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Mystery wax?


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I was recently given a pile of candle-making supplies so I've been learning all I can. I'm excited to dive in but I have a large box of mystery wax. The box was badly torn when it was given to me (and the bag inside already opened but barely used). Since I had no idea at the time that there are different types of wax, we had transferred the bag into a plastic bin and tossed the torn box. And I didn't discover until too late that I needed to know what kind of wax it was! The other box I have is NatureWax V-1 for votives and I'm betting they were the same brand - they seem similar (except the bag is black instead of blue). 

 

I'm assuming I need to do tests and try to figure out what kind of wax it is? Like making votives and containers and comparing? But what do I look for - should it be easy to tell as soon as they set or do I need to burn them? I made a batch last night - one votive, one floating candle, one tart, one tin and one bear-shaped jar. They all look great except the bear jar has wet spots and white-bubbles along the joints of the bear, and very slight roughness at the top. My research seems to indicate it could be the wax is votive wax or I might have just poured it too cold?

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Even my C3 comes in a blue bag now, I don't remember black but could have been years ago...my memory is not the greatest!  Is it flake and feels soft to the touch, almost like it will melt in your hand?

Sounds like it could be C1 or C3.

Edited by kandlekrazy
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Guest OldGlory

Yep, I agree with Chris. Try testing the votive first and see if it has a total meltdown and becomes a puddle within the first hour or if the sides stand up for a while. There are probably a dozen or so different soy waxes that look like the picture you posted of the flakes.

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I didn't get a picture but the votive burned for 3 or 4 hours (I burned in 2-hr increments) - the sides stood up and it burned down a little over halfway before the sides began to melt down. It didn't last the 10+ hours I thought I was supposed to get but I don't think the wick could have been any smaller without being underwicked. (Also I had it setting on a dish instead of inside a votive glass, so maybe I messed that part up.)

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Guest OldGlory

My guess is that it's a votive soy wax. I would try a few more votives. What kind of wick are you using? That will effect how it burns.

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I would also do as OG suggested, but also use a votive cup when burning. Burning outside of a container (like you would a tiny pillar) will affect both the burn and burn time, and you will get more accurate results by burning the candle properly and it will also help you determine the type of wax you have. 

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You will need to burn the votive to really tell.  C3 will pop right out of molds if it's cold enough.  All of the naturewax is flake so the pic doesn't really help.

C3 is softer than V1.  I bet both boxes are same wax.  Can't you contact the person who gave them to you?

Also my DH who remembers almost nothing, swears my C3 used to come in black bags, but most likely all the Naturewax did.

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i will make more votives tonight and burn them in a votive cup. Unfortunately, the supplies were donated over a year ago to a kid's club here in town. They made some candles and then got bored with them and the staff gave me the supplies because they didn't want them anymore. So I don't have any idea of the original owner and I don't think the kid's club paid much attention to it. But i'll ask Monday just in case.

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Speaking of mystery wax, I purchased a small block of container wax from Michael's for a quick candle gift.

Does anyone know what kind of wax this is compared to what I normally buy from suppliers?  It says paraffin and it melts really fast.

 

thanks

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So I made some more votives and a few other container candles to experiment with. Here they are after one hour of burning. The votive and votive-container are eco-4 wicks. The white cup with green stripe is Eco-6. Floral cup is Eco-8, tin is Eco-12. (looks to me like the tin is mushrooming a bit.)

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post-15083-0-63616700-1444847106_thumb.j

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Votive is about halfway down after 4 hours. The similar votive-like glass is keeping up fairly well. The others I think are acceptabel but not sure.

 

Oh - forgot to mention that the votives absolutely would not come out of their molds until I popped them in the freezer for a few.

 

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Guest OldGlory

None of your candles look like 464 after burning. I can't say for sure it's not 464, but it doesn't appear to be that wax. I think it probably is a container wax. If the wax was mine, I would treat it like a soy container wax and continue testing until I got a consistently good burn.

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Hi, I just wanted to update to say OldGlory is definitely right. It finally occurred to me to try the box of votive wax I have and compare. The votive wax looks the same except it's yellowish instead of white. It also took significantly longer to melt. And once it set, it popped out of the votive molds easily and it's very obvious it has pulled away from the sides of the small tin I also tested. So the mystery box definitely has to be container wax. I feel like I've learned a lot about the differences in wax, I'm just sorry I didn't think to try the votive wax sooner!

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That's becoming abundantly clear! ;)  Now my problem is getting the wicks in the votives. When I was using the container wax, they wedge right in. But the votive wax is so much harder I split a votive right in half trying to get the tab inside the hole! Maybe I can't let them sit 20 hours before wicking them? I read somewhere that heating the metal with a flame would help? Or I'm thinking of carving the hole slightly with an exacto knife...

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Guest OldGlory

I am trying to wrap my brain around this...

When I made soy votives I put the wick assembly in as soon as I removed them from the mold, so try that. You could take something like an ice pick, heat the pointed end, and melt a wider hole for the wick tab but that seems like a lot of work for a little pay off.

It sounds and looks like the wax is old and sort of dried out. Do you know how old it is? If you are going to continue this hobby you might want to dump this wax and buy something new to work with.

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