Using charcoal disks

Using Charcoal disks

What is Charcoal?
Charcoal is used for burning incense smudge sticks and herbs. It comes in a foil wrapped tube of 5 or 10 disks. The disk has a small indentation at the top of it and it is this that holds the resin.
Self-Lighting Charcoal means that it will light with a single match. Regular Charcoal must be held over a flame for several minutes before it will light but Self-lighting, when touched with a match, begins to sparkle as it lights itself. It is personal choice really which one you go for.

How To Use Charcoal
Remove the disk from sealed roll and place the charcoal in the bowl or whatever dish you are using, you can buy fancy dishes or just use plain ones make sure they are fire proof. Light the edge of the tablet with a match or taper. Hold the match to the edge of the charcoal until it begins to sparkle. The sparkling will continue across the charcoal until it is lit, this can take a while sometimes depending on the charcoal your using, if it doesn’t light then try again until it does. You may fan the tablet a little to get it good and hot.
Once the tablet is lit, you may take a small amount about a pinch size of burning herbs or resins and pop onto the lit cake of charcoal. The incense will burn/melt and smoke releasing the scent into the air you may find there a lot of smoke this is quite normal so don’t worry. These will burn for several minutes and then you may add more. You will find you will need to keep adding to the charcoal disk for as long as you want to burn your incense for.

If the ashes start to give off an unpleasant odour, take a metal spoon or knife and scrape off any residue before adding more material. Tweezers work well for moving the disk around but only move it around while inside the censer. The disk will be very hot so do not touch it with your bare fingers.
The tablet should be left to burn out and cool within the censer. To extinguish a disk before it has fully cooled quench in a container of cold water.

PLEASE NOTE When the tablet is lit, do not handle it WILL cause a burn. Charcoal can burn at up to 1500 degrees F. and may burn up to an hour before burning out. Do not dispose of the ash remains in a waste paper bin as this may cause a fire. Do not hold the disk in your hand when lighting or burning. This product should ignite instantly.

Remember do not leave unattended like candles censors with a lit disk can cause fires so always place on a secure safe surface and always stay with it while you work your magickal rituals.