Forrest

On the surface I would say yes, but I would need to understand what the difference was. Would they be chemically different? In order to be more compatible with wax? Would you test them in various waxes and report the results? I think the devil is in the details. I don’t use soy wax, but I believe a line of FOs that was marketed as being specially formulated for soy wax would sell very well, provided they had good hot throw in soy wax.

I want my candles to burn for the shortest time possible so that I can make some more. I guess I'm going to have to start selling some eventually.

Looks like I need a new test sheet.

I always test for hot throw in a separate room that I can close off. If I tested in my den I would have given up long ago because that is where we spend time and the flow of air in my house prevents any candle from filling the room. Rather than making huge candles to fill the room I just use two, this gives me better scent distribution. I plan on starting to make melts when I make candles for myself to provide extra scent.

In my line of work we are all about data, so notes and picture from my test burns are somewhat unsatisfying to me. After giving the matter some thought I realized I should be weighing each candle before and after each burn. From weight and time data I can calculate a burn rate. I can use the burn rate to verify my observations, but more importantly I could use it when testing with FO to know if wicking up or down is needed.

I’m no expert, but I recently poured some 8oz tins that had almost no scent once the wax cooled. The scent got stronger every day for several days. It too three or four days before it was strong enough to tell the different scents apart.

I like this idea a lot! I need to make some melts our den has strange air currents and needs the extra scent. So I will carefully calculate how much wax I need, down to the tenth of a gram, because that is what the engineer in me needs, then I'll throw in a bunch more to make the artist in me happy.

Well that sounds like a plan, maybe I'll just add a little extra wax to be on the safe side and make some melts with that.

When you have a one of a kind container how do you decide how much wax you need? I have some handmade ceramic wine glasses that vary in size that I would like to use as candle containers. I need a way to determine how much wax they each need.

Looking at the picture it looks like your Pyrex exploded. I don’t think the problem was with the wax. I have noticed that my Pyrex gets hot in the microwave. I also have some coffee cups that also get hot, so I don’t microwave them anymore. There are silicone measuring cups available that are microwave safe that could be used to melt wax in a microwave. You can also get Borosilicate Glass measuring cups on Amazon that shouldn’t explode. Thank you for sharing this! I am now going to order some of the silicone measuring cups so that when I need to microwave something I have a safe container to use.

What concerns me the most is I'm pouring less than a minute after adding the FO

I had a little free time on Sunday and decided what I really needed was to put some of my new, untested FOs into some wax; I mean clearly that was more important that anything on my extensive to do list. I gathered everything together and got down to it. I wanted to make three eight ounce tins with different FOs. I weighed the correct amount of 6006 wax into my pour pot and set it in a pan of water on the stove. Next I weighted my FO in a small beaker. When the wax reached about 190 degrees I poured the weight I needed into a beaker. At this point the temperature of the wax had dropped below 185 degrees so I put it in the microwave and got it back to 185. I added the FO, stirred for about 30 seconds, and this poured it into the tin. Normally I would have let it cool, but as it was occupying the beaker I needed for my next candle I decided not to wait. All three candles look great, no issues with the wax cooling too fast. My question is will this process adversely affect my hot throw? It make it easy to test new FOs in my wax to see if I like them and if I need to wick up or down, so I’m hopping I’m OK with this.

Well of course I have, but I'm a lot closer to the end than to the beginning. If none of these last four testers don't give me something I can work with I'll have to either give up, or order a few more wicks. I'm not sure I suffer from the tea light effect because once you get down to the belly of the tureen the currents you told me about help spread the heat. I think if I cut back on the wax a little so that the smaller wicks don't have to burn as long to get that effect. The others burned 8 hours before they created a good melt pool. Of course if the melt pool doesn't reach the edge the currents are reduced. It is going to be a balancing act.

As always thank you for sharing your wisdom and experience. Yesterday I poured four more 11oz tureens to test with the smallest wicks I have. Hopefully one of those will give me something in between. You must also have ESP because you also answered my next question, which was about my single wicked 7oz tureen, and verified that I may have found a good wick to start testing with FO. From what I have seen the melt pool should not reach the full diameter of the container at the widest part, but all the wax should burn eventually. I still need to burn it for a few more nights, but after four burns it has looked good every time.

I tested three double wicked 11oz tureens with 9oz 0f 6006 each. For the first night two of them looked great, and the other looked badly under wicked. By the end of the third night the one that looked under wicked is giving me a perfect melt pool and the two that looked so good the first couple of burns have very deep melt pools and are too hot to touch. I did burns of 4-4-3-3. It seems like my good wicks turned into the wicked wicks of the west on the third day. As this is my first time doing any serious testing I’m not 100% sure how to interpreted these results. I ordered a Tyler candle that is double wicked in a similar container and I’m going to burn it the same way I did these to give me something to compare my results to. Perhaps I could understand all this, if I only had a brain.

I am testing my double wicked 11oz tureens with 6006 wax and no FO. The WI 735 and ECO 2 wicks gave good results through a four hour test on the first day. Last night the results were excellent at one and two hours, but at three hours the melt pool was about two inches deep in the middle. Is this normal? I have WI 725 and ECO 1 I will try, but I’m fairly certain they will be too small. I went down one size with HTP wicks this test and it was significantly undersized. I just got CD wicks I am going to try and after that I’m out of ideas. I haven’t tried LX wicks, but I don’t see how they would be better.

I guess what I’m really asking is how long does it take from the time you order a new FO until you have candles you are ready to sell? Last year in September my daughters started asking for fall candles. I made some, but I wasn’t very pleased with the results. I still have another round or two of wick testing before I’m ready to start testing with FOs. This year I’d like to have some nice candles ready when fall arrives.

I’ve been thinking about this, and even though it may be months before I pour a candle with FO again here it is. Adding FO to my wax causes a significant drop in temperature. Our house stays pretty cool during the winter and 60 degree FO can drop the wax temperature to below 180. Is that a problem? I could add the FO at a higher temp or I could warm the FO if necessary.

That is a very good point. Most of the last block has gone to wick testing, and while I'm starting to enjoy testing I would like to make some candles in the not too distant future. I guessing that you would advise I should rerun some of my test to make sure the new batch of wax matches the wax in my previous test.

Well that was good advice. I bought a block in January and there have been some minor problems. Nothing bad, but things I haven't seen before.

I’ll be stopping at the Flaming Candle Friday and I’m trying to decide how much wax to buy, but all the soy wax problems make me nervous about buying a year’s supply of way that contains 30% soy. Should I be worried?

I didn't add any FO this time, I want to get comfortable with my wicks first then I'll see what FO does to them. I have an HTP 52 I'm going to try next and I'm going to try an ECO 2 also. I'm going to get some CD wicks to try. I'm starting to think that the zincs have some heat transfer through the metal core that is making the melt pool too deep for this use. None of my flames were too large, or too small, but these jars create some funky air currents and it always looks like the wind is blowing them.

This is my latest burn test for the 11oz tureens with 6006 and no FO. These tureens usually hold about 9oz of wax, but for this test I used about 6oz. I let them cure a week before burning. These picture are from the first day’s burn at 3 hours. I took front view pictures at hours 1, 2, and 3, and top view pictures at hours 1, 2, 3, and 4. For day 2 I only top views for 3 hours. Tonight I have two goals, the first is to devise a way to make sure my wicks are centered and the second is to pour two more candles with HTP 52, and ECO 2 wicks. Any observations that you experienced candle makers could offer would be greatly appreciated. General speaking I thought all of these were a little over wicked.

Do some wicks produce a melt pool that is not as deep for the same width? Last night I did my first 4 hour burn on 4 double wicked 11oz tureens with different wick types. The Premier 700 series and the ECO wicks seemed to produce a shallower melt pool than the zinc core or the HTP wicks. Can anybody verify that is a valid observation? If it is it would save me a lot of testing as I could give up on the zincs and HTPs. The depth of my melt pool has been an issue with these wide, shallow containers and I was considering going to 3 wicks to solve this, but if I can do it with 2 wicks I’d be a happy camper.

I know how you feel. I poured 12 candles last week and Thursday as we were packing for a short vacation my wife says, “aren’t you going to bring a candle”, and I didn’t have to bring. After a year on the candle making struggle bus I’ve started listening to the smart, talented, experienced people on this board, so I went back to square one and I’m testing everything and making nothing. Right now I’m focused on my goal of making a candle that I would want to buy, I don’t think about what happens after that. The only thing I’m trying to make right now is progress, if I focus on that I’ll get there. I highly recommend a written plan and a set of goals with a realistic schedule to meet them.