Suggestions!

[WaxDaddy]

Hey everyone! I am new to not only this forum but to making candles as well! I am having a great time making candles, but I am new and I realize the importance of learning from the seasoned people in the group here. I wanted to ask a few questions but also wanted to hear things you struggled with in the beginning and have since learned from! Open to all opinions

 

1) I am currently using 464 GW, soy. I set the candles with the Eco 10 wick. I have been pouring into 4oz and 8oz jars. There are so many opinions on wax and the 464 seems to be the best for less frosting and bubbling, however there are bad reviews. What is your experience?

 

2) I eventually want to make a business of this. I heard shipping them in hot areas can deform the product (464) Any insight to that and will changing the wax greatly change the HT?

 

3) I'm using the Eco 10 wick. It seems like there is some tunneling on the first candle I burned. The mason jar is about 2.5in wide, which is recommended by CandleScience. Insight on this issue?

 

4) I only burned one, as I have heard to let them cure for a week or two. What's the average time you let your cure for? Do you get better HT when you let them sit longer? Is there a too long?

 

5) Any insight and experiences that could save me a huge headache relating to wax, FO, etc. would greatly help!

 

I know this will take time to make this into a business and get the formulas down, but I am willing to learn and screw up to make the best product I can! Thanks ahead of time for your responses!

[birdcharm]

Hi & welcome, 

 

I use the same wax as you are using for my soy candles, but I've never used the Eco wicks ... however, I have a file with all sorts of wick notes and I just took a look.  According to the notes I have, a 2.5" diameter jar would call for an Eco-4 or 6 ... maybe if I bump your post someone with experience with these wicks will chime in. 

 

As for shipping candles with a low melt point wax in hotter months, that would be a bit tricky.  It's not so much the trip that is hot for the Post Office to Post Office, it's the delivery part that could get hot, or the package left on a hot porch.  Packages that are sent to the Post Office for pick-up typically would mostly stay indoors, that's my guess anyway! 

 

I think you'll find that most people allow their soy candles to cure for a couple of weeks.  I doubt there is a "too long" really as far as curing goes. 

 

 

 

[Kerven]

ECO 4 and ECO 6 sound about right for a 2.5" jar of the -new- 464. I used ECO 8's in a similarly sized danube status jar of the old 464 and probably could have got away with an ECO 6.

 

2 weeks minimum for curing 464.

[Crafty1_AJ]

RE:  Shipping in summer.  I have been shipping container candles, both soy and paraffin, year 'round for many years.  I have yet to hear complaints from customers.  I even ship to customers in Phoenix, where summertime temps often exceed 100 degrees F.  I think if the customer wants to order at that time, he/she goes ahead and takes that risk.  But honestly, it hasn't been an issue for me yet.  That being said, the bulk of my orders, by far, are placed in fall and winter months.  Springtime is moderately active.  Our slowest months for online sales are June and July.

[LitUp]

If you are concerned about shipping in the summer you can require a signature so the package isnt left sitting in the sun just to make sure.

[WaxDaddy]

Thank you all for your input! A couple more..

 

-The first two batches I actually used the eco 2 (they shipped the wrong ones to me), so that explains the tunneling and bad hot throw. I have heard that candle science Eco wicks are not good and people are having issues. My first two batches HT was decent, but at 6% I thought it would be a lot more with the FO I used. CT was excellent, HT not so much. Any insight?

 

-I ordered wood wicks to try. Any experience with those?

 

-What soy brand are you using? Apparently the GW464 is very inconsistent and people are losing a ton of product because they do not throw well. Any problems with this for you all?

 

Thanks again, you guys are awesome!

[moonshine]

Soy wax in general has serious issues this year - all bets are off on what "used" to be 

So unfortunately a lot of the older  information on the forum doesn't really apply anymore although can still be useful in some ways 

wood wicks are nice but other than for personal use I wouldn't recommend selling them until you know your wax inside and out with normal wicking as they can flare and get out of control very fast 

 

I don't use 464 but if you search it I believe people are having to wick down with this wax now so as Kerven suggested 4 or 6 for that diameter would probably be about right 

soy is harder to get throw so you may have to bump up your FO load to 8% or just use the oils that 6% does  work  but keep in mind going up in FO load will change your burn so re-testing is very important

 

 

[WaxDaddy]

Thanks @moonshine. One last one. I know Candlescience gives you a general "use this wick for this wax". Obviously testing is in order for all these. Have you found one brand has been a staple of yours and you decide to wick up or down depending on batch, size, etc? Or do you test each batch with a bunch of different brands of wicks and then choose?

[moonshine]

The best way to get an idea of which wick series is going to be best in your wax is to do a pan test 

there is a thread on this with many Talltayl has done and one I did with 444

use a old cake pan and space out and tab different series of wicks within the same size tour thinking you need to start with for your container - pour your wax naked and let it set at least 48 hours longer for soy 

light them up and burn for an hour for each inch diameter jar your using - mine was 3 so I burned for 3 hours taking notes at each hour - after the third 3 hour burn I could see which one seemed more appropriate for size and had less carbon etc

that was the series I went with and adjusted the sizes accordingly with FO or dye or additives added to the finished product 

I believe the link is in general candkemaking to show you how this done and what a difference it makes rather than testing like 5 different series and sizes, it can get overwhelming and I wish I had learned this in the beginning because not all charts or opinions work the way you want them to 

 

when soy was good I used Cd wicks - they worked best and I always was within 3 sizes going to a CDN which is the same wick different coating of one was to big and the other to small  

 

464 many on here like premier wicks and CD wicks - eco is worth trying again also in the correct size 

if I can find that link I will paste it here for you - it will save you so much time doing a pan test 

[moonshine]

http://www.craftserver.com/forum/68-wax-and-wick-tests/

 

here are the tests 

[WaxDaddy]

Dang, that is a timesaver. Mind blown! That's why I got on here haha. You have mentioned that when soy was good. Have you switched from soy to something else?