Store
Noncombustible Incense

Incense is an art. Perhaps the most liberating form of the art is noncombustible incense. There's no messing with super finely ground bases, no "glue" to hold the components together, no delicate balance of salt petre to get the burn just right...

All you need to make noncombustible incense are the ingredients (see below), a mortar and pestle or some other grinding implement (like a coffee mill?), some charcoal (self igniting incense charcoal, not the kind you use for cooking) and an incense burner.
Ingredients Grinding Charcoal and Incense Burners

There are 4 main categories of ingredients that go into making noncombustible incense:

  • herbs (patchouli, roses, rosemary, etc.)
  • resins (frankincense, myrrh, copal)
  • aromatic woods (sandalwood, cedar, aloes wood)
  • Oils (fragrance oils and essential oils)
(Continued)

In order for noncombustible incense to smolder properly it must be ground into small particles or a powder. The general consistency is a somewhat personal choice, but you will find that with loose incense, less is more and finely powdered incense smells the best.

(Continued)

Self-igniting charcoal generally comes in two forms: discs of varying sizes and rectangular tablets.
The kind you are most likely to be able to locate (at herb stores, pagan shops and, yes, Catholic supply houses) are the charcoal disks. There are a number of name brands, but the two most common are: Three Kings and Swift Lite. I use both, though of the two I prefer Swift Lite because the disks are harder and they do not explode during lighting as the Three Kings sometimes do.

(Continued)
Next