BusyBee

I did this when I was beginner.  I think this method saved me a lot of time and money.  It will also help you understand what is going to happen if you pour at higher temperature than recommendation, which will not affect wick testing result.

6 hours ago, Peggy T said:

I'm not quite sure I understand what you do. How do you stick a wick in here? Thanks.

Just poke a hole using skewer and stick a wick (or in your case might be two: Eco 10 & 8) in there.  If the wick preforms really bad, then you just pull it out and put another type of wick.  If you find the ones very close to your liking, then that is the time you make a candle with fixed wick and go into full burning test.  You can eliminate a lot bad wicks in short time doing this way.  Good luck!

On 8/22/2019 at 9:24 PM, MelMel said:

I was wondering if anyone knows what size labels to use for tin candles. I’m using a 1oz, 4oz and 8oz tin candles from Uline. 

ULINE 17906 UNLINE 19908

 

The answer to your question depends on you.  What kind of look do you want you achieve from your labels?

If you want full wrap around look, then your 8oz tin will need two 2.75" circular labels(one on the top & the other possible warning label on bottom) & one wrap around label in 1 1/4" x 10" size.  

On 8/23/2019 at 5:10 AM, Peggy T said:

The best performing wick so far has been the ECO 16 but it is clearly too small as there is a lot of residue on the side of jars. Unfortunately, ECO doesn't make a wick larger than 16 so I can't increase it.

 

If you feel you need bigger than ECO 16, then this is how you can create bigger ECO wicks.  I made ECO 18 by combining ECO 10 & 8 shown in the picture.  ECO 20 can be made by combining 2 ECO 10s, and so on.  We are doing wick testings.  Don't be afraid to try under size, over size, any combination of wicks.  We will never know until we tried.

1 hour ago, Peggy T said:

Thanks. I poured some with several Premier wicks last night. Hopefully I'll be able to test them later today.

 

When I am testing my wicks, I usually make candle without a wick.  This way I can save a lot of time and resources.  Just stick them in there and switching back and forth.

On 12/6/2018 at 10:28 AM, MilosCandles said:

 

Aluminium/Melting point - 1,221°F

Tin, Melting point - 449.5°F

 

If you have ever cleaned up the ashes after having a bomb fire, all the beer cans that are thrown in it are still there the next day.  Just covered in soot.

 

A basic can opener can get a nice clean edge with a little practice.

 

 

 

The disadvantage of a large solid (non see through) container is light just does not go through it.  So it really doesn't matter if you fill the can all the way to the top or just half way with wax.

 

Anyone that burns a candle in a tin I always suggest you put it in something. 

 

 

 

 

 

Yes I agree.  This is totally a grey area.  I have done much research on this, and I am sure in the end no one would have enough money to truly fight it.  I have done work for many local breweries with no problems.  

I know this was kind old topic, but I wanted give MilosCandles some relief on his product.  *By the way, I really like your candles.  

Trademark is very complicated matter even trademark lawyers do not know the whole thing because every trademark holders are different.  There are general law regarding this, but every company has different policy with their trademarks.  Budweiser might not have any problem with your candles, but that does not mean it is going to be same with Coors or any other beer companies.  But the general rule is that you are 100% safe as long as you don't turn their empty beer can into any type of drinks.  You are allowed to turn them into anything other than drinks and sell legally.  However, if you make your own beer can and print their trademark, then it is illegal.  And also, if you only pick on one beer brand and doing only one brand, then you are taking of advantage of that brand which is illegal.  The best way to do this is to contact every single brand that you do and find out what their trademark guide lines are, but we do not have resources to go thru that.  If I were you, I would just put little sign on your booth "Bring your old beer can and turn them into candle!".  This does not mean you can only sell what they are bring, but this way you are pretty much covered.  And, you might be able to collect some empty cans in the process.

Some of the cases mentioned above.

Coke glass candles:  This is no no.  If it was Coke bottle cut and turned into candle, it is okay.  But, she needs to have other soda brand bottle candles, too.

Selling Disney product at fair & flea market:  Disney products are sold thru authorized license dealers only, and they will never give out license to retailers in fair & flea market.  Disney have the right to not only to shut her down but confiscated all inventory on that case.  Once their product leaves hand of their authorized dealer and sold by non licensed retailer, they are considered illegal product even if they are real licensed products.  I am pretty sure those in her case those were fake items not the real licensed products.

Yes, trademark infringement is complicated and scary thing.  But, there are many ways that you can take advantage of them.  As a tiny candle maker, don't be afraid to contact big company.  I didn't even had my company when I made contact with them.  Some of them are loyalty free or might ask guaranteed loyalty fee of 1 million dollars per year.  And every company will give you different guide lines to follow.  If they really like your product, then they could offer to buy it from you or they might offer you advertising fee or display fee to put their logo on your product.  You will never know what's waiting ahead of us until you face them.

4 hours ago, Quentin said:

The first mistake you made was to ask for permission from a nit wit government official. It's much easier to ask for forgiveness than to ask for permission. Why not just practice your "hobby" in your home and sell candles on the side? 

No, it was not a mistake.  I was ready to come out from the shade, and I am trying to move on to next stage.  But, I am so use to work out of my house for my all other businesses, which I still do, that I was just hoping to do this at my house too.

20 hours ago, kandlekrazy said:

Many, Many do not get a business license and that is how they are doing it.  Most Craft fairs require only liability insurance that covers you at each event address (some req nothing).  To sell on Etsy, Ebay etc you need nothing.  To set up a website, you need nothing.  I always did the license and insurance and ran it like a business but know many that didn't.

Thank you for the information!  I guess I need to go out and look for place where I can put my tiny candle factory.

I checked with Diamond Bar(LA county), San Jacinto(Riverside county) & Desert Hot Springs(Riverside county) city planning department, and none of them was allowing Candle Making from a house.  I can operate selling candle business out of a house as long as no customer comes to my house to do actual transaction.  I thought I figured out everything, and this was something unexpected because I thought many are doing this from their house.

I have question for chandlers in California.  Has anyone doing this candle making business out of a house?  I went to the City to register my business out of a house, and I got denied.  As you know we have all kinds of regulations in CA.  I live in Los Angeles County and I even had gone to next Riverside County also.  They said "NO" also.  I have LLC set up and I should be able to get seller's permit without a problem, but I cannot get city business license to operate out of a house.  Does anyone know how to get business license operating out of a house for candle making business?

What he's doing is something called "Selling the shovel instead of digging for the gold".  In his case, he is selling the treasure map instead of shovel.  His candle making method might be incorrect, and we might totally disagree with his method.  But, he has some candle making class operation going on, and I am pretty sure he is making really good money with that.  And also, he should have some advertising income coming from his Youtube videos as his viewer grows.  I don't think he is any different than some of the candle suppliers, who I label as shovel sellers.  I don't see that many candle supplier, who are able to give out the exact information either.  Can any supplier provide exact wick brand & size to a container, wax, & fragrance oil that we are buying from them?  They would love to make us spend more money on sample packs and make us do lots of testings$$$$$.  It's all business!

We need to give him credit for his brilliant money making idea.  I would be more worried if he gives out good candle making classes.  Many of us in here are trying to get into a candle business or already are in candle business.  We should look his operation from business point also.

His candle website:  https://standleyhandcrafted.com/

His candle making class website:  https://www.theinnovativemaker.com/

*He is a computer guy, so he knows how to create some website.

On 7/13/2019 at 7:10 PM, ErronB said:

Just following up with my results after testing this. You're absolutely right 6006 does benefit from leaving it longer than a couple days, and the wick size you suggested was pretty much bang on right. Unfortunately it mushroomed like crap after the first hour at only 6% load, and did it the same with some other FO's I use too.

 

 I take my hat off to anyone who has found a wick that gives good HT and doesn't mushroom bad with 6006, I couldn't do it after spending months testing it, I'll be sticking with my other parasoy blends. Thanks for everyone's suggestions!

First of all, I take my hat off to you for your desire to succeed.  When I read your post mentioning Wicks Unlimited, I just knew that how hard you are working on this.

I see a big problem with you using 6006.  No matter what you do, you are not going to be satisfied with the result because you have played around with 464.  6006 might have given you little better CT, but it's going to be a lot inferior HT compare to 464.  May I ask why you have stopped using 464?  For your 8oz tin, I believe outside diameter of your tin container is 3 1/8 inch.  If that is right, then you might want to try ECO 16 trimmed to 1/8 inch with 10% fragrance oil load.  This is not going to be perfect, but very close.  Still, it is going to produce inferior HT compare to 464.    *ECO 16 is not going to work for your 8oz tin container with 464 wax.  

I don't know what's your definition of great candle, so I cannot say much.  But, you might want to consider talking to private label candle manufacturers and find out what they can offer.  This is one of the ways to learn about this industry.  Wicks Unlimited was another good way to approach, which you already did.  Also, check out Atkins & Pearce, Inc. website.  They are manufacturer of your HTP wick, and it will cost money to do wick test with them.  Also, I believe their minimum order is 10,000.  But, you should check them out.  Because they have a lot of interesting wicks that regular candle suppliers don't carry and a lot of useful information on their website.

As for the FOs, let me give you my experiences.  I walked into one supplier which carried about 70 FOs.  Out of 70 FOs, I found 4 that I liked.  Another supplier had about 180 different FOs.  Out of 180, I found none that I liked.  I keep ordering sample size FOs by mail order, but so far I only have 6 FOs in my product line.  In my opinion, finding the best FO is going to be life long search!  Did you know that there are about 3,000 different Rose fragrance oil available on the market?  I was lucky to find the right Rose FO from the 4th try.  What I am trying to say here is that sometimes it might not be your candle making technique that is not producing the right result.

Oh, try not to heat up the soy blend wax above 185 degree.  Soy wax will burn slightly, if you go above 185.  

Have fun on your journey!  I have feeling that you might surpass us in the feature with your kind of hard research and work.