Forrest

Here is my revised wick list, it is completely accurate for 6006, in 8oz tins, on even numbered Tuesdays. But that's pretty good for candle making. Zinc 60 CD10 WI755 LX18 Zinc 51 CD8 WI745 Zinc44 LX16 CD6 LX14 WI740

Well that makes me feel better, I've got 10 of 18 wicked, but it has been five months, I was starting to think something was wrong with me.

I would be cautious when using this chart. Based on this you would put a CD10 in a 3” diameter container with 6006. I wouldn’t recommend that unless you’re using candles to heat your house. However, their recommendations for the LX wicks look accurate.

I'm not getting on this bus, Me and my monkeys are going into just say no mode 🙈🙉🙊

Well if my theory is correct sitting in a hot display case for a week may be curing them more than you think. I've got a candle in the refrigerator and another in the garage that will be ready for testing next week.

I love the HTPs except for the curling, if I could solve that problem they would be my go to wicks.

Thank you! That cleared up some inconsistencies in my list. I was doing a wick inventory this morning and found some WI750s. I'm guessing they fit between LX18 and CD8.

Thanks, that makes me feel good. For some reason I added a 745 at the end.

My list was cobbled together from various test data. I have learned is that my tests often give anomalous results, so I question everything. My other issue was some of the tests were done in cooler temperatures. My objective is to get a list of wicks from largest to smallest to use for wicking my 6006 candles. If you see anything in my list you think might be wrong please let me know, this is just my best guess based on what I know so far. Zinc 60 CD10 LX18 WI755 WI745 Zinc 51 CD8 Zinc44 LX16 LX14 CD6 WI740 WI745

Thank you for that information, it gives me hope. For my 6006 candles I have been selecting wicks that were a size large based on my test of a two month old candle. I feel much better now about my plan to make my candles for next fall, and most of 2020 now and store them.

As for ambient conditions I am very aware of those as I'm trying to correlate test date from test done at 65 degrees and 78 degrees. I suppose if you wanted to cure your candles for 9 months before selling them that would take the time element out of it, but it would take you two years to get the wicking right. I think if you give a candle a normal cure time before testing that's all you can do. I ask the question because years ago I was the lead for a logistics team at NASA, so I think about these things. For example at markets first time buyers are likely to be impulse buyersthat burn their candles right away, but online sales to repeat customers are more likely to wait a while before burning. My wife used to get candles by the case and pickup extras here and there. At one time the average age of the candles at our house was more than a year.

I once did a test with 6006 that showed a 3 month old candle needed a bigger wick than a two week old candle. This information is probably useless to most candle makers, but it does bring up the question of what is the average time between when a candle is made, and when it is burned. So I have two questions. 1. 1. What is the average time between when you make a candle and when you sell it? 2. 2. How long do you think most people keep a candle before burning it? I’m guessing the answer to the second question is less than a week, unless they but more than one candle.

I give my 6006 2 weeks and my 4630 one week. I know the waiting is a pain, but the thing that has helped me is using the wickectomy to replace any wick that isn’t working. I would also recommend starting with a smallest wick you think will work, that way if you need to replace it you’ve burned less wax. With the wickectomy I can usually get the right wick with just one candle, even if it’s my third try.

What TT said. I tried exactly what you did once with the same results, my wicks fell over. Now I use TT's Wickectomy method. Looking at your pictures I see that same problem I have with HTP wicks, they lean in one direction and form an uneven melt pool, other than that issue I love them. If you look in the Wax and Wicks Test section I did a test with 6006 and 12 different wicks. I mention this because 6006 and 4630 tend to be similar in their wicking needs. The LX 14 & 16 results are anomalies, I'm currently doing a test in 8oz tins and getting better results.

I think an HTP 104 might be a bit large for the 4630, I think an HTP 93 should be about right.

I have two FOs that have almost no HT at two weeks but are very nice at six weeks. As a hobbyist the trick is to have so many candles ready to burn that waiting on some isn't an issue. Those FOs wouldn't work if I was in the candle business.

Perhaps candles should come with a larger wick and an apple corer in case the customers don't burn them in time. The longer I stay on this board the more I realize how much I don't want to be in the candle business...except I might.

I've tested 6006 at two weeks and two months and the two month old candle needed a whole size bigger wick. I've been two week old candles lately and hoping they are over wicked enough to burn well at six months. But you bring up an interesting point, if you're selling candles that burn well at two weeks, but someone buys them and waits two months to burn them they are going to burn differently. This may be a reason the big candle makers use paraffin.

I think back on all the FOs I gave up on because of poor HT, when all they really needed was more time, and the FOs I used that weren't that good, but they had great HT. Now days I know better. If a FO doesn't throw well at first I just set it aside for a few weeks.

TT knows the science much better that I do. I know enough to realize that the molecular structure matures over time. There is not a lot of good reading on the subject. I have test data that shows this is true and experiences that verify this. My first attempt at making candles was with 464, even with two weeks cure time they had no HT. I gave some to my daughter and eventually she gave me back a bag of empty tins, except one of them wasn't empty. So I burned that candle and it had the strongest HT of any candle I have ever burned. I have seen similar stories from people on this board. My experience also shows that the need for cure time is FO dependent. In 6006 some FOs give good HT in a week and some need a month.

Curing in soy wax is a process that continues for a long time, but the rate of curing slows. Paraffin wax cures much faster. I've been making 8oz tins with 4630 and after a week they have great HT, the same candle made with 6006 needs a month or more to reach that level of HT because it is 30% soy. I suspect that most of the time candles that are being sold have some time between when they are poured and when they are burned. The 4630 has been an easy wax for me to work with and to wick.

Well then I guess I'll be testing 6006 to see if it cracks from my fridge temps;)

I’ve been thinking about the effects of temperature on cure time. My theory is that candles will cure faster higher temps will speed up the curing process while lower temps will slow it down. There is good science behind this theory, but it needs testing, So my plan is to make two, identical candles with 6006 and put one in the fridge and one in the garage, wait a month and see which one has the best HT. I’ll be using 8oz tins. Does anyone know of any issues with storing a candle in the fridge for a month? Does anyone have any experience with cure time as it relates to temperature?

What paraffin did you use? I've been using IGI 4630 and it has worked very well for me and doesn't smell at all. I use it when I want a candle that is ready to burn in a week. I think your problem may be specific to the paraffin you have. My main was is IGI 6006 which is a paraffin soy blend which I like, but the cure time is pretty much like pure soy.

I believe that soy and soy blends can match, or possibly exceed the HT of paraffin if given enough time to cure, but in today's world manufactures want to minimize the time it takes to get their product to the consumer. I have seen some high-end candle makers that use soy blends.