The candle log.
A split log with three flat-bottomed holes in it, one tealight sitting in each. It is the shortest route there is from the woodpile to a table that looks like somebody thought about it, and it takes half an hour.
- How long
- About half an hour.
- You need
- A split log · A drill · A 40 mm flat bit · Masking tape · Three tealights
- Messy
- A bit. Do it on a table.
Step 1. Find a split log with one flat face.
Anything from 300 to 400 mm long and at least 100 mm across the flat. A half round off the woodpile is ideal because the split face is already flat and the bark side is already the interesting side. Birch and cherry look best. It has to be dry, or it will move and open a crack straight through your holes in a month.
Step 2. Sit it down and find the rock.
Flat face down on the table and push each end. If it rocks, mark the two high spots and take them down with coarse sandpaper on a flat surface, or a few passes with a plane. Do this now. A candle log that rocks with three lit candles on it is a different kind of object.
Step 3. Measure a real tealight before you pick a bit.
A standard tealight cup is 38 mm across. That sounds like a 1-1/2 inch bit will do it, and it will not: 1-1/2 inch is 38.1 mm, which is the same size as the candle, so the candle does not go in.
Use 40 mm, or 1-9/16 inch, or 1-5/8 inch. A Forstner bit gives the cleanest edge and a flat bottom. A spade bit works and leaves a small point in the center, which does not matter because the candle covers it. Measure your own tealight first anyway.
Step 4. Mark three centers, 90 mm apart.
Down the middle of the flat face, or down the middle of the bark face if that is the side facing up. On a 300 mm log: 60 mm from one end, then 150 mm, then 240 mm. Punch each center with a nail so the bit cannot wander when it starts.
Step 5. Put a depth stop on the bit.
Wrap masking tape round the bit so that exactly 17 mm of cutting edge is showing below the tape. When the tape touches the wood, stop. That is your depth gauge and it costs nothing.
17 mm is chosen against a tealight, which stands about 16 mm tall in its cup. The candle then sits a millimeter below the surface: deep enough to be held, shallow enough to lift out with a fingernail. If yours are taller, add the difference.
Step 6. Bore the three holes slowly.
Straight down, moderate speed, and back the bit out once or twice on each hole to clear the shavings. Rushing a 40 mm bit burns the wall of the hole, and a burnt hole smells for the rest of the log's life every time you light it.
Step 7. Clean it up and drop the candles in.
Brush out the dust, knock the sharp rim of each hole back with a folded piece of sandpaper, and wipe the whole thing down. No finish. Oil, wax and varnish are all things you have chosen to put next to an open flame for no reason.
- The metal cup is the part that makes this safe. It holds the wax and keeps the flame off the wood. Never burn a tealight out of its cup in a wooden holder.
- Nothing hanging above it, and 300 mm of clear air over the flames.
- Never left burning in an empty room, and never on a table a child can reach across for something else.
- It will scorch a little around the rims over a season. That is the log getting a history, not the log failing.
That is the end of this one
The word for what you just did is counterbore.
A flat-bottomed hole bored to a set depth so a part sits down inside it, rather than a hole bored to go through something. The whole job is the depth: the diameter decides whether the part fits, the depth decides whether it sits right.
Where to go now