How incense is made

Incense that smolders on its own contains a fuel such as charcoal or wood powder, mixed in with the perfume.

stations: 5
things upstream: 4
raw sources: 3
steps from the ground: 2

The short version

Incense is made by grinding fragrant woods, barks, herbs and resins to powder and mixing them with a binder and water into a paste. The paste is shaped by extruding, pressing or coating it onto a stick, then cut and dried. Direct-burning types also carry a fuel such as charcoal or wood powder so they keep glowing.

Collect resins and woods

Fragrant materials such as frankincense and myrrh resin, woods, barks and leaves are gathered. Frankincense trees begin producing resin at about eight to ten years old and are tapped two to three times a year.

Goes in
Timber
Grind to powder

The raw materials are powdered. Oily resins are balanced with dry wood, bark and leaf powders, since too much oil stops the incense from smoldering.
Mix with binder and water

A paste is made with a binder such as makko, from the bark of Persea trees, or a gum such as gum arabic. For direct-burning types, charcoal or wood powder supplies the fuel. Too much water or too much compression makes the stick burn unevenly.

Goes in
Charcoal Water
Shape the paste

The paste is extruded into sticks or coils, pressed into forms, or coated thickly onto a bamboo core. A cored stick burns away with its core, and a coil can burn for hours to days.

Goes in
Bamboo
Cut and dry

Paste cut into pieces is dried until hard, so the sticks can be handled and burn evenly.

End of the lineIncense

Worth repeating

Resin balls found in prehistoric tombs at El Mahasna show that ancient Egyptians burned incense.
Incense has been used as a clock, because a coil or stick burns at a steady pace.
Dhoop, solid incense with no core, is the most common form made in Japan and Tibet.