I like a good incense stick burning when I’m studying or trying to relax at night. I really don’t mind paying the 1 dollar cost for a pack or sticks, but I’m just curious as to much money I would save by making my own. The guy I buy my incense from now, gave me some of his “new” stuff that he hadn’t named yet. It smells ok, but it got me wondering what creations I could come up with. I’ve googled possible kits, but I don’t know much about them. Will the end product depend more on the kit, or on me?
Incense is very easy to make, and if you burn it every night, probably cost-effective as well. (If you only burn it once in a while, it wouldn’t really be worth it, unless you had some allergy to ingredients and needed to be sure you weren’t getting those.)
I could explain it here, or you could just read this excellent article by David Oller which includes method (powder your ingredients, add makko and water and knead it into a dough. Form dough into cones or sticks) and a recipe to get you started.
I wouldn’t bother with a kit, though. The quality’s likely to be shady, as most resins and herbs lose their scent not long after being powdered. A kit probably has some pretty old powders. I buy the herbs and resins from someplace good (like Frontier) and start by powdering them myself.
The art of incense making comes in when you learn what porportions work well. Some things, like Sandalwood, burn really well on their own. Frankincense, not so much. That part takes practice. But if your mix doesn’t burn well on it’s own, you can always crumble your sticks up to burn on a charcoal, so they won’t go to waste.