oil will provide a nice long burn time.
I would like to know if you have tried that taller wick, more oil in the jar thing, Ken.
My understanding is that the wick doesn’t draw up if it is to far away from the level of oil.
Keep us posted and let us know how that works!
Hey! Great idea for an emergency situation
Thank a bunch.
Great Post, thanks Ken
It just occurred to me that you could float the wick assembly with a couple of styrofoam peanuts. The kind they used for packing.
Be well.
I believe the styrofoam would melt in short order.
You can float a wick through an ‘ole’ fashion piece of cork.
I have also seen it done by pushing a wick through a thick piece of bark that floated.
Just remember everyone… do not attempt this with anything but vegetable (olive) oil. Else you are assured and explosion.
@Ken; Great post. Love “how to”s especially with pics. Does this work with other oils as olive oil is expensive? Survive well. Enjoy.
I can get a liter of good olive oil for $6.
That is about approximately 35oz I think.
I can burn two lamps for 8 hours with around 2-1/2 oz per jar, every day for two weeks on that amount..
That is a lot better than the amount and cost of kerosene I used to burn in the 80′s when I lived off grid.
We unfortunately burnt bulk cheap kerosene then,
I wish I had known this.
Other oils burn also but they are not as clean and can smoke or clog the wick. I read that corn oil was the worst.
Even bacon fat or bear lard can be burnt this way.
Oils that solidify, need warmed to light and should be in metal rather than glass containers.
One can also make their own wicks form twisting string or thread, or even tearing strips off a cotton t shirt.
Picture the Genie’s lamp. That is essentially an oil lamp with the wick coming out of the spout!
Let Their Be Light!
would an ordinary lamp work? i plan to try with a small lamp i have that usually works with keroscene. fuel is held in the base and a glass top encloses the wick, which can be easily wound up and down on a small dial.
would this work? it would be more convenient, surely.
It certainly should, yes. I have several kerosene lamps in my storage. I will try this tomorrow…
I have tried to use 2 different style kerosene lamps that I have here, and neither one of them worked properly with olive oil as fuel. I believe that the olive oil is too thick to absorb quickly enough through the height of the wick to burn efficiently. It would burn, however the oil wouldn’t draw up fast enough and after a few minutes the wick tip would begin to ash, being starved for fuel.
I believe the olive oil lamp (in a jar as described in my post) burns properly because the distance from the wick tip to the pool of oil is short.
Great DIY! Valuable idea when the lights go out.
Hi… thanks for the idea, going to try the olive oil… I’ve used mineral oil,(cheap) and also, went to the Health Food type store and purchased different oils to make the homemade candles “work” for me… citronella oil, lemon grass oil… only used about 7 drops each, per candle… Don’t ask me why, but had some pebbles from an old fish tank, so I put those in the bottom of the mason jar or what ever I could find, I’d fill it half way with the pebbles. And then I used a metal disc – they are used for roofing… I punched a hole in the middle of the disc with a spike looking thing that you can hammer on the top of, and it punches through the metal… I used a couple inches of some non-lead wick in length. Then, filled the vessal with the oil, enough to slightly cover the pebbles, then thread the wick through the hole and pushed the tail down into the oil/pebbles. Like the others said, it lasted hours and hours and bug free… sorda, in bug capital! FL
… even without burning, you could smell the drops of oils I added… hum, I used these outside, so I’m not sure as to the ‘smoke’ it has… thanks to all… 
Inspirational
Does this have to be done with a wide mouth jar? Can it be done with a regular-mouthed canning jar, or will it go out being starved for oxygen?
The flame may become too close to the glass other than in a wide mouth jar. Even though these canning jars can withstand high heat, I would prefer not to test the limits…