radellaf

ACS Press Release http://portal.acs.org:80/portal/acs/corg/content?_nfpb=true&_pageLabel=PP_ARTICLEMAIN&node_id=222&content_id=CNBP_022771&use_sec=true&sec_url_var=region1&__uuid=4135bbe8-450c-4cdf-aa53-5ef8f07381e3 Anyone seen this bit about Soy (&bee) wax vs paraffin that recently came out? I'm trying to get a copy of the paper since, while it is no secret that there are unburned hydrocarbons such as benzene and toluene in paraffin candle emissions, none of the news articles report the amounts detected, yet the author is quoted making medical recommendations on the safety of breathing the air in a room with candles. A GC/MS is capable of detecting minute, medically harmless, amounts of chemicals. Plus, I think the study may have been funded by the USDA, who would have an interest in promoting soy wax. Bugs me that none of the tens of press articles did anything but quote this. No real investigative journalism involving comments by any scientists or doctors but the authors of the paper.

I would expect that if you put a tiny bit on a piece of paper and let that dry for a bit, you might get something a lot closer to the intended scent. Sniffing the bottle all you get are "top notes".

Their "Maestro Label Designer®" doesn't come to the rescue?

What it looks like after the latest 3 hr burn:

FWIW mine is beginning to drown out. Last melt pool probably 2" instead of 3 and very low flame. Not sure why. It's only 1/2-3/4" down. Maybe the wick is clogging or inconsistently made, or maybe as shallow as it is that's still enough down to be melting too much wax. Probably 5 burns done, each 4-6 hrs. I'll give it a little more of a go and then maybe remelt and try the next larger size (large I think).

I picked up some C3 on advice here that it was the best of CB135, CBA, 464, or 444. So far only tried it 50/50 with 4630, but I do wonder if all the good things said about it don't apply to the Elevance version. CBA is too picky about which FO, and 464 frosts too damn much though, so if C3 isn't better then I think I may conclude that I have no technical reason to pursue soy at all. The paraffins seem more reliable. Dunno about palm.

GW and GB the same thing? I've used 464, CBA, and now C3 with good 1 pour results. But, I pour pretty cold, like 120 or so. Cold as I can get without it slushing up. Less sinking and wet spots, and I can't find a downside to doing it that way. CBA says to pour hotter and gets wet spots if I do. Reading their instructions though, that's a feature not a bug...

So far it is burning nicely with a flame and melt pool I'd say is just right. Good fragrace too. It crackles some but not much. No smokes at all. Pretty lucky choices. Couldn't say about what mix to try. This is the first time I've mixed paraffin with anything but beeswax deliberately.

Is it a good idea to not have the scent on the main, front label of a jar or pillar? I'd certainly like to do it that way, for ease, and also to feature the candle rather than the scent. Seems like something along these lines: http://www.ajscountrycottage.com/Cottage-Garden-Soy-Candles-p-2.html is more the norm?

I wonder if they sold CB where you asked for PB. I once put CB (glass glow) wax in a votive mold and the only way that thing was coming out was to heat the mold until it melted loose. Not sure what they do for that effect. A little beeswax or paraffin and it will release so the effect is delicate. Only time I know of to heat wax over 200 is to melt in additives like some FT wax, EVA, or PE. ( c.f. http://www.craftserver.com/forums/showthread.php?p=395894 )

Some pictures of the method I used: After the first pour has cooled, I remove the wick pins, put the candle on a tealight holder so that the wicks can stick out of the top of the candle, and insert the primed wicks. The black dots indicate the side the wick will curl towards. Some can tell this from looking at the wick (are the "arrows" pointing up or down), but I usually test burn a piece and mark it with a sharpie. The arrangement here is to have all the wicks splay out from the center. Note, this works great with the LX-8 and LX-10 wicks I was using with 4" 3-wick candles. Flat 12 ply twists a little much when it burns for this to work. View from the top, showing the "wrecking" holes. Here the second pour starts with a small amount of hot (190-200F) wax with the intention of filling in the wick pin holes. If the wax is hot enough it runs right through the candle, hence elevating the candle on the tealight holder. Gently pour a few times until the wax in the holes cools enough that they get plugged up. Finish the second pour: At this point I use a scissors to clip the wicks below the liquid level of the wax. Or, you can try to cut them to the right length before pouring any wax. In any case, to smooth and flatten out the bottom, I get out the blowtorch. The idea is to get a "full melt pool". Here if you look carefully you can see that I went a bit too far and some wax spilled out the back. Done right, this makes a nice finish and might avoid having to level off the base on a hot surface. Done really well, I think it looks good enough to make the "bottom" of a molded candle the top. and light: With 12 ply, 1274 with .25% Micro175 and 3% FO, 3 wicks is too much. 2 wicks is working OK in tests so far, though it smokes for a while upon lighting. I get the same problem with LX-18 or 20 in this size candle. Settles down after 5-15 min. Here's the look of the wicks in filled in holes: and one of the lit 2-wicks:

Trying a small wood wick (from CandleWic) with 50/50 C3 soy and IGI 4630 Paraffin, 5% CS Pomegranate Sage. Can't tell much at this point as to whether the wick is larger enough. It's crackling nicely. Pic is about 15 minutes into first burn starting with about 3/8" of wick. No smoke to be sure, kind of a low flame.

Just called them and yep, min qty is about 15,000 ft ( one full size 3 or 4 lb spool ). However, they were very nice on the phone and sent me a sample. If it proves useful maybe I'll post a co-op. Never used that forum before. Suppose I should have asked what the spool cost...

I'll check Ace hardware today. I called the hobby shops and they only have brass. 3 12-ply was too much, 30 min or so to imminent overflow. Same technique works for 2 wicks though. I've tried those a lot before. I think it's how many candles were made (twisting 2 wicks) back when they were used for light...and people didn't expect self trimming. I have CSN-5 and TL-18 I could try with 3 wicks. S330 or 9ply would be good try, but I don't have any. Pretty sure LX-8 would be too big, since it was good with the 4". With any raw wick I dip it in the wax ( just until the bubbles stop ) before pouring the candle. Otherwise it's hard to push through the wick hole. Interesting tidbit: unraveling some 5/0 and 6/0 SB I found the 5/0 had 24 plies and the 6/0 had 30. Maybe the threads were finer on the 6/0, was hard to tell. The 12 ply as expected had, well, 12 threads.

Well, true, but you can have any percentage _more_ than something else. Those candles may well throw "10x" better and have 6x more FO than a "Major Brand" reference candle. I'm sure some of those brands use around 2% FO, and 12% is, if not a great idea, within the realm of possibility. The 10 times the "throw" part is ridiculous because of the attempt to quantify it without any quantitative data, but it's the same _type_ of claim an awful lot of candle manufacturers make. I'll stick with "strongly scented" or something like that for myself, and even there I wonder if I'm stretching it. Problem is that there's no standard or even anything close. Review sites like http://www.crazyforcandles.com/comparison.html are left without anything more specific than "fills a room".

The problem. I want to make some tapers, find 12 ply is a good size, and end up with a "small order" of over 1000 ft each of 12 ply and 6/0 SB: Knowing that Well Enough cannot be Left Alone, I decide I'm going to try to put 3 wicks in a 3" candle. Then I can use small wick for a bigger candle, and see if I can make a mess. I've done this with 4" candles two ways. One, with 1" or so spacing, and then again with all three wicks in the same hole, with their curl-when-burning direction tested and arranged so they splay out from the center. The 3-in-1 arrangement looks great, but too often the wicks stick to themselves and need to be pushed apart. So, maybe I need a jig to make three holes close together. I'm not predicting this will really work with a 3" one. It's as much a proof-of-concept to try with the 4" mold. I think I'll need a drill press or a steadier hand to get the alignment good enough for a 6.5" tall mold, though. Should be fun to see, though. FWIW, to do this I sealed the wick hole in the bottom of the mold my usual way with outdoor metal duct tape: So nice not to have to use mold putty, or ever deal with leaking molds. I am looking at metal supply companies for some smaller wick pins than the standard 1/8" stuff the candle supply stores (and Lowes hardware) sells. 3/32" or 1/16" rod would be more convenient when using smaller than LX-18 sizes of wick. https://www.speedymetals.com/ looks promising. No min order, but $12 to ship even a couple of rods.

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I found the wicksunlimited site but they have no online purchasing so I figured they were large qty wholesalers only.

Do you give them to friends? I've had no luck (and feel funny) selling to them. Sold a few when they offered first... If I gave some away tho, I could get a lot o word out. I don't have a lot of "friend" friends, but thru meetup.com I have tons of acqaintances. Marketing thru that would be crass but, literally and truthfully, I could just bring a few and call them extras I need help getting rid of. Thanks for the words of encouragement. I do love electronics as well. I did it as a kid all the time and knew my college major by 5th grade. However, so far it, and quite possibly candles, can go from fun to boring and/or stressful when bosses and/or customers come into it. Yeah, I know packaging makes a diff to customers (and me). But I thoroughly hate it. Partly since I want it to be pro looking, but without laying out hundreds in custom boxes and labels, what I get is only OK. And I hate putting a lot of work into graphic arts stuff to get only OK. I used to have Photoshop as a hobby and home printing but it was too frustrating. I find candles MUCH more forgiving of inexpert technique and lack of art ablities.

Well reading that, and since I do use my computer, let me add as a tip -- make sure data is backed up early and often. For documents I use sugarsync and dropbox, both free and automatic. I haven't lost candle data but lost enough back in the early 1990s to flaky floppies. Drives are very good now but still, 5 yr old or glitch in the system (or god forbid, fire) and it can all be gone in an instant. I need a decent and EASY database tho, the text file is getting cubersome.

Shipping is truly nuts. 464 50lb, candlescience, is 94 shipped NC to CA, fully half the cost for shipping. Truly if I didn't live within a drive of them I could not do this hobby.

I just bough a doz ea of the small and med from candlewic along with ridiculous qty of 12ply and 6/0sb (12 ply hard to find and I want 9 but see it nowhere) Anyway, I'll try them in some CBA, C3, 4630. Could try a blend. Suggest percentages and I'll take your advice otherwise it'll be 50/50. Do the commercial ones burn well? Enough other storebought ones don't, even major names, as I imagine we all know... one of the reasons I got into the hobby.

FWIW, the 12 ply is working perfectly. I thought it'd act more like an LX-10, which is OK for my 3/8" tapers but too small for this size. 12 ply also works for the 3/8" (no additives). Which is good since I just ordered over 1500ft of it to use with a new dipping frame. I use 4x3/8" for myself and also think I might possibly get a local Wicca/new age shop to buy some for spell candles. The sample of 12 ply actually came unlabeled with a 1-2" 7-knob mold from SpiritCrafts. Hard to imagine it being big enough for that candle though. Fortunately ply wick is one where by unbraiding it you can determine the size (easily).

Clever, I never thought of not cutting wicks before tabbing. How do you avoid having too much wick stick out the bottom for it to sit well? I'm also curious how you get them to stay straight after a pour, especially with soy. Are you using the same wax for the votives themselves? I ask since I pin my votives in metal cups but would sure like to use this mold http://cart.candlesupply.com/product.php?productid=20334&cat=370&page=1 And, in a 15 mold tray, I can't see a clear way to having something hold the wicks centered so it'd be nice to have a tip.

Well, rly, the only concrete benefit I get is that it's kinda hard to push a string through a candle. Priming it gives it at least some rigidity. Unless you prime with soy, that gives it all the structural strength of a rubber band. For containers tho I don't care how stiff the wick is. I find if it's not secured at both ends it's likely to get pulled off center in the middle even if the top and bottom are perfect.