Create your own DIY olive oil lamp and enjoy the brightness of this ancient method of lighting. It is healthier than using paraffin-based oils and can be nearly smoke-free. Add essential oils, if desired, to mask the olive oil scent, and enjoy this bright oil lamp light whenever you need to.
I’ve been talking to you a lot about bringing light to a dark place, this season, by lighting a single candle. Today I want to show you the secrets of ancient lighting — how they brought light into the dark places thousands of years ago. The olive oil lamp is the kind of lighting that was used in the Holy-land 2,000 years ago. Olive oil is an ancient lamp oil. It is the oil that was used in the Temple Menorah during both the first and second Temples in Jerusalem. It was the oil that brought about the miracle of Hanukkah during the time of the Maccabees — over 150 years before Jesus was born. It is the oil that Jesus/Y’shua studied the Holy Scriptures by, in his childhood home in Nazareth.
When Jesus said “You are the light of the world,” He was making an analogy using the olive oil lamp — a light that burns brightly in fresh oil. When he told the parable of the wise and foolish virgins, again, he mentions their olive oil lamps. Think about that for a second. A light that comes from a flame fed by fresh oil.
Why olive oil?
Olive oil burns cleanly, without smoking. It doesn’t spread toxic hydro-carbons into the air. It’s inexpensive and plentiful if you grow your own olives. Even if you have to buy your olive oil, it’s not hard to find and not extremely expensive. Olive oil grows on trees — olive trees.
Olive oil is a renewable lamp fuel.
For burning as lamp oil you can use cheaper grades of olive oil, like pomace olive oil, rather than the expensive extra virgin oil. Buy a trusted brand, as you want pure olive oil, not olive oil that’s been adulterated with canola oil or other GMO oils.
Ancient lights
Ancient olive oil lamps are shallow dishes of oil with a wick or rag held upright. These clay olive oil lamps were small bowls. They had a pinch of clay at one side of the bowl to hold the wick upright, just above the surface of the oil. If you don’t have a handy clay olive oil lamp kicking around your kitchen, you can make a wick holder with wire. The wick needs to be close to the surface of the oil, as olive oil doesn’t have fumes to keep the wick burning, while fresh oil enters the burn zone. Plan for a flame about 1 inch above the surface.
What kind of wick?
To make a lamp you need a wick, something to hold the wick upright and keep it from dropping into the oil, a vessel to hold the oil, and pure olive oil. The wider the wick that you use, the brighter your lamp will be. I like to use a braided wick such as is used in a kerosene lamp. These draw up the oil evenly and give enough light to read by. The olive oil lamps available from Lehman’s are made to use a small round candlewick and only give as much light as a candle. Ancient olive oil lamps used linen rags soaked in oil and gave a lot of light.
Olive oil lamps are safer than Kerosene Lamps
No worries about setting the whole house on fire with an olive oil lamp. Unlike kerosene, olive oil won’t ignite if the flame drops down into the oil — in fact, it will smother the flame. It’s quite amazing that olive oil will burn at all. Unlike kerosene or paraffin oil, there are no fumes to burn. If the lamp is tipped, the oil will smother the flame in an olive oil lamp. Whereas kerosene and lamp, the oil will ignite and spread the flame.
The light from an olive oil lamp is bright enough to read by. It’s as bright as a kerosene lamp, with a warm yellow flame.
DIY Olive Oil Lamp
What you’ll need:
Wire
Braided wick
Jar
Olive Oil
Lid for jar
Tools:
Needle Nose Pliers
Easy directions for your DIY Olive Oil Lamp
Using pliers cut a 15-inch length of wire. 
Roll one end of the wire tightly around the nose of the pliers 4 to 6 times. Move to the other end of the wire and wrap a circle that will fit into the bottom of the jar that you’ve chosen for your lamp. Wrap this circle several times with the wire to make a firm foundation for your wick.
Using tweezers, feed your wick through the circle made by the pliers, and pull through the top as in the photo.
Place the wick in its holder in the jar. Fill with olive oil to within one inch of the top of the wick.
To light your oil lamp:
Allow the wick to absorb olive oil to the top of the wick. This may take 10 minutes or more. Once the wick is saturated, light the wick with a match or candle. It will start with only a small flame. The brightness of the flame will increase as the wick draws up oil into the flame. This may take a minute or two.
Trim the wick and pull a clean edge up into the top of the holder, each time you light it. A small amount of oil — about 60mls or 2 fl. ounces will burn for several hours.
Precautions:
As always, use precaution around an open flame.
To extinguish the flame, snuff with a candle snuffer or a metal lid. Don’t lick your fingers and try to snuff it out — you’ll burn your fingers.
The jar and the oil won’t heat up from the olive oil flame, but keep it on a non-flammable surface as a precaution.
Other posts you may like:
How to make a tea light candle
10 Skills your Grandfather Knew that Will Help You Today
Let me know how yours turns out. You can drop me a note on my Facebook page.
My tip is to use a jar with an aluminium lid drill or Hammer a hole and push the wick through it ( no need for the wire) also use a these loose braided cotton wicks brand ( Wickworks) this is sold as tiki torch wicks at Bunnings here in Australia and due to the loose braided wick and having soaked it in olive oil for over 10 min the whick is burning 40 min without snuffing itself out the flame is going to get smaller due to the wick being consumed I been using this as a candle for my diy teapot warmer much better than any candle imho n cheaper too
This may be a silly question but- could you use USED (strained) olive oil?
Yes, if the oil was strained and no longer edible it would be perfect for oil lamps
Hi, can you tell me what gauge of wire you used to make the wick-holder? Thanks
The smaller the gauge the easier to bend.
thank you for this incredible information on olive oil and DIY oil lamps. I have some old classic oil lamps that are empty and would like to utilize them without using any toxic oils like : kerosene, paraffin, soy, pufa oils… does anyone know if tallow would work in an old oil lamp? I realize the olive oil wouldn’t work as the wick isn’t low enough to be saturated. Tallow? Coconut oil?
Does anyone know how to use old classic oil lamps without using toxic oils? Pretty much all oil for oil lamps is toxic… I’m looking for saturated fats that will burn clean? Or if I poured beeswax in the base? would the classic wick in an oil lamp allow for an adequate burn?
For the classic oil lamps, you need a fuel with fumes. They won’t work with cooking oils or tallow. You can make a candle with tallow or a combination of tallow and beeswax. You’ll need a different wick though. One that can pull up the heavier tallow into the wick. Coconut oil has such a low melting point that it might drown your wick.
People have used olive oil in those types of old lamps. There are youtube videos. I would try a small string size wick, thick doesn’t seem to work.
Lots of great comments and questions here. I just purchased a replica herodian olive oil lamp and the wick that came with it appears to be wax coated. Will that actually work? Thanks!
One often reads that olive oil can be used for cooking & frying because it’s not supposed to smoke, but to the contrary: “olive oil has a low smoking point, cooking with olive oil runs the risk of creating smoke that contains compounds that are harmful to human health.” So please don’t waste good olive oil in a lamp & keep the following in mind when choosing: “The smoke point of cooking oils varies widely. In general, the more refined an oil, the higher its smoke point, because refining removes impurities and free fatty acids that can cause the oil to smoke.”
Yes and no… I believe the smoking point you are speaking of refers to the oil heated at a high temperature on a stove. And yes that is awful! However, using olive oil with a wick burning the amount of oil that it draws up behaves differently. Try it. I believe you will find that this post is accurate and you might like it.
Does regular olive oil work better than extra virgin olive oil? I’m having trouble with the wick just burning up rather than keeping lit with the oil. I’ve put some evoo and thought that could be the problem?
It could be. Since evo is the first pressing it can contain plant material which might be clogging your wick.
That’s normal with cotten wicks. You have to pull more wick up and trim it. I recommend fiberglass wick. I use it in my Aladdin/genie style olive oil lamp with great results.
What a relief! I bought an aladin lamp for $100 thinking I could use olive oil in it. Any other wick works ok with it other than fiberglass?
I love the idea of using olive oil as lamp oil!! Thanks for this article!
Having trouble with my little clay oil lamp. The wick is saturated but the flame quickly consumes the wick only and dies. I have tried letting out more wick but that didn’t help. Is the wick too thin? It was the one that came with the pot, maybe 1/4” diam. Thanks!
It may be that the fibers in your wick are clogged with the oil and not drawing any fresh oil into the area of the flame. You might need to replace the wick with a fresh one.
I was given a replica of the handheld clay oil lamp with a hole for the wick on one end. At the time the giver said it could actually be lit if you added a wick and olive oil.
I am excited to try it. My concern is extinguishing, since it won’t have a jar lid and I don’t have a candle snuffer. Can I use freezers and just pull the burning wick back down into the oil?
Yes that would work.
nice write up but few things. hurricane lanterns are made to extinguish when tipped over and they have no open flames. also, you can drop a match into kerosene and it will extinguish the match, it’s not like gas.
also, people been using kerosene type lamps for centuries . the air we breathe in general is bad.
BTW, Kerosene won’t burn by dropping a match in a can of it either.
Good to know. I haven’t tested it.
Hi Chris, I figured out a few years ago how to take a punch glass, put some water in it and then some olive oil. I’ve then took a clear plastic lid from a ketchup container for Fries, turned it upside down, made a small foil circle for the center punching a hole in both. I then stuck a stiff 1/2 inch wick that is used in Greek sactuary candles. I lit the bottom end 1st since it made the wick take up the oil immediately. Then I blew it out and let the top. It has worked like a charm and I keep it lit almost all the time. My concern is that I have had very clogged nasal passages and I am beginning to wonder if the oil diffused in the air by the flame would coat the nasal passages to create this problem. Do you know of this at all? Can you offer any wisdom here?
That’s ingenius, Cynthia. Thanks for sharing. I’ve never heard of olive oil coating the nasal passages, but it might. I would think if you were using canola or another rancid, high iodine value oil, that would be more likely. Have you tried a salt steam to clear your sinuses? That’s what I do when I have sinus congestion. (1/2 cup of himalyan salt plus a bowl of boiled water and essential oils like eucalyptus, tea tree, marjoram, lavender or a citrus oil for their antiseptic benefits. I’m assuming you’ve already talked to your doctor about it.
Thanks Joybilee Farms, happy to share. I will try the salt steam!
Speaking of Himalayan Salt..I found a recepie that mixes 1tsp Himalayan Salt with 5 tsp. organic raw honey (or Manuka) once well blended, put small amount under tongue before sleep and let dissolve… the minerals energuze & renew the body while providing deep, restful sleep!
Good to know.
Hello, …do the classic oil lamps with flat wicks adapt to use olive oil? I tried …and it burned the wick quickly down…like an inch per hour….any way to get modern oil lamp to work with olive oil?….
No, unfortunately they don’t. Lamp oil and liquid paraffin oil have volatile fumes that draw up the wick and keep the light on. Oil lamps take advantage of this attribute, that is shared by kerosene. Olive oil doesn’t have any volatile oils, so the wick needs to be sitting pretty close to the fuel source in an olive oil lamp so that the wick can “wick” the oil and keep the flame burning.
I want to do this. That looks like a thick wick. Does it have to be a jar,or can it be an aluminum can? Can you get wicks at Michaels?
The wick is a braided wick like you’d use in an oil lamp. You can use a can. I’m not sure about Michaels but Lehman’s carries the wicks.
I have a blown glass vase with holder for a nylon wick allowing oil to wick up the nylon filaments to produce a flame that does not burn the nylon wick. The oil burns off the top. Can olive oil be used with the nylon filaments to do the same?
Hi Sue, I tried to use a blown glass with a nylon wick holder and it won’t work with olive oil. The flame will go out. The olive oil prefers a cotton wick and needs some air to keep lit. I’m using a glass with corks and wire to hold up the cotton wick for the flame with olive oil.
I was wondering if anyone has tried braiding old blue jeans cut into thin strips , as a cord option? Like an emergency option? Since it was originally fabric cloths?
I just stumbled upon your site while looking for natural remedies for goats. Lots of great stuff here to look through! Where could I get plan ol pure olive oil? Is there a brand that you can recommend? Seems like all I see anymore is extra virgin. Thank you
Costco carries plain olive oil, right next to their extra virgin.
So does Walmart they also have lamp wicks
Thank you so so much! We have been without power (I won’t get into why, suffice it to say that when you let your bf be in charge of the money NEVER assume the utility bills are being paid each month ~ all of a sudden you have a $4,725.00 light bill and if you don’t cough that up imediatelwithis directio how tthese oil lanterns. Yours is the only
Can you put scented oil in an olive oil lamp???
Scented oil is what is used in kerosene lamps. That would be a fire hazard in an olive oil lamp because the flame actually touches the oil. You could put a few drops of essential oil into the olive oil though, if you wanted scent.
I love the simplicity and practicality of this beautiful lamp. I have cats and a 3 year old so open flame is VERY rare here but this looks safe enough for those special occasions when candlelight is just the thing, and for when the power goes out. 🙂
I wonder if using an herb infused olive oil would add a noticeable fragrance to the room, I think I’ll give it a try.
I added a bit of eucalyptus essential oil to the olive oil today and you could faintly smell it as it burned. Thanks for your kind words.
I add fragrance oil or essential oils too….
I’ve made a lamp with olive oil in half an orange peel before and think it’s so neat that it will burn! I was wondering about using it in a regular kerosene lantern but can’t find any stories about that online. Maybe it won’t work since the wick is saturated with oil but it’s a fair bit away from the oil pool? Has anyone tried it or heard of it working? Eventually I’ll give it a go but not until such a time as I’m ready to wash out a greasy kerosene lantern if it doesn’t work, lol!
I did try it and the wick ends up being too far from the source of the oil to draw olive oil up properly. I’ve used kerosene and paraffin lamp oil successfully in the kerosene lamps though. Both have fumes that also feed the flame.