Ashes Foxes

I've actually started playing with an 80/20 464/4627 bend. I dont mind soy and its easier to work with than paraffin. (Plus I have a lot of both waxes) I'm side by side burning a pure 464 and a 464/4627 right now and they can burn well past the 3 hour mark without the slighest hint of a flame problem. HOWEVER. Neither are scented. And I know your oil changes this A lot. The pure 464 has an HTP 126 and the mix has a 105. the 105 is tunneling slightly, I'm thinking with oil it may be enough or even too much of a wick. The 126 gets a very small wall to wall pool which is pleasing visually. I have not checked temp tho. At this point with these 2 I'm kinda just enjoying watching them burn. 4627 is a high scent wax as I understand, and adding tht 20% smoothed out the rough sandpapery texture that 464 has when new or when freshly burned. Not being 6006 means no risk of tunneling (4627 is like vaseline its.. SUPER goopy..) Poured a scented and dyed sample saturday, will test it in 2 weeks. It's already frosting, so.. might have to go dyeless on candles. (Which I'm ok with to a degree. Would just need to "Rebrand" a bit so to speak..) Will keep you in the loop! I also basically went to flaming candle and got 1 of everything wick wise. So.. guess there's more testing.. god I hate testing.

I tried twisting the wick recently on my last 2 candles, it made a difference on one but the other one still tends to only burn in one direction. I'm not sure what happens with that. I guess. I don't mind testing, ya know? That's part of this hobby, but that's ALL I've done in like a year. Testing testing testing and nothing at all to show for it. I can't enjoy what I'm doing, it feels more like working in a factory than a labor of love. I want to be able to share this, but it has to be good enough TO share, and it's just not. So its more pouring, testing, and if it obviously looks off (most of them I will try to burn all the way through, but not all.) I'll use a wax melter to core it, pour the wax in a used salsa jar and toss it out. Wasting lots of wax, lots of oil, lots of time. When's the fun start? heh. I'm thinking I'll go back to soy. 6006 seems to have benefits but obviously I'm struggling with it and getting nowhere. 30 pounds of 6006 and nothing to show. I had a lot more progress with only 10 pounds of 464 earlier on. Suppose I'm just frustrated. None of this is good enough. My family keeps asking me for a candle and I keep telling them no, it's not ready. It feels like it'll never be ready.

I've burned several full candles in these jars with 105s and they've left a huge chunk of wax on one wall of the tumbler, my melt pool even halfway down never reaches more than 3/4 of the jar. if I go down several sizes I'll have a melt pool the size of a half dollar. These do taper a little bit, but I worry that trying to give a friend or a family member a candle that acts like this is just not going to be ok. I went to the 105 up from smaller wicks because it was never burning through. The only way I was able to get a "complete burn" candle in the last few months with a 105 was to scoop soft wax off the sidewall with a plastic spoon. Otherwise I get this glob that just stays there. Honestly if I have to go through the wicking nightmare again and start from scratch.. I'm just gonna give up. I've been at this for so long trying to get just ONE single candle to burn to my liking and I just cannot make it happen. I'm confused as to what Wade might be using for a wax because it doesn't feel like a soy to me. Though to be fair, I've only used 464 and it seems to be very soft. His colors are rich and the wax is firm like 6006. The cold throw is knock-you-over strong and I feel like these things I'm making are worthless unless they can meet all these "requirements." I've played with 464, 6006, and 4627. I've considered 4625 which iirc is mostly for pillars and melts, but.. I mean.. I don't know anymore. Nothing I'm doing is good enough.

I have played with the premier wicks. They work, but they mushroom real bad at every size I've tried. The HTP wicks seem relatively self trimming and I've had minimal mushrooming in comparison. I've basically went to every site I've found and ordered 1 pack of everything. The jars have been consistent, as has the wax and the oil. I can't imagine a jar like this needs a dual wick but I cannot avoid tunneling on these things. Nor can I get my cold throw to throw. I mean correct me if I'm wrong but I expect that if I put a jar candle in my half bath and don't light it.. I should have a strong scent of said candle every time I enter that bathroom. If I light it, you should be able to smell it wafting out of the bathroom, and be nearly overwhelmed inside the bathroom. That's pretty much my goal. (The half bath I've experimented with is probably 4'x4'? I'm not sure.)

Hi! New active user here but I've been using the site for some time now trying to gather information, and it's been such a huge help I figured I'd go ahead. Long story short, I've been trying for a while now to make candles that I can give away to friends and family (ultimately, I'd like to make a business but, that will take a while and require a lot more confidence than I currently have.) but I keep running into what I consider failures in my candles. I started out, I think like most people, using 464 soy. I was unhappy however with the cure time requirement, the pastel color, the surface finish (especially after a burn) and the frosting. As such, I switched to IGI 6006 and haven't really looked back. The color and finish are great and, well it HAS been great, but there's a new issue and I'm frustrated. So, I'm wondering if I'm being a perfectionist here. I'm using candle supplies 10oz tumbler jars, Norden wick tools (I highly recommend these!) and mostly aztec and candlescience oils. I've been sticking with a 6% mix, mixing at 185F and pouring 180-170F, depending on how much it cools after stirring about 2 minutes. I let the candle cure in a dark pantry with a metal press on lid for 4 days and then do a coldthrow test (I stick my nose in it, heh.) I've been wick testing FOREVER and I've been trying just about everything aside from bits of string I find laying around on the floor. I've settled between an HTP 105 and an HTP 126. I am TRYING to get a melt pool that covers wall to wall, but not with a flame so hot that it burns my oil away. With 105s I get about 1/4 to 1/8" tunneling (but only on one side) with a 126 I get 1/8 to 1/16th tunneling on one side that may go away. I have only recently started with 126s because I got tired of what I considered failure with 105s. I use the "spectrum" dyes from nature's garden and I love them. So things were going pretty good for a time, some of my more challenging scents like moonflower nectar were actually producing a good throw (I love that scent but its proved challenging) and my wax melts were filling a 14x12 room wonderfully. The candles however.. would only cover a few feet around the candle itself with a 105. So, I thought, ok maybe the melt pool is too small because of the tunneling. It's the exact same pour as the wax melt, so it's not a difference there. So I've messed around, poured a lot more candles, let them cure... I have to almost touch my nose to the wax to smell it suddenly. Same scents, same type of wax, same dyes, same jars same cure times.. no CT, and almost no HT in candles with 105 or 126. I've also found that I'm unhappy with flame size. They start about 1/4-1/2" but by about 10 minutes they're looking 1-1.25" tall. They flicker and move, and the closer it gets to the 3 hour initial burn its flaming up with a tiny strand of light 3" or so. This feels unacceptable to me but the HTPs have been the most stable wick I've found (that isn't zinc or wood I have not tested zinc yet.) I guess.. am I being picky here? Or am I still having trouble? I cannot even give these away until I would want one as a gift. Stable burning, even melting, properly colored, properly scented (cold and hot.) Otherwise.. it's just not good enough. I bought a candle from black tie barn and the thing knocks me over just by taking the lid off, yet I have to bury my nose into my own candles to smell them at all when cold!? I mean that can't just be being picky or dealing with weak oils could it?? Something must be wrong.. or am I just trying too hard? I've tried 8-10% FO mixes as well trying to boost the cold/hot throw but all this seems to do is excite the flame more and waste oil. 6% seems to be the best "al around" mix, but it's just not strong enough to me. Thank you for reading my diatribe!