Forrest

Thanks, that is some useful information. I read one of the NCA's articles this morning, good stuff.

I'm learning that, which is another reason to use straight sided glass containers.

Amen to that! Others here could better help you with picking containers, but if you need to you can always double wick, or triple wick, mathematically speaking that will give you the best heat distribution, but I am not familiar with the disadvantages of using multiple wicks, but I'm sure there are some. Everything in candle making is a trade off.

I have been reading everything I could find on heat distribution in candles and on wick testing. In wick testing they always say the melt pool should be ¼ to ½ inch deep, what they fail to say is that is at the edge of the melt pool. The thing that has been confusing me is that when I achieve a ¼ in melt pool at the edge in the middle my wax is melted to the bottom of my container, which is not a good thing. I use 6006 wax with no dye which becomes transparent when it melts, so I can clearly see the shape of the melt pool. I found a nice tech brief entitled “Multiphysics Analysis of a Burning Candle” that has an excellent graphic showing the surface temperature distribution of wax during burning, this helped me better understand what is happening in my candles. An ideal melt pool would be the same depth in the middle as at the edge, this is not achievable, but we should still try to get as close as possible. Your choice of container is going to have a significant impact on how close you can get to the ideal. My big mistake was, as a beginner, choosing short, wide tureen jars and metal tins. Short and wide is bad because most of the wax melts before the melt pool reaches the edge, your hot throw starts off good and then fades. Tins are bad because metal is an excellent conductor of heat, so you need a bigger wick to melt the wax at to edge. If you had a glass container that was the same size as your tin you would need a smaller wick, so your melt pool would not be as deep in the middle, making it closer to ideal. Glass is a good insulator, so it makes great candle containers, and the thicker the better. Using multiple wicks also helps you get closer to the ideal as you get a better heat distribution. I know I’m just a newbie here and most of you understand this stuff intuitively, but it is in my nature to try and understand the why of things. So now I think I’m going to order some nice status jars, then I shall put on my Don Quixote helmet and continue my quest to find the perfect wicks for my tureens.

Thanks, I'll keep all that in mind and put it in my business plan if I decide to go in that direction. But first I have to make a candle I would want to buy, and thanks to all your help I just might get there.

That is very good advice, but I didn’t get that far. Instead I read a couple of websites with information on this subject and several things on the IRS website, all of which told me the same thing. The thing that differentiates a business from a hobby is your ability to show that you are trying to make a profit. That is not to say that you have to make a profit, many business end up going out of business without making a profit. So to answer my own question I can’t just sell a few candles and call myself a business. So, I can stick with the hobby and if I decide to make it a business down the road that’s OK. Or I can go off and write a business plan and start moving toward profitability.

An offhand comment I made in the general candle making forum got me thinking. I am an armature and have no firm plans to go into the candle business, but I’m keeping my options open. But I have already spent money trying to learn how to make a good candle and plan on spending more. I believe that if I started a small candle business those expenses would cause me to have a loss which would make them deductible. In addition I think I would have a deduction for the area in my house I used in my business. If this is true what is the minimum I would need to be able to do this?

So if I’m understanding this, after I’ve finished my testing, and hopefully found wicks that will work in my container, with my wax without FO, that becomes my baseline. My next step would be to try it with a FO and then wick up or down accordingly, assuming the FO worked well with my wax/wick combination. Also I need to keep a detailed written record of all this along with a photographic record. Well if that’s what it takes then that’s what I’ll do, but I may have to start a candle business so I can write off the cost of all this testing.

I just poured my first wick test without FO, which brings up a question. Will I likely have to wick up or down when I add FO.

How do you label your glass containers when you are running a test? I’ve been putting a piece of Scotch Tape on the bottom and writing on that, but I’m hoping there is another way that is easier to remove.

Thank you both, that helps a lot. My over wicked 11oz tureen started off with great hot throw but faded as it burned.

Or, in a properly wicked candle, would the hot throw get weaker as the candle burns down. I ask this because this might be another way to judge the quality of my candles.

Thanks . It is on the outside, mostly, the threads for the jar lid are the hard part but I avoid having the ink touch the wax. Once I get better at making candles I could sell them, except for that thing about getting paid for your time. But I'll be retiring in a few years so who knows, I'm at least keeping my options open.

It's not the wax, it's the container. I color them with alcohol ink. I still have some kinks to work out, like sealing them and I'm still testing them with burning candles. 6006 seems to be the perfect background, they are not as pretty without wax in them.

What I’m wondering is, when you order a new FO do you always put it in a candle to test it, if not how do you evaluate FOs? I have been testing by making melts, but I’m starting to realize that isn’t working as well as I would like, but it does tell me how the FO works in a melt. I’m starting to realize that I have a lot of FOs that probably need a better evaluation than I have given them.

I'm scared to show my wife your pictures because I know what's going to happen, and it is going to take a lot of wax.

If I haven't learned to follow your advice by now there is no hope for me, especially advice that will save me a lot of wax.

Thanks, I will be double wicking and it sounds like I should double wick for the 4" diameter.

Can anyone offer any words of wisdom on wicking containers that aren’t straight sided? My 11oz tureens have a diameter of 3.3” at the top, and 4” in the middle. It seems to me that no wick is going to give you the perfect melt pool at two different diameters. It look as if I have two choices. The first is to accept that the best I can do is be over wicked at the top and under wicked in the middle. Or, as I use paraffin/soy blend, I could do a double pour and increase the percentage of soy in the top third. If anyone has any insight I would love to hear it. Just so you don’t think I’m crazy for insisting on using tureens I included a picture of one of mine, I could do this to any glass container but it doesn’t look as good on straight sided containers.

Trappeur, Those candles are gorgeous, but how on earth do you wick so many unique containers?

I add FO because the final product will have it, but I'm not judging the fragrance. Perhaps I should wait until Thursday to start the test. I need to work on my setup as tins can get hot, and I would rather not start a fire, so I better get that right before I start.

I’m on a quest to find the best wick to use in double wicking my 11oz tureens with 6006 wax. On Friday poured seven 4oz tins with different wicks and I am unsure hoe long I should wait to start my test. I was thinking 4 days, but I haven’t a clue why I think that. I may never find the right wick, but when I die my wife will be able to sell my wick collection and retire off of the proceeds.

The smallest CD I have right now is a 16, but I am going to order some smaller ones and try them.

If you haven't made a candle yet all of your cost should be considered your initial investment and once your business starts making money you should be trying to get a return on that investment plus pay yourself a reasonable wage. Normally in a new business you would not expect any return on your investment for a couple of years, and you would be lucky if you can pay yourself during that time.

Here are the pictures from last night’s burn. Same 11oz tureen in 6006 with 44-24-18 Zinc Core wicks and a 9% FO Load, but only a three hour burn. Also I trimmed the wicks a little short, but as these results are consistent with a previous test I ran with the same container, wicks, and wax I don’t think the short wicks were an issue. As you can see my wax pool didn’t reach the edges, but I clearly reached the bottom. I do know that if I continue to burn this candle all of the wax will burn. Based on these results I’m not sure what I need. Based on all I have learned on this board I think I have a lot of testing in front of me. My thinking is that perhaps I shouldn’t have the same melt pool expectations with this container that we would have from a straight sided container. My other thought is that maybe I don’t need a smaller wick as much as I need a different wick.