help choose jars for testing coco wax and wood wick

[lenarenee]

5 minutes ago, TallTayl said:

The original single ply, not the dual or booster, right? Any idea the thickness. That makes a big difference. 

 

The ones a few posts above were dual? Just trying to understand all that you made so I can give better advice. 

 

Yes the last one was original single ply, 02 (thinnest and smallest)  The first 2 candles were booster wicks, where only a narrower strip is added to the original booster.  Both were 3/8 width, the thickness was .02 and .03.  (I did not burn the.04 because I pulled it out to insert the 1/4 inch original wood wick.  (Hmm....do they come in different thicknesses?  

 

All of them are unscented.

[lenarenee]

I burned the first 2 candles again tonight: trimmed them very short, burned for 3 hours. I'm not convinced that the .03 is too much wick. I took pics, but it's time for bed now.

 

And I'm also confuses as to why the .02 seems hotter than the .03. It "dances" more, crackles more. The melt pool is deeper on one side because the wick isn't centered well. I think I also get a hint of fuel smell from the .02. 

 

I'm thinking I should burn them both down the whole way tomorrow?  And order more wax!   Maybe get some 464 to mix in?  Just for fun!

[TallTayl]

The .02 cannot draw up as much wax as the .03. They throw similar heat, melting similar amounts of wax. The .03 is able to better keep up. The .02 just melts more and more wax without being able to use that fuel as quickly. This happens with traditional wicks too. 

 

The 1/4 inch of a different series will be different. The booster wicks are essentially double wicking the candle. The single ply is burning several sizes cooler. If you have any 1/4" boosters or duals you will see what I mean. Compare the single ply to an LX, a booster to a CD and a dual to an eco. Each wood material composition burns like completely different series. The thicknesses are like jumping a couple of sizes with the same width. 

 

If you have enough wax. Set up a cake pan with different wicks of the same width and you'll quickly see how different they all are. 

 

Test those all the way to the bottom and youll see see what I mean about coconut wax and wood wicks. You are still at the top where there is little air current. As it gets closer to the middle the current intensifies, melting more fuel with warm air for even hotter combustion. 

 

If these are just for you, and you do not plan to give away or sell them, then religiously rimming the wick might be ok. If there's anyone else in the house that might light candles without trimming you could run into trouble. Case in point, my hubs never trims a wick. It's light and walk away. H has no idea that a 1" melt pool and giant flame is not ok. 

 

The one and only exploding candle inburned was a wood wick. The melt pool got deep very quickly, the. The candle caught fire. Luckily it did not set the table on fire, but it was quite charred. Took a lot of sanding to get rid of the black evidence. Glass flew clear across the room. I'm very wary of woods now! 

[lenarenee]

These will be just for me. It would take years of practice before I'd be willing to even give a candle away.I live in dry San Diego county where even a spark from a passing car can set off a wildfire. 

 

I'm burning the 2 jars of booster wicks  until 2 today when I go back to work,  just to see what they're capable of. The cake pan idea is a good one!

 

I will be ordering more cocowax - and why not try some standard wicks with it too?  I only have eco wicks which I bet are not going to be suitable.  What series would you recommend for cocowax?   

 

If I understand you correctly; the wax pool itself can overheat and catch fire?  If so - does that mean if the wax isn't carried up the wick at a good rate, the wax pool deepens and overheats to catch on fire?  And a big flame means what?  Too much wax going up the wick?  (I need to start keeping serious notes on this)

[TallTayl]

Eco are perfect in this wax actually 🤗

 

Eco 6 in a 3" wide status jar was perfection in my unscented wax. I can probably drop to eco4 with scent. If I trim the eco6 nice and short before lighting it is acceptable, but I keep an eye on it. Bonus is that relatively small eco throws super well even at 6% FO. It throws better than my soy candles scented higher for sure.

[lenarenee]

1 minute ago, TallTayl said:

Eco are perfect in this wax actually 🤗

 

Eco 6 in a 3" wide status jar was perfection in my unscented wax. I can probably drop to eco4 with scent. If I trim the eco6 nice and short before lighting it is acceptable, but I keep an eye on it. Bonus is that relatively small eco throws super well even at 6% FO. It throws better than my soy candles scented higher for sure.

TallTayl, you are quickly becoming my favorite enabler!!  Seriously, thank you for all of your help.  

[TallTayl]

Hoping my results are close to yours with your wax lot. Every wax has its challenges, but at least for me coconut has had a decent payout with fragrant burns! My house smelled like cranberries leading up to Christmas, all from one tiny eco 6 in a 3" wide status jar? Barely any melt pool to speak of, just a balance of melt and burn. I became a reluctant believer. 

 

Coco wax in my pottery was nice too. If I had more summer like weather to test, I would switch to coconut wax. My biggest annual event is held during the hottest part of Chicago summer, so I need a super durable and forgiving wax. I WILL be testing it this summer for certain! A few of my favorite customers will fall in love with these candles. 

[lenarenee]

2 minutes ago, TallTayl said:

Hoping my results are close to yours with your wax lot. Every wax has its challenges, but at least for me coconut has had a decent payout with fragrant burns! My house smelled like cranberries leading up to Christmas, all from one tiny eco 6 in a 3" wide status jar? Barely any melt pool to speak of, just a balance of melt and burn. I became a reluctant believer. 

 

Coco wax in my pottery was nice too. If I had more summer like weather to test, I would switch to coconut wax. My biggest annual event is held during the hottest part of Chicago summer, so I need a super durable and forgiving wax. I WILL be testing it this summer for certain! A few of my favorite customers will fall in love with these candles. 

The concern for summer is cocowax being too soft for the heat?  Maybe you're thinking of mixing with a harder wax?  (I grew up in central Illinois; I remember hot humid summers!)

[TallTayl]

Correct. My candles need to handle being in an outdoor shop for up to 9 weeks. They have to be tough 😊. 

 

Don't want any slumping of the wax as wax as people carry them around or leave in their car trunk

 

 

[Witchescauldron]

Hi, has anyone tried the Naturewax c6 ? It’s a mix of coconut and soy , I’ve been trialling it and I really like it , glass adhesion is fantastic x 

[TallTayl]

7 hours ago, Witchescauldron said:

Hi, has anyone tried the Naturewax c6 ? It’s a mix of coconut and soy , I’ve been trialling it and I really like it , glass adhesion is fantastic x 

I have not looked into that one. Do you know the proportion of coco to soy? I'll google in a minute, but not sure I'll have much time this morning. I tend to forget.... 

[lenarenee]

Sounds interesting.   Are you in the UK?  My quick Google search didn't show any US sources of c6. Have you been able to compare with other coco waxes?

[Witchescauldron]

Hi , yes I’m in UK , I think it’s by the same people that make c3 wax so I presumed you would be able to get it in the US. I don’t know the ratio but I like it a lot more than the c3 and 464 wax 

[lenarenee]

What do you like about it?

Edited January 6, 2018 by lenarenee

[Witchescauldron]

Glass adhesion is amazing , no bubbles etc like I used to get with c3 and the hot and cold throw have been really good so far 

[lenarenee]

From the posts on this forum I've read about the cocowax 83, your experience sounds very similar to what others are saying about cocowax 83 (available here in the US)

 

How strict are you about melting and pouring temperatures?  Does C6 seem far more forgiving than soy?

 

 

[Witchescauldron]

I heat to about 180 add fragrance and pour about 160 but I’ve poured higher and lower and still been good .  I’m testing with normal and woodwicks at moment , I will see if I can add a pic 

[Witchescauldron]

THIs is two original woodwicks .30 thickness and 1/4 size 

[lenarenee]

Looks like a ceramic jar too?   How long have you been making candles?  

[Witchescauldron]

It is a ceramic jar , I’ve been making candles for roughly 8 years now x

[lenarenee]

Well I've been distracted from candles because of the arrival of our brand new baby guinea pig!!  He's 4.5 weeks old and cuter than 5 kittens!  He's tortiseshell (mix of browns and black) abyssian  - so his fur sticks out!  He actually looks like the world's tiniest buffalo!   Our widowed guinea pig showed signs of worsening grief so we had to match him up as quickly as possible and the rescue said that very young guinea pigs can often work with stubborn bossy males like ours!  We still very upset over Abby dying so young, but we learned that this baby was born from one of the hundreds of pregnant pigs found in Northern California a couple months ago (for a total of 700 hoarded g pigs!), so he is our silver lining. 

 

I didn't make any new candles but continued to burn the 3 candles I've shown. 2 of them are half way down the container.  Here are my observations: the flames got smaller toward the center of the candle (I expected them to get bigger?). I kept them trimmed. So, I thought I'd skip trimming from the last burn, then re-light without trimming - expecting that to make larger flames; it didn't' In fact, the .02 width went out.  I blew them out, trimmed, re-lit and got happy, calm flames again!  

 

I still detect a bit of fuel smell from the .02 wick, not from the thicker .03. But the .02 makes the best crackling sound!  The 1/4 inch .02 thick wick is just tunneling down. 

 

TallTayl,  ever since you said you got status jars from the dollar store I've been stalking mine!!  But found nothing; so I asked the staff when they might get some in. They suggested ordering - which would take 10 days.  Since I'm spoiled by Amazon Prime, I looked at online suppliers. Yikes!!!  Same delivery time frame and triple the cost!!!!  Went back to dollar store - and no kidding....they just pulled some off the truck the hour before. So now I'm fondling some lovely 12 oz status jars and dreaming of filling them with wax!  I have an order from Cal Candle arriving today with more cocowax and wick samples (htp and...cdn?)  

 

I thinking about using cocowax with scent - and using the 1/4 inch .03 thick wick with it. (haven't tested that size at all). 

[WaxDaddy]

@lenarenee following this thread and seeing how you made out with the coco83 and the wooden wicks. I'm about 2 seconds away from buying the coco83. What wood wick worked best? Have you tried the eco's and how did they perform? I believe the ratio is 98%coconut/2% soy- is there any parafin addatives in there do you know? How does it hold up to heat, I would assume since it's 98%coco it would melt in heat and cause slumping? Let me know what your findings are!!

[lenarenee]

I don't have more to tell you. I'm happy enough for what I have. These are only for my personal use. If I were selling I'd be testing more. When the weather cools off again I'll probably do more.