Hand Forged Courting Candle Holder

Candlelight. A truly nostalgic sight and one that, for generations, made it possible to see, read, eat, play, and even pursue romance after the sun had gone down. As a historical reenactor portraying a journeyman blacksmith from the 1700-1800's, I have seen first hand the importance of candlelight after dark. The warm glow lights path, tent, and bedside and often, if you're caught without candles, you're caught without any light at all.

While all of this is true, it's equally true that, in order to use candles, you must also have candle holders. There are, of course, many different types but perhaps none are quite so iconic as the spiral or "courting" candle holders from the 1600-1800's. A beautiful and interesting form still reproduced by many modern manufacturers, this style of candle holder boasts a long history and an intriguing origin story.

As legend has it, these candle holders were used as a sort of parental tool for managing teenage sweethearts in Enlightenment Era America. The story goes that they were made so that a father or mother could raise or lower the candle in the holder to indicate the amount of time a young gentleman suitor was allowed to visit the home. Once the candle burned down to the top of the spiral, it was time for the young man to leave. If the parents liked the the young man, they might twist the candle up higher to give the two young sweethearts more time. If they didn't like him so well, they could twist it all the way down so that the young man got barely any time at all. A subtle-not-so-subtle indication of parental consent.

In reality, it's thought that this particular style of candle holder was invented by German blacksmiths sometime in the 1600-1700's as a way to help support the candle itself. Candles of this period were most often made with animal fat, or tallow, and were much softer than the paraffin we generally use today. Other types of candles, such as beeswax, existed at this time but were more expensive than animal fat which was readily available as a byproduct of cooking. Frugality being what it was, it only made sense to reuse the tallow in the form of a light source, even if the candles did smoke and smell terribly. The softness of this type of candles meant that they had a tendency to sag or collapse when standing alone and the spiraled sides of this type of candle holder would act as a support to keep the candle upright. As the candle burned down, a person could twist the holder up so the flame would remain visible.

Either way, whether as an ingenious method of supporting soft candles, or as a gentle but firm reminder of parental authority, these candle holders are a fascinating historical artifact, and a really fun project. They are just the right balance of complex and simple to fashion and they make for a truly handsome piece in the home when completed.

Tools:

1. Forging Hammer
2. Tongs: Various types and sizes are handy. I used a couple pairs of my general forging tongs and a pair of scrolling tongs
3. Forge or Torch: Something to get the metal hot enough to bend and squish
4. Anvil (Or some other hard surface to bang metal on)
5. Vise: It doesn't need to be a fancy post vise like mine. A simple bench vise should do the trick if it's what you've got
6. Metal Shears or another way to cut your steel
7. A Wood Saw: For cutting dowel rods
8. Drill and Bits: 3/4" and 5/16" to be exact
9. Measuring Stick or Tape Measure
10. 3" Radius: A solid metal circle for forming the base
11. 1" radius: I used a piece of 1" iron pipe
12. Marking Tools: A marker would work great. I used soapstone for the steel and a pencil for the wood
13. Sandpaper
14. Oil for Seasoning

Materials:

1. 48" of 1/4" mild steel round stock: You can likely do this project with other thicknesses and lengths of material, but this is what I used
2. 1" Dowel Rod
3. 5/16" Dowel Rod
4. Wire

As always I feel obligated to mention that you should exercise caution when working on this project. We're going to be using fire, cutting tools, and other tools to form our piece, so please be careful while working. Hot steel is especially treacherous and can burn you even when it seems like it should be cooled down. When I'm teaching, I always tell people that Rule #1 in my shop is: Don't touch the hot metal. Rule #1, Subsection A is: at some point you will touch the hot metal, so choose your cuss words carefully.

All of this to say, please use caution as you work through this guide and wear safety gear if you think it's appropriate.

This step is technically optional and if you have either a high degree of, or a lot of misplaced, confidence in yourself as a metalworker, you may decide to skip it. However, I do not have a high degree of confidence in myself as a metalworker so I almost always make a mock up of any new item in order to work out the kinks before I try my hand at the real thing. Do with that whatever you will and skip this step if you think you don't need it. We'll all be here waiting when you decide to come back.

We're basically aiming to make a simplified version of our eventual finished product. To do this, you want to wrap some wire around your 3" radius to form the base, then coil more of it around your 1" tubing to make the rough shape. Finally, add a handle that looks attractive to you. Congratulations, you've just made a spiral candle holder. Guide done.

In all seriousness, this is the step that helped me to determine the length of the piece of starting stock I needed and to establish the general shape of the piece. You may want to have the handle of your holder on the base instead of the top. Or you may want a shorter candle holder, or a longer one. Whatever the case may be, this is the opportunity to make changes and establish plans and shapes before you waste all that valuable 1/4" round stock.

Once you've established a shape you like and gotten familiar with how that shape will come together, uncoil all your hard work and measure the overall length of the wire you used. This is the length of stock you will want to start with for your candle holder.

Now, it's time to get started in earnest.

This is the most straightforward step in this guide. Take the measurement you got from the wire mock up and transfer it to your steel stock. Once you've marked it, use your shears, hacksaw, or other cutting tool to cut the piece to length.

To start off, we're going to put a scroll on both ends of our piece of stock. A scroll is just a simple curl that sets off the ends of a piece as opposed to leaving it with a blunt end. We're going to be making what's known as a rat-tail scroll. To do this, you first need to heat up your stock to a forging heat (orange to yellow hot) with your forge or torch, then point it. I do this by striking first one side, then rotating ninety degrees to strike again, then ninety degrees again all in rapid succession to reduce the stock and bring it to a point. The piece is now basically a pointed square, but we want it to be round. To do this, hold the piece on the corner of the square, hammer in this corner, then rotate ninety degrees again to hammer in the other corner. The piece should now be more or less octagonal. Slowly rotate the piece until all the sharp corners have been rounded out and you have a round point.

After pointing and rounding the piece, hold the point out over the edge of the anvil and hammer the piece down over the edge. Bring the bent piece to the top (or face) of the anvil and hit it back toward itself with the hammer, then tap gently down on top of the scroll while simultaneously lifting your other elbow so that the end of the piece rotates gradually and the scroll rounds out.

If that doesn't quite make sense, I've added a couple videos that will hopefully help clear it up. Scrolling properly is one of those skills that is both integral to the blacksmithing trade and very difficult to learn when starting out so if you try and fail a few times at this process, that's okay. Know that there are many generations of blacksmiths before you who also failed at their first attempt of this technique so you are in good company. However, with that in mind, it might be a good idea to practice this technique with some scrap before trying it out on your actual piece.

Annealing is a process which removes some of the tensile strength of the steel by way of heating it up and allowing it to cool. The next part of our project requires us to work the steel cold and having it annealed will yield both an easier time for us and a better result in general.

To anneal your piece, use your heat source (forge, torch, etc.) to heat the entire length of the piece to an orange heat. It's okay if you aren't able to do it all at once as long as the entire length gets to an orange heat at some point. After heating the stock, allow it to cool down completely before moving on to the next step. Try not to forget Rule #1 and give the steel plenty of time to cool down. If you do happen to forget, definitely don't forget Rule #1 Subsection A.

Once your steel is cool, it's time to form the base. Clamp your material, along with the larger radius into your vice, placing the scroll you made just alongside the radius. Wrap the steel around the circle until the material and the scrolled end almost overlap. Alternatively, if you're feeling like a super blacksmith, you could do this over the horn of the anvil, but this method is much simpler and will yield a cleaner, more uniform result.

Now we're going to form our coil. To start off, take a marking tool (your marker or soapstone) and make a mark roughly 1 1/2" from the edge of the large circle you just made. This is very important as it will allow us to center the coiled part of the holder later on. Make another mark on the other end of the stock at 5 1/2" from the end.

After you've made your marks, place your 1" radius in the vice with the 1/4" stock clamped beside it as pictured. Make sure the mark you just made is more or less even with the side of the 1" radius. Now we can begin coiling. We're basically trying to make a spring and the easiest way to make sure it's nice and even is to start it out compressed and stretch it out later. Wrap the material tightly around the radius until you've reached the second mark on your material.

Finally, remove the piece from the radius and heat it back up. Specifically, make sure the base gets to an orange heat. Use your tongs and/or a pair of pliers to bend the coil to the center of the large circle we made with the material earlier, getting it nice and centered in the larger circle.

Now the fun part. Heat the entire piece to an orange heat. If your coil isn't very compact, I recommend tapping it together with your hammer before stretching it out. This feels a little counterintuitive, but it will help the spacing of the coil to be more consistent. Using your pliers and tongs, grab onto opposite ends of the coil and pull it apart. I noticed as I worked this step that it was pretty difficult to pull perfectly evenly so the piece kept trying to go lopsided. If your piece does this, just switch your tongs to the other side of the coil and pull it gently back into shape. Make sure the spacing on the coil is even and gradual so the candle will sit nicely.

This is a good opportunity to check your base and make sure it sits flat. Mine had warped a little during the bending and stretching, so I heated it up a little bit and tapped it with my hammer on the top of my anvil to get it to lay flat again.

This is also the point at which you want to make sure your coil is sitting straight. Check it from every angle and make sure it's upright and perpendicular to the base.

For this project, I decided to put the handle up top instead of down below as I've seen on some modern reproductions. I chose to do this because the historical examples I've seen tend to have the handles up top and I wanted to stay true to the original design. In any case, you may notice that your scroll has moved a bit and is now sitting just a little off-kilter. There are a few different ways to fix this, but the easiest is to clamp the scroll in the vise, and twist it back in line with the rest of the piece by using a pair of pliers or a twisting wrench. You should be able to do this cold, but heating it up would make it even easier. Make sure the curl of your scroll is pointed upward, away from the base or it will look funny when we form the handle.

Once the scroll is oriented correctly, heat the stock back up, clamp it in the vise about halfway down its remaining length, and hammer it over to form the handle. Take it back to the anvil to "true it up," making it nice and square on the anvil's face. Last but not least, heat the handle close to the coil and back bend it a little to center it with the rest of the piece.

The last step for the metal part of this project is very simple. Just heat it up a little bit and season it. There are a few different methods that blacksmiths use to season their items. My personal favorite is vegetable oil which burns on and forms a protective coating like that on a cast iron pan. Another popular method is to rub beeswax onto the hot steel or to use linseed oil rubbed on cold. Whatever you decide to use, this step is crucial for protecting the piece and for really setting it off as a finished piece.

Making the inner part of our candle holder is relatively simple. Just cut a piece of 1" dowel rod to 1 1/2" and a piece of 5/16" dowel rod to 2". Use your 3/4" drill bit to drill a hole roughly 1/2" deep in the large dowel rod. Then, use your 5/16" drill bit to make a hole in the side of the large dowel piece at a little under 3/4". Sand the pieces so they're nice and smooth and check the fit of the small dowel rod in the hole. It should fit, but just barely.

The final step of this project is to assemble the wooden pieces inside the metal coil. Slide the large dowel piece into the coil, then put a dab of glue in the 5/16" hole. Put the 5/16" dowel piece into the hole (I had to tap it in gently with a hammer) and let it dry. You may want to put a little bit of oil or clear coat on the wooden parts to help protect them but it's not, strictly speaking, necessary.

All that's left now is to go get a candle and try it out! I highly recommend beeswax candles for the scent and beauty. I suppose you can also try to make some candles of your own out of grease drippings if you're into that sort of thing. I made a few different versions of this project, including one with a turned wooden base and historical examples usually have a drip pan accompanying them. There are lots of possibilities for the form and it's always fun to experiment with how else a basic shape might be applied once you have it figured out.

I would like to think that we've made the old German blacksmiths who invented this form proud. It's always amazing to me to think that it's possible to connect with craftspeople who lived and worked hundreds of years ago by sharing their ideas and forms long after they've been and gone. I hope you've enjoyed and found value in this guide and whether you choose to use this candle holder as a parenting tool or simply as a display and conversation piece, that you also feel that connection to the past and the history of the craft as a whole.