If it's not already obvious in some way, I'm about 2 minutes new to this forum, lol - Hi everyone, I'm desperate.
I don't even know if I'm posting this correctly..or in the correct area.. 😪
I was wondering if anyone could please help me out with wicking a Coconut 83 & SP487 blend (75% & 25%) in a 3inch diameter vessel?
I've chosen and set myself on wooden wicks, only, and have tested the Makesy/Wooden Wick Co. Whisper-Booster Wicks. I was recommended the .02 thickness & I tried out the 1/2'', 5/8'', AND 3/4'' with no real success other than good scent throw!
The 1/2'' .02 was way too small, seemed to be suited for a 2'' diameter candle, and created crazy tunneling, while providing a decent amount of scent throw.
and both the 5/8'' and 3/4'' .02's provided excellent scent throw as well, but their flames grew too quickly!
First of all, I was never able to use the golden "Trim the wick to 1/4'' rule because the flame was gigantic off the start (2-3 inches tall) when I tried burning it at that length. It literally needed to be trimmed somewhere below 1/8'' in order to burn a calm, leveled, horizontal flame. I would honestly try to work with that, but unfortunately, after about an hour - to an hour and a half, the flame, again, grows an exaggerated length and goes a little crazy with flickering. Which I'm probably correctly assuming isn't normal..as a candle (of my size) is usually tested for at least 3 hours and also advised not to burn for more than 4 hours at a time... also advertised to be TRIMMED at the 4 hour mark. Yet mine needed to stop and be trimmed after 1.5 hours.
I'm honestly stumped, I'm not sure what change to make. I contacted Makesy and they said it sounded like I needed a smaller thickness, yet the boosters aren't made any smaller than .02. So they recommended I bump my fragrance load from 8% to 10% and switch to a Single-Ply wooden wick instead to see how that turns out.
Thing is I already tested the single-ply's initially in the past to no avail. - and yes, I had a higher scent percentage as well, probably somewhere around 11% or 10%. All I could smell was burning wood and a slight minty-smell. The single ply's never provided me with scent throw.
I just want to know if there's any way around this?
I had so much hope when I was able to smell the hot throw in my candles for the first time! and then this blocks my path, of course.. testing is a nightmare.
I know SP487 is recommended to be used at 25%, but could I made increase that percentage to harden the wax a little bit more? I saw some other forums where people were talking about how coconut wax burns a bit too hot for the wicks sometimes and maybe a harder formulated blend would help that? - Not sure, I'm definitely still a nooby btw so blending formulas and the like are still a foreign practice to me but I'm improving with time I think, and willing to learn.
Thank you guys so much!