BusyBee

It would be a nice business practice to stick with one supplier (You will get discounts & other favors.) as much as possible and have 2 back up suppliers (in case of supply interruption) on everything. On top of that reason, when we know waxes, FOs, & wicks can be vary from batch to batch or from different supply sources, that kind of business practice would give us little bit more better protection from unexpected surprises. The differences of wicks from different assembler would be very minimal that we might notice them at all. 1) Chemical treatment is to make the wick fire retardant. So, this is just matter of wick burning off little faster or slower where we would not notice much difference. 2) What is purpose of wax coating? Wicks are coated with higher melt point waxes(usually they have melt point from 165F to 177F) to help the wick stand straight up in the melt pool. So, there isn't much to worry about with these different types of waxes used in wax coating unless you are in one of EU countries. But, then there is this WHAT IF? I am always suspecting that these wicks are designed for big brand companies, and it is not designed for our usage. Most major brand companies' candles are burning so hot even the containers get really hot (temperature of their containers will go up close to 170F) , and many of them create deep melt pool (1/2" or more). Major brand candle would not have to worry about this high melt point wax used on wicks at all (and maybe they are the one who ask supplier to come up with higher melt point waxed wicks), and they would not know the difference. On the other hand, our candles burn a lot cooler (my container temperature is below 130F) and have shallow melt pool (1/4" or less). It's so shallow that we would not even need high melt point wax coating at all to make our wick stay stand up in the melt pool. Now, here comes my biggest mystery question. Does my candle's melt pool has enough heat power to melt away high melt point wick wax coating? If my candle cannot melt away this wax coating, then my wax and FO will not be able to travel thru the wick to get to the end of flame. I am not 100% sure about this, but my candle might not have problem with 165F coating but it might not work at all with 177F one. I don't have the exact answer to this question, since I don't have capability to measure the temperature of wick right below the melt pool.

Even though keeping inventory is critical part of business bookkeeping, most tax prepare might not ask for it as long as your other numbers look alright. However, your numbers would look awful due to your excessive buying spree on FOs. You are entitled to tax write off on anything that you have spent on your candle business, and it seems like your tax lady is trying to help you get it and trying to protect you. It is always good business to keep 5 different categories of inventories in you business accounting book, but you don't have to do it in this detail. 1. Raw Materials Inventory: Direct Raw Materials & Indirect Raw Materials 2. Maintenance, Repair, and Operating inventory 3. Work In Progress Inventory 4. Finished Goods Inventory 5. Packing Material Inventory If you feel your business is too small to do the above, then you should at least do #1 Raw materials & #5 Packing materials inventory together for your tax lady.(Consult with your tax lady whether I am right about this.) Raw materials & Packing materials inventory would be waxes, wicks, FOs, containers, labels(blank or printed), ink/toner, dyes, & anything that needed for candle making including such items like detergent for cleaning containers. If you have a lot of finished candles that you haven't sold yet, then you might want to do separate inventory report on that also. When it comes to tax question, always consult with your accountant and only with your account.

(1) Size of each wick should be same which ever supplier you get these wicks. However, wicks from different suppliers can perform differently due to following 2 differences. a) After wick manufacturers braids these wicks, it will need to go thru chemical treatment to make it fire retardant. Yes, they actually have to make it fire retardant so it won't burn out easily. b) Wax coating Chemical treatment can be done by different places with different methods. And, they use different types of waxes for coating. So, same wicks will be different supplier to supplier. It will depend on which wick assembler was the final producer. (2) Most wick suggestions by suppliers & manufacturers are just to be used as basic guidelines. It gives us good starting point, but it can be off dramatically. Sometimes, it could be totally different wick & size that will work best. You should not ignore them, but you should not rely on them totally either. Don't blame them. There is no way that anyone can cover all the waxes & 30,000 available FOs combination with different % of FO usage.

Here is another one that is very close. All natural and unbleached sugarcane paper labels! https://www.purelabels.com/blank-labels-on-sheets/

@Marisa11 I know there are many people who are obsessed with that brand, and I liked their candles, too. They were doing really good for so many years that it kind of surprised me they closed down their business this year. I guess you have upper hand knowledge of how to sell candles than many others. Good luck with your candle making journey! It's not hard, but it would take little(☺️) longer than what we would hope to be.

Hi, Did you by any chance worked for Gold Canyon Candle Company?

I think you have to special order those. Online Labels does custom colors. https://www.onlinelabels.com/products/custom-color-labels Closest label that I know is Avery's Blank Coffee Labels, but it's little darker than what's in your picture. It's in the middle of page. https://www.avery.com/category/usage/all/?category=food-and-beverage If you are using inkjet, then you might want to print the back ground color/pattern to your liking. If this method works, then you will need to find the way to connect ink tank to printer to keep ink cost low. Or use some printer like Epson Eco Tank.

Unless we send it to candle testing lab, we are not going to able to get exact numbers for viscosity. We would have to rely on eye judgement & mini testing. Can you see the difference of viscosity from following 2 pictures just by looking at it? Sometimes I scoop up melted wax with little tea spoon and drop it back to see the flow of wax to see how lean or thick melted waxes are. I rub it in between fingers also.

The wick in the picture above is the one I pulled out from WoodWick Candle. It's actually called PlusWick, and the one from Chinese company is called Cross Wick. Both of them have its own patents, so they are all legal. It performed beautifully in my 464. BUT, I bought another WoodWick Candle and pulled it out one more time. But, second one was not as good as the first one. I guess all wooden wicks are having quality reliability issues.

Your flame is leaning to the right, and thin layer is forming on the right side. It might be that your candle is sitting on AC cold air flow path. If next size up is giving you full melt pool too fast, then cut that wick on the side to reduce the width. I choose thickness of wooden wick based on viscosity of wax & FO combo, and I choose width based on container size. *Even though wood wicks will create full melt pool quicker than regular wicks, 45 minutes seem little too fast.

Should we make better quality tapered X shape wood wick and call it a "X" wick. We might get approved for patent, too.

What we might be looking at is tapered one. But, I had pulled one out from WoodWick PlusWick Candle some time ago.

It's not matter of protecting new idea, and I have no intention to do so. This is all about breaking the code of wood wick patent by Lumetique. I always had suspicion this balsa wood sheet might be a lot better than wood wick from WWC. Let's worry about Lumetique later, and shall we play? And, I was wondering about these two wooden wick patents. First "utility patent" is owned by WoodWick Candle of Newelll Brands called "Plus Wick", and second same wick's "design patent" is owned by Chinese company called "Cross Wooden Candle Wick". How is this possible? Any thoughts on this anyone?

Inkjet will provide brilliant colors especially if you use pigment ink. You could notice some difference between original ink vs refilled one. But, as long as it is pigment ink, refilled ones will perform fine. Pigment ink will give better sharp edge & better long lasting color vs regular ink. For inkjet printer selection, Epson WorkForce series are really good. Color laser will provide better sharp edge and letters, but color isn't going to come what you would hoped. Even $4,000 printer is not going to give brilliant colors. If you laminate them, then it will give effect of bring out better edges for inkjet & little bit of colors for laser printer. Different label materials will give different result. It is kind of hard tell from this picture, but it kind of shows little bit. It is printed on 5 different label materials. Last one became my choice of material.

Unlike inkjet printers, surprisingly print quality of $150 up to $4,000 color laser printers are about same. Quality of your label paper would be more important than quality of laser color printers. Look for heavily discounted deal among brand like Canon or Xerox. If you are thinking of really economical one, then Brother would be the choice. I use Samsung CLX-6260FD, but any others should work fine. Try to find one with cheaper toner and great deal. There are labels made for use in inkjet printer only and ones made for laser jet printer only. Some are made to use in both. Inkjet printer label will damage the drum if it is used in laser printer. So, make sure to check comparability of your left over labels before you put them in new machine. One more thing is that thick label paper gets jammed a lot in laser printers. If you fill the paper tray to 50% - 80% capacity, then you will have a lot less jamming problem.