Gladys

Okay thank you. I’m trying also the eco 4. The 8’s and 6’s were too hot. 
 

You mean the eco don’t offer too much HT or the CDN?

I tried the eco 6 and 8 but they were too hot. I’m currently trying CDN 5’s 

Hello fellow makers I wanted to share something that’s been troubling me. I’m using:

6006 

Hobby lobby jar with bamboo lid 

2 HTP 73’s 

FO from Candle science 

the initial burn tests are great the the htp 73’s but once the wax level get to the middle of the jar, they dim down. Not to the point where they turn themselves off but maybe like half of the normal flame. I tried increasing to 83’s but they soot within 2 hours. 
 

anyone else found something that helped. Htp’s give me the best HT so I wouldn’t want to try another one. But I would like to see what my options are. Thank you everyone. 

On 2/23/2021 at 11:20 AM, bfroberts said:

In my experience, Eco wicks are the best choice.  Try not to put much faith in what you’ve heard about this wax, because most of it is dead wrong.  In a container of that size, it will not reach a full melt pool on the first burn.  A full melt pool is not the goal & it is not the sign of a successful candle.  If you wick hot enough to get a FMP on the first burn, it’s going to be way too hot at the bottom of the container.   10% FO is also overkill. 6006 doesn’t need that much and using such a high load leads to wicking woes.  7% is the max I’d use.
 

The wick guide on the Candle Science website is pretty accurate for 6006. For your jar, I’d test Eco 8 and Eco 10 side by side to compare. Anything bigger than that is too big. Don’t burn too soon after pouring.  The candle needs to cure at least a week, ideally 2 weeks, to get accurate results.  In this instance, curing is not about the throw. It’s about the burn, and it does make a big difference in how it burns despite what you may have heard.  Good luck! 🍀 

This is such excellent advice. I have been testing wooden wicks with 6006 for months, then gave up on that wax. Now I’m testing with problend 600 from the flaming candle. I love that wax and while I wait for my shipment, I went back to 6006 that I had left over. It seemed nothing worked well with 6006 then I realized that it’s the FO load. 10% and they looked like exhaust pipes. 8% didn’t work either. So now I’m testing 6006 with 6% and I’m hoping that gives me 4 hours of a clean burn. Really hoping because I’ve been religiously testing wooden wicks with no luck. So thank you for bringing up the fo load issue. Now I’m really worried about the HT at 6% but we’ll see. 

You’re right. It’s so hard but so fulfilling when we do find a nut and get the mind energy to keep going. 

Yeah you’re right. I think I need to set up a game plan to see exactly what wicks I’m going to test. I think I’m all over the place at this point and not getting anywhere lol 

To BusyBee, thank you. I was considering a buy a BBW candle just to see how much of any soot is produced. 
Perhaps not now. I’ll try to choose a wick that has the least amount of soot. 

Oh wow thank you. I’m able to do this on a wooden wick but never on a cotton LOL 

I wanted to ask all the fellow candle makers...ever since I started making candles I’ve read that any black smoke from a candle is unacceptable. Therefore, on any given occasion that a candle starts to throw a puff of black smoke within the first 4 hours, I turn it off, remelt, and try a different wick. I consider the previous wick not the one for that candle. I have been growing through endless pounds of wasted wax because a candle will throw one puff of black smoke; and now I question if everyone does that. 
 

is any black smoke unacceptable? Or is there a criteria for it. 

I always compare my wooden wicked candles to blow torches lol

Busybee, thank you again for the response. I completely agree. I honestly didn’t want to give up because I kept thinking, how do others sell wooden wicked candles? I must be doing something wrong. But I think that I’m just about done.  I’ve been able to wick one of my jars with the wood wick but the double wick jar I cannot. And now I feel that it’s okay. I don’t need to only have wooden wicked candles. I started testing cotton wicks and will use those as well. I can’t make everything work. 
 

how can I possibly sell something that is so inconsistent? I don’t think that’s safe. I have almost every wick that the wooden wick co. sells and I’m just over it. These damn wooden wicks have cause me so much stress and self doubt  that it’s not even worth it. Like i said, o don’t need to have wooden wicks. My heart wasn’t set on them. They’re diff yes, but not over the top better than cotton so I’ll be doing more testing with cotton wicks. I won’t give up on those either lol 

ive been using problend 600 so hopefully I find something that works. 
 

thank you everyone for all the input. 🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰
 

So I was finally able to wick this 4” diameter container. I use .02 .250” (three of them) and they burn great, and great HT. But after 2 hours they start to dim out. Almost putting themselves out. There’s no tunneling, the wick isn’t long so I don’t understand. 

But my problem is that the flame gets super dim at the halfway point of the jar. 
 

i

Is there a video that you know of with this method. I don’t quite follow how to do it 🤦🏻‍♀️

Wow that’s amazing info, truly. I will definitely try to do that basically just kind of scoring some lines down along the wick right?

Is there any coating that you know of?

It seems that there’s no winning with wooden wicks at this point. 

So I have finally found a wick that fits two of my jars. I use 8% FO, 6006 wax. The first 3 burns were great. I was able to burn them for up to 7 hours with no soot. Some wax residue on the sides but no tunneling. Now, on the 4th burn, they are very dim with a tiny flame that just flickers. I wonder if they need a booster since I did try the next wick up to see if they would burn evenly but it sooted up in 30 min. So I’m thinking a booster will liven up the flame and maybe give me an even burn. I’m currently using .02 .625 and these have really been great but up to the 3rd burn. Do you think the .02 .625 booster would work? 
 

the .02 .750 sooted up

and the .03 series didn’t work in any size 

I let it cure 3 days for the HT. For wick testing I light in 24-36 hours. 

I’ve read that 6006 is notoriously hard to wick. Not sure how I ended up with this wax but I do like the hot throw when it performs well. 

Oh thank you very much. May I ask where should I start with testing the cotton wicks for 6006? I can’t imagine starting over with cotton wicks. 

I wonder if I can find a video for it. I don’t quite follow lol 🤦🏻‍♀️ Lol

I’ve read of makers doing that. How interesting. How do you secure them?

You know the tube wicks were my only solution in the 3 wick tumbler. I couldn’t wick that one either until I just tried two tube wicks and that worked. I should try that with these. 

Erron, I agree about the staying lit. I’m going to try those right now. I’m melting down the .03 and going to try with the 0.2 .5” and see how they do. Maybe I’ll try the .02 .5” booster too. I have so many wicks now from trying so many🤦🏻‍♀️