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Incense-Making.com
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| 1 | grind each of your incense ingredients into a fine powder (or buy pre-powdered ingredients) | photo |
| 2 | sift your powder through a flour sifter – using only the fine powder for your mix | |
| 3 | combine all ingredients into a bowl | |
| 4 | add a percentage of
makko powder to incense powder
note: high resin content in your recipe means it will need more makko to make it burn (add 40-90% makko for high resin mixtures), incense made with mostly woods, spices and herbs will need only 5-30% makko weight of mixture x percent of makko = weight of makko needed
the percentage of makko needed changes with every recipe as each ingredient has its own burning qualities, etc. Trial and error is the only way to find the perfect amount of makko to add. Keep records if you plan to repeat a recipe. |
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| 5 | combine makko and powdered incense and mix thoroughly | |
| 6 | it's best to test the mixture now by burning it as an incense trail. - if it burns slow and steady as a trail then it will also burn just fine once its moistened, made into a dough, and formed into sticks, cones, or molds | |
| 7 | if the incense trail doesn't burn well or goes out - add
more makko if the incense trail burns too fast with a mostly makko aroma, add more incense mixture fine-tune the aroma to your tastes by adjusting the amount of each ingredient test recipe again by burning trails keep adjusting and testing until you have that final recipe and it's time to move on... *if keeping records, remember to record all your recipe changes Store the final mixture in colored glass jar, in a cool, dark, dry space for 48 hours or more - this helps all the ingredients merge their aromas together as one – to synergize. (You can also wrap a clear jar with newspaper to keep light out) *If you're making incense trails, STOP now and enjoy! (How to Burn Trails) |
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| 8 | Ready to Make a
Dough & Shape: set aside 10% of this combined dry incense/makko mixture in a separate bowl, leave this as emergency backup mix |
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| 9 | in a small bowl, very slowly drizzle in warm distilled water into the remaining 90% of your prepared dry incense/makko mix | |
| 10 | you can use hydrosols, essential oils, wines, liqueurs, etc. as a replacement for, or in addition to, the water content in step 9 | |
| 11 | knead the warm water into the mixture until you create a dough about the consistency of soft sculptor’s clay... remember Play-doh? | |
| 12 | you should be able to make a fist and have the moist but not slimy wet dough squeeze through your fingers but be firm enough to maintain its new shape without revealing any dry cracks inside workable but not wet is the goal slowly add more water if the dough is too dry but do so very carefully because too much water quickly makes the mix too soupy and unworkable. If you do add too much water, pour what liquid you can out of the bowl, then add some of your emergency backup dry mix from step 8 |
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| 13 | knead the dough... knead, knead, knead… knead is all you need… | |
| 14 | now it’s best to age the dough in a bowl overnight. cover it with a damp towel and wait 24 hours | |
| 15 | the next day – knead the dough again, and if needed, slowly add more warm liquid (a spray bottle works best here) | |
| 16 | knead, knead, knead… | |
| 17 | pinch off a small piece of dough, roll it in your hands into a ball, place it down on a large flat surface that can be cleaned afterwards – i.e. cutting board, table, tile, etc. | |
| 18 | with the palm of your hand roll the ball top to bottom, first away from and then back towards you, and begin forming a stick | |
| 19 |
now switch from using your hands to using the bottom part of a small box that fits in your hand you want the straight flat bottom of the box to replace your squiggly shaped hand for rolling the sticks, it makes for straighter sticks. Of course you may enjoy the squiggle's, in which case by all means feel free to use your hands or other inventive devices |
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| 20 |
roll box back and forth over stick and form to size and thickness desired *using extruders can be lots of fun as well and is great for those who wish to experiment more... we've found meat jerky and clay extruders work well |
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| 21 | use a butter knife to cut the ends – we usually keep cutting them until our sticks are about 4” long – shorter sticks help prevent curling in the drying stage, we call 'em "incense logs" | |
| 22 | roll your sticks until the thickness is anywhere from slightly thinner than a pencil at the thickest, to very thin like spaghetti – keep in mind the thinner they are, the more difficult they are to keep straight during drying | |
| 23 | drying sticks (bag method) lay rolled sticks on a wax-paper covered board and place the whole board in a large paper bag and scrunch it closed - open to roll sticks twice daily and close again, repeat until dry |
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| 24 | at least once daily,
preferably two or three times, lift the book, move the blocks and spin
the incense like you would hot dogs on a barbeque, which helps them dry evenly, return all as it was with the book back on top and
allow the drying to continue sticks usually take 1 to 5 days to dry, depending on local climate, slower is better so if you like tinkering; building a better drying environment is a great experiment... controlling heat, humidity and air flow |
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| 25 | for cones
pinch off some dough and simply
mold it in your hands making whatever shape you like, be aware that
anything much thicker than a pencil at the base may not burn very well you can also make wooden or metal cone molds and mass produce cones - ask a carpenter or metal-smith friend |
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| 26 | dry cones by standing up on a wax-paper covered board and place the whole thing in a paper bag and scrunch closed – once the outside of the cones are dried you can turn them on their sides to better dry the bottom and inside, check and turn several times daily |
Note: an added bonus of working with makko, is that if your sticks, cones or molds don’t burn well for any reason, you can simply grind the remainder back into powder, adjust it, wet it again, knead, form, dry, burn and enjoy – no waste!
As you can see we don’t use wooden "blank" sticks. Many such commercially available sticks are all too often dipped in arsenic and/or formaldehyde or other preservatives, and rolled in glue and sawdust from some unknown tree, etc. We prefer our incense infused only with the pure powers of nature and the freedom to shape it as we please.
As far as what ingredients to start with, we really recommend starting with ones you already enjoy; heat them one at a time and notice the many different kinds of aromas that are within that one, single ingredient... do you smell any citrus? rose? jasmine or other flowers, woods, green grassy herbs, etc.? If so, try adding ingredients that are similar to what you smell; if you smell grass try adding some vetiver, if you smell flowers try rose petals or dried lavender, etc.
Have Fun!
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