Michael H.

Hi, I've done some candle making in the past but got frustrated because of not being able to get the results I wanted. I'm going to try again but could really use some help with two questions: First, I finally figured out that a huge part of how a candle is going to behave depends on the melting point of the wax used, especially if one is reusing mixed scraps. Given that wax usually doesn't have a sharp transition point, I'm wondering how to gauge the effective melting point of a sample of wax. Second, garage sales and thrift stores are a great place to get used pillar candles cheap but they usually requiring completely replacing the wicks. Not just "tunneling" but that so many pillar candles were made with wicks just too small for the size of the candle. I haven't come up with an effective way to bore out the center of a pillar candle so I can run a replacement wick through. Any suggestions?