NickS

On 10/23/2017 at 9:51 PM, Bia said:

It's nice to put weight if you have an advantage for example, you are selling a large candle with lots of wax weight. I don't believe it's a regulatory requirement. If you look at best selling brands, they do not have weight or burn hours on their labels. Jo Malone, Cire Trudon... if it were a legal obligation they for sure would have this info. 

 

I guess it depends if candles are considered a “consumer commodity” under the letter of the law. Here’s a link to part of the FPLA. Look at section 500.2(c). I think by that definition candles are covered under this law.

https://www.ecfr.gov/cgi-bin/text-idx?c=ecfr&sid=d46d8c24934536de0ef58344303bf174&rgn=div5&view=text&node=16:1.0.1.5.62&idno=16

I have been doing R&D with 4627 for a while and struggling with wicking. I discovered I was giving up way too early on a test burn. With this wax you need to burn it to the bottom to see how it performs through the whole candle.

I use a 3” diameter 3” tall glass tumbler with an LX26 and have hang up to the middle of the candle (20-25 hours, four hours at a time). From the middle to the bottom, I don’t get the traditional edge-to-edge  liquid melt pool. There is always about 1/8” of wax surrounding the melt pool but it continuously gets consumed as the candle burns to the bottom. The throw is still fantastic, zero black on the tumbler, and only slight mushrooming in the bottom third of the candle.

I suggest trying an LX24 or 26, possibly smaller based on what @TallTayl said about tins. Don’t give up on it too early. 

Like all of us, I don’t want to over pay for anything. The best I’ve found fractionated coconut oil for in smaller quantities is $4.88/lb. Is this price reasonable/average or do you know where it might be cheaper? 

I have a candle from a major manufacturer where the wax has pulled away from the glass so much it rattles if you shake it. Your candle looks fine to me in comparison.

Their’s look just a little more “liquidy” than what I’ve made so far. Thanks for sharing that.

12 hours ago, wthomas57 said:

What wax were you using? That wick seems huge to me (even for a wood wick). My wood wicks in the same jar are half that size using 6006

 It's 4627 and I found a thin wide wick worked better than a thicker narrower wick when using wood.

15 hours ago, Clear Black said:

Nick, when you fire that thing up take some photos and share with us. I would love to see them in action

After lots of thought and discussion with Missy (wife/boss), we are going to relegate the wooden wicks to personal use only. They are just too picky with trim length and tricky to trim, especially further down in the jar. I think this will only hurt repeat business.

Thankfully I've been testing LX and HTP wicks parallel to the wooden wicks.

58 minutes ago, Kerven said:

Is that a woodwick? If so, do you prime yours?

Yes, it is a wooden wick. No, I don't prime them.

I started this adventure in June and I am getting real close to a candle that's ready for market. Here's Dragon's Blood getting ready for final testing (I hope).

I wound up ordering this one: Stanley 89-875 MaxSteel 6-1/2-Inch End Cutting Pliers https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0007XNNWC/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apip_qA2NEBzkdOsJZ

It arrived this morning and I think it may work brilliantly. The cutting edge is right at 3/4" wide, and there is a 3/8" gap between the cutting edge and hinge, so that is the most you could trim from a wooden wick. You will still need to initially trim the wick to about 1/2" or so with something else and make the final trim with this. It should work very well for between burn trims.

It will take some practice and experience judging how much you are trimming.

I've been thinking of getting one of these to try.  TEKTON 34052 6-Inch End Cutting Pliers https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00YQ7RKDI/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_Xe1RzbYQKK484

I found this site http://www.color-hex.com/ where you can find the exact color you want and one piece of info it will give you is the RGB percentages to make that color. I may just get some red, green, and blue to try to mix my own color.

I would like to achieve a gunmetal gray or steel-like color. I'm not good with color so I could really use some suggestions on where to start in trying to get there. Alternatively, does anyone know if a supplier offers this color OOB?

Yes they are. That was my thought also, just needed to bounce it off someone else. Thanks for your input!

2 hours ago, pcbrook said:

I think the HDPE bottles would be the best.  I am not sure about the PET.  HDPEs are more squeezable, aren't they?

I guess I'll go with HDPE then. Any thoughts on bottle shape? Tottle v. normal upright bottle?

1 hour ago, Clear Black said:

Squeezable wax?? Did I miss the memo on this one? 

I think the threads I found were from c. 2013 or 2014.

Since there's a lot of time waiting while testing candles, I've been researching other things to add to our eventual product line. I found a few threads on squeezable wax and made myself a 100g sample and I love this stuff. One 25w halogen bulb melter is scenting my whole house.

I put this in a condiment squeeze bottle, but that won't work if I want to sell this. I'm considering using either a tottle or a cylinder/Boston round with a disc top. The wax has a fairly thick consistency. After it cooled, I had to bang the bottle in the counter upside down to get the wax to the spout. It squeezed out very easily, however.

I'm thinking the tottle is best, but I like all the color and shape options available in other bottles. Any thoughts?

1 hour ago, Jcandleattic said:

@NickS Here is a resource that may help get you started. As I've said I don't make it, and I haven't read this article, so I have no input as to it's validity, however, Amanda is a respected member of the B&B community. 

http://www.lovinsoap.com/2017/08/crafting-your-own-unique-beard-oil/

Very helpful! Thanks a bunch!

On 6/28/2017 at 9:41 AM, NickS said:

Does anyone use these to light a charcoal grill using a charcoal chimney?

In case anyone was wondering, they work great to start charcoal in a chimney. I used 20 year old paraffin, shredded paper from our paper shredder, and cupcake papers.

1 hour ago, wthomas57 said:

Nick, 4627 does discolor pretty easily though. You will notice it much less if they are dyed. That being said, cooler burning wicks with that wax seem to be much better (zinc for example). Have you tried any others though like cd, premier, rrd, htp? None of those burn as cool as zinc but may work better for you.

I have tried CD, HTP, and Premier. My wife and I really like wood wicks so we decided to focus on them.

I will likely get a sample pack of zincs, though. Would you explain the sizes, please?

Thank-you all for the insight and the recipe. Like was said, I use it to soften and smell good. It's pretty expensive retail and I think I can do better.

1 hour ago, Jcandleattic said:

 

I get it with zinc wicks also, but like I said, usually only with certain fragrances that I have to wick up with. So maybe the pool is a little warmer than usual, but it's not hot by any means. 

Right now I'm looking more into the heat possibility because it's happening in unscented wax also, so to me scorching wax is most plausible to my situation.

Fingers crossed. I have one with a wider but thinner wick burning now. 2 1/2 hours and no discoloration yet.

The only problem with the wider wick is they are harder to trim. It is wider than my wick trimmer.

6 hours ago, LRcandles said:

Nick, have you tried the zinc wicks yet?

 

Not yet.

49 minutes ago, debratant said:

That almost looks like gold mica to me....the sheen of it.

I have had quite a few people ask me if it's mica. This wax is nice and glossy.

1 hour ago, Jcandleattic said:

Are these candles scented? I know when I burn certain scents, after I blow out the candle and the wax hardens it will be discolored. 

It happens both with and without FO.

1 hour ago, LRcandles said:

Are you using any additives?

 

No.

44 minutes ago, TallTayl said:

Happens to mine in palm, soy and parasoy when the melt pool is very, very hot. Wood wicks are notorious for this. 

Ugh. So the MP is getting too hot, but I still don't get an FMP.  Now I have no idea which direction to go with my wicks.