Burning resin incense

[Newbiewitch94]

Merry meet everyone
So I'm going to use resin incense for the first time and I was told to use sand to insulate the iron pot when I'm burning the charcoal so does anyone have any idea how much I need to put in the pot

[SpiritTalker]

Enough to be at least as deep as your first knuckle at the end of a finger...that's about twice as deep as the average coal is thick...or 1/2 to 1 inch approx. Go deeper with a tiny pot. Tiny diameter pots heat up all over, larger ones sides are further from the coal, so you can use less sand. Those coals get very hot! Use tongs or a spoon to handle them once lighted. It will spark as the stuff ignites, and take 5-10 minutes to heat through, so wait a bit before adding incense. Do not throw a burnt coal into the trash until it is completely used up and the ash is cold. It WILL start a fire. they burn 3-4 hours.

Go lightly with the resin. A little bit goes a long ways. Once it melts it smokes.

You can slice a coal in 1/2 before lighting it and then it will burn a shorter time. I don't know about you, but my solitary rituals seldom last 3-4 hours...but a coven would need that time.

[Firebird]

This is my favorite way to burn incense, very few stick incenses can produce a quality resin stick, and the ones that do are very expensive.
Spirit Talker has a good depth for the sand, however I do not tend to throw the sand and ash out with each use because I use it a lot. It gets fresh sand for moons and holidays. Also if you do not have a source for sand, the Home Depot or some building supply warehouse will have sand in 5 or 10 lb bags or larger....much cheeper this way.
One other tip is, make sure the coal is all the way lit before putting resin on it, we put a large chunk of copal on a coal that wasn't quite ready and it melted all over the coal and put it out.
Happy burning!
Bb, Firebird

[Newbiewitch94]

Thanks guys
I will wait until a pair of tongs to do this. I can just stick to using my incense sticks for now.

[Yukiah]

I have never used resin incense but would like to try it. Where can I buy resin incense and what do I need to burn it?

[Firebird]

You'll need a small iron pot or heavy pottery works well. The sand we spoke of is important to disperse the heat.
Tongs are great but I rarely use them, I'll set the coal on a small mound of sand and light it around under the edges. Some coals spatter sparks more than others (I just recently purchased some of the worst I've ever seen), light in a fire safe place and when the whole coal is glowing sprinkle a small amout of your incense or a couple tears of resin. Repeat adding incense depending on how smoky you can stand it
.
We burn outside frequently so I made a spark arrestor for my little cauldron.
I use the little shell to move the sand around to make a small mound to place the coal on,

Spark safety for the cauldron !

I light it in the fireplace. Usually without the fire safety arrestor because it is in the fireplace, lol.

Spark arrestor in place