Grease lamp from a silverware serving spoon

[ameling]

Aaaah, more about grease lamps. (from a discussion on another MB)

Several people had doubts about using a kitchen serving spoon as a grease lamp. (I originally said a table spoon, but a serving spoon works better.) Well, today we had a little break in the cold weather, and I had some forging projects to catch up on. So I dug through my "junker" silverware box and came up with a half dozen serving spoons to play with. I hammer shaped several - to narrow out the "spout" end. But I also just took one as-is and just bent the handle up in a gentle arc to hang it. I did drill a hole through the end, put a twisted wire loop in it, and then hung it in my kitchen using some hemp twine. I hung it over my sink to catch "drips", and also hung one with a necked in spout next to it by a simple hemp twine. I then raided the (new) mop for some wick material, and used Crisco veg oil (I cleaned out the bacon grease drippings can last week). So the test was on. It took a full stick match to get each one lit - to heat up the oil enough to start vaporizing on the end of the wick. I did have a few ... drips. But the sink caught those. With each "bowl" of the spoon 3/4 full of veg oil, they both burned around 20 to 25 minutes with a light similar to a candle. I just topped both up without putting the flame out. But I did have to adjust the wick in one - pull a bit more up. The wick only burns above the oil level.

Simple observation: The regular unmodified spoon bowl worked as well as the one I modified by necking it down and pointing it.

So the only thing necessary for you to make your own grease lamp from a serving spoon is to gently curve that handle up and back over the bowl of the spoon. Then figure out how you want to hang it - either with a simple leather/hemp cord tied around it, or with a hole drilled/punched through and a wire loop in place. After you have your tie point established, then you can ... tweak ... the curve in the handle until the spoon bowl hangs level.

Here are a few (poor) pics of the grease lamps in use. (My digital camera is a junker "snapshot" one)

So a full forged grease lamp is nice, but you can make your own from a kitchen serving spoon. Just check the shape/style of it against the known patterns of silverware for your time period. A surprising number of those old patterns are still available.

I've got some documentation for these spoon conversions to use as a grease lamp here somewhere in these stacks of books. It's for the mid to late 1700's - possibly back into the 1600's. I'll see if I can find it in whatever book I saw it in.


And I disavow any knowledge or accountability if YOU get caught raiding the good silverware for this project. I was lucky to have a pretty good box full of "junker" silverware to dig through. The ... good stuff ... never got touched!!!! (and I get to live through another night)

Have fun.

Mikey - that grumpy ol' German blacksmith out in the Hinterlands

p.s. Yeah yeah, I know. Why should I be telling you how to do stuff for yourself that I could charge to have me do for you. Well, it's because I ain't trying to ... chase ... every possible buck. That's for REAL businessmen. So my friends who would point this out to me can save their breathe.

 

[ameling]

Now that I've finally let them go out, cool off, and wiped the oil off, here's a pic (from my scanner) of the two grease lamps. It shows a bit more of the ... details.

The unmodified spoon bowl one is on the left - with the wire loop in the handle. That hole with wire loop is nice, because you can swivel the whole thing around as needed when hanging it up. I need to "trim/file" the top edges on the other one flush - to remove those little lumps sticking up along the top edges. They are from necking in the "point" of the spoon. It is not really necessary, but does make it look better.

Fun project. But haven't had the chance yet to dig for the documentation.

Mikey - that grumpy ol' German blacksmith out in the Hinterlands

p.s. Warning!!! You personally will have to deal with the consequences of raiding the silverware drawer in the kitchen! SWMBO may take exception to serving spoons being ... appropriated ... for such projects!

 

[onepaw]

neat project! I will have to try that
(yard sale find?? instead of raiding the kitchen though)

 

[blacksmithman64]

now thats a slick little project! I just happen to be heading down to my forge this afternoon...!I always find old mismatched silverware at antique shops. :thumbsup:

 

[Roy]

:thumbsup: Cool thanks for the pics :thumbsup:

 

[PitchyPine]

Those look great, neat idea. :thumbsup:

 

[ameling]

A few additional thoughts to share - based on a few questions received.

Pewter spoons would work, but you are also getting close to the melting temps of pewter with that flame on the wick. It still should be OK, but is it worth the risk?

No problems with silver/brass/iron spoons. The temps from that one (or possibly two) candle-power flame won't get hot enough to distort them. And the plated spoons should be OK as well. Yes, a lot of 1900's "silverware" was actually brass with a silver plating - or nickel. But the temps in use just won't get hot enough to bother them.

The one key point to remember is don't get too large with a spoon. (Like an institutional lunch line serving spoon.) The heat from the flame needs to heat up the spoon itself, and that then helps keep the grease melted/liquid enough to flow up the wick. So if your grease lamp bowl/resevoir gets too large, you won't get enough heat migrating from the flame to keep your bacon grease melted. This is something of a problem with the square 4-wick tavern/inn grease lamps. You usually have to burn 2 or more of the wicks at any one time to keep the grease melted enough. But those were designed to be run with all 4 wicks burning anyway - to light the tavern/inn.

Of course, if you are using already liquid veg oil or olive oil, then you don't need to keep it melted. Just a little warm to flow better up the wick. Cooking grease just tends to solidify faster as it cools.

There are examples of olive oil lamps that go all the way back to pre-Roman eras B.C. But olive oil is just naturally liquid to begin with. Plus, it is more volatile anyway. So those old olive oil lamps tended to be more like a Betty Lamp - with a wick coming up a tube/cylinder from a closed resevoir. And you had to be even more careful with Whale Oil. It is a whole lot more volatile/flamible. Those lamps had a completely closed resevoir with a wick coming up through a tube/cylinder to where it would burn. Whale oil works a lot like kerosene.

A World Lit Only By Fire - it was an interesting time (and also a pretty interesting book as well)

Mikey - that grumpy ol' German blacksmith out in the Hinterlands

p.s. From the little experiment I did, I would not bother trying to neck in the point on your serving spoon. The regular one worked just as good as the modified on. So just make a hole through the handle for a wire loop swivel, and then bend the handle into that 1/2 circle. Then tweak the bend until the bowl hangs level.

 

[ameling]

I did a little ... tinkering ... out in the forge today. Temps were in the upper 30's, so I tried to get some work done before the COLD gets here. Just before dark the temps dropped 20 degrees in a half hour! My "shop" is fairly open-air (a couple tin roofing sheets with tarps coming partways down the sides), and no heat other than the forge. So work when it's COLD usually requires insulated coveralls and pack boots! So I did some ... catch up ... projects while it was relatively nice out.

Well, I also forged up three regular grease lamps with spike hangers. Here's a pic (scan) of them.

Basically you are forging up a big pointed leaf with a long thin stem. Then you hammer that leaf down into a hollow to form it into that "spoon" shape, and bend/curl the stem up to hang it. And the spike hangers are a classic design - kind of like a fire poker with point and hook. In use, you either poke the point into a wood beam or ***** in a rock, or you hang the hook up over the edge of a shelf/mantel/nail. If I had just flattened out the stem end and punched a hole through, I could them have put the wire loop connector through and had a swivel connection. (just another variation)

Fun projects. And now the temps are creeping into the teens, with -4 predicted for a low overnight. From melting snow to frozen solid in half a day. Rah rah, winter weather! At least we didn't get freezing rain with downed power lines like some places. Now to see how much of the rest of the blizzard crosses over from the Great Plains to here.

Mikey - that grumpy ol' German blacksmith out in the Hinterlands

 

[PitchyPine]

Cool Mike :thumbsup: 10 below here so my forge won`t be going for a while.

 

[ameling]

Thanks for the comments. These are just one of those ... interesting little projects ... that we come across in our journey.

Here's a pic of another grease lamp that Hermit (L Struble) sent me. He hasn't figured out these ... infernal machines ... enough to post it himself. His has a long handle, but that helps you get it up to hook over that nail in the rafters. I also notice that he put a tin can underneath - to catch those drips. A wise precaution.

So you can forge up the grease lamp bowl separately, and then rivet on a handle. They don't need to be forged up as one piece. Hershel House forged one up in his Basic Blacksmithing video - volume 2 if I remember correctly.

Fun little projects to ... tinker with.

Mikey - that grumpy ol' German blacksmith out in the Hinterlands

p.s. Was -8 overnight, and only got up to zero today with lots of wind. But at least we didn't get all that snow the Great Plains got, or the freezing rain that the northeast got several days ago.

 

[PitchyPine]

Don`t think the grease lamp would burn outside here tonight, - 20 actual temp. :shake:
Once i come out of hibernation i`ll have to make a few of them. :haha: :thumbsup:

 

[xxgrampa]

well,
it's down to 51 and cloudy here. so i guess i'll just be thankfull. after all, ca has to have something...

..ttfn..grampa..

 

[ameling]

And this is what happens when you stop by a buddies shop to show him the grease lamps. He does Brit Navy around the Great Lakes.

Well, he really liked them, and absconded with the one spoon grease lamp. But he also just couldn't control himself, so one forged grease lamp ended up with some of that ... sailor graffiti ... on the handle!

Two Turks Head nots and some needle hitching. Sailor Graffiti!

Mikey - that grumpy ol' German blacksmith out in the Hinterlands

-- who spent a few hours today building ... snow forts! (Also called shoveling 4 to 5 inches of snow out of the driveway/yard -- but it sounds more interesting/fun the other way!

 

[skunkskinner]

Thanks for the idea Mike, this was my late afternoon prodject.

The hamburger fat I used burned for one hour before it needed to be refilled to night.

 

[ameling]

Nice grease lamp. And historically also referred to as a ... **** lamp.

Animal fat that has been heated before, like in cooking, seems to just work better. It is already at least partially rendered/melted once. So the "oils" portion is more likely to melt and flow in your grease lamp.

But DO NOT use kerosene or lamp oil!!!!!!!

That stuff will burn just by itself, and does not need a wick. It's not as dangerous to use as gasoline, but close. I only mention this CAUTION/WARNING because somebody will probably try it to see. If you really have to find out for yourself, do so outside away from anything else that might burn -- way far away! It might look like it is working OK at first, but once that kerosene starts warming up and vaporizing, all heck will break loose! Ditto some of the motor oils! They are just too volatile.

Mikey - that grumpy ol' German blacksmith out in the Hinterlands

 

[PitchyPine]

Very nice skunkskinner. :thumbsup:

 

[ameling]

Here's a (poor) pic of a grease lamp with the wick in place and ready to have the grease/oil poured in. (several people have asked for a close-up pick of how it all would be set up)

The wick is part of a strand from a floor mop. It goes from the deepest part of the bowl, and runs up the point to where the end just sticks up past the top of the point. This particular grease lamp is a bit long, so a larger wick will work better to generate more heat to keep the grease melted/liquid to flow up the wick.

I keep forgetting that some terms or phrases get kicked out by the security software. Such as that other historical name for a grease lamp. It was often called or referred to as a Ess Ell U Tee lamp. Why? Who really knows. But probably a far different definition than the modern one applied to that term/word.

Mikey - that grumpy ol' German blacksmith out in the Hinterlands

p.s. Now to work on some Rush Lamps - and to soak some cattail rush piths in grease to see how they work.

 

[Nifeman]

Mikey, y'all sure make some neat stuff :thumbsup: ...Bud

 

[skunkskinner]

Thanks Mike and Lenn.

Now for that betty lamp.

 

[PitchyPine]

Thanks Mike and Lenn.

Now for that betty lamp.

:applause: Looking forward to seeing it. :applause: