radellaf

One might be suspicious of bias, but the IGI website ha a pretty good section on how the wax is made a well as study results on chemical and particulate emissions from a few types of wax. http://igiwax.com/wax-basics/how-wax-is-made/ http://igiwax.com/uploads/candlearticles/07%20Okometric%20report.pdf Other tidbits I found... 1. Paraffin is biodegradable. 2. 1343 is listed as a special purpose wax rather than a basic no-additives base wax. I conclude anything I'm "contaminating" my house with comes from how often the wick charts are 2+ sizes off... I'd feel worse if I didn't have commercial containers soot as well but still, perfectionism, it bothers me. I'd rather be able to advertise "no sooting" as a health claim than to try to greenwash customers on soy or palm. Oh, while I'm OT here, I'll throw out that candle cappers (you can make your own, even) generally work to stop a sooting container (or large votive cup) if the wick trim isn't enough.

I think the molds came from CandleWic, but Exagon makes them... the pyramid, bell-top, and egg shapes anyway. I forget where the votive cups came from. Fortunately, the sticking hasn't damaged any of the molds. BTW, had no luck using Novus 2 to polish the inside of the egg. Last time I looked tho, exagon doesn't directly offer customer support. The egg did get "etching" after only a couple of uses. Maybe from peak's cinnamon or the intense red Xmas candle I recycled that time. That and the cinna-beeswax sure smelled great though. I'll try some stearic soon as I test a few of the 1% V343 to see if it improves the sagging issue at all. Any suggestion on how much? I'm guessing 3% as a minimum to help with FO retention, not sure when it would start to interfere with the mottling. I read 10% but that seems awful high.

Two of the molds were brand new and the other still in good shape. So, yeah, that's my confusion. The surfaces of these molds are smooth, and most waxes release quite easily from them. The 1343, though, in addition to being tough to release, is leaving a thin covering of wax over almost 100% of the inside of the mold. Which, yes, is a pain to clean up. The hot water only serves to melt/soften the wax so that the paper towel can wipe it off. As for the FO damage over time, it is just something I'll have to live with since I like the shapes. The worst damage I got was from CRC silicone lube. It's a cheap mold release for metal, but fogs/pits polycarbonate. Still, I used a 1" pillar mold that has a bunch of that damage with 1343, 2% FO, no additives, and the seeping FO was enough that it just slid right out of the mold. I love the way 1343 looks, but wish it was a bit harder and could hold 2-3% FO. Still, once they "cure", the pillars are burning nicely with LX18s (2" and 2.5") so long as you "hug" them periodically. LX14 for the votives. I've yet to burn any of the ones with the Vybar 343 but presume I might need a smaller wick. LX14 really should be enough for a 2" pillar but I guess even the 2% FO was causing trouble.

Anyone have trouble with IGI 1343 A sticking badly to polycarbonate molds? With no additives and 2%-3% FO I was getting easy mold release from aluminum and poly, excellent mottling, and varying amounts of weeping of color or FO. So, I got some Vybar 343 in the hopes of having the same look but no weeping and at 1% it usually works. However, now my candles are leaving a LOT of residue on the polycarbonate molds. They release OK, but have a dimpled texture and leave a dimpled film of wax on the mold. I tried plain 1343 with no dye or fragrance and have the same problem, even with a light coating of silicone mold release (it made zero difference). Aluminum molds work great. After refrigerating the pillars or votives drop right out. Any ideas? 1343 is supposed to have "good mold release" and the Vybar should help. It's easy enough to clean the votive molds I've been testing with but my first surpise was with a "large pyramid" mold which was a royal pain to clean out with hot water and paper towels. OTOH the dimpled texture looks nice.

With 2"x6" and 2.5"x5" feather palm pillars I haven't needed to wreck them at all. There's usually a small air pocket right near the top which I could use a blowtorch to fill in, or, usually I just leave it alone. I'm going to have to try that cutting a circle technique though. What kind of knife would you use? I may try it the first time using a wick pin, heating it so it'll melt through. Any wicking recommendations? I think CSN 14 is going to work on the 2", but no idea on the 2.5, much less a 3. Or, is it just _going_ to leak out the sides if burned too long, no matter what?

My problems lately with Palm wax pillars is avoiding spill-over. A 1.5" with CS's CSN-9 burns perfectly. Both 9 and 12 in a 2.125" are leaving a "frame" of wax on the side, and 12 poured over. I'm also trying to properly wick a 2.5" and am going up to a CSN-16 tonight. I'd like a complete pool across the candle at least on the 2", and that seems to require a large enough wick not only to melt that far, but then to consume the wax fast enough that the pool doesn't overflow the edge. I have the same issues with IGI 1343 paraffin. The 3" may not be able to burn like that (all the way across). A CSN 12 or 14 both burn through the edge after a few hours. I'll try 16 and 22 but it may be you just _have_ to burn these less than 2 hours at a stretch to get a nice tunnel and no pouring out the side. The Palm wax is truly beautiful in the 2.5" size with the flame completely enclosed by the side walls. I notice most of the commercial pillar candles are overdipped with high melt wax, or even done hurricane style with a 1/4" or so wall of a different wax. Still, that might keep the palm from pouring out, but I'd sure like to find a way to avoid melting through the side wall, and having it just gradually consume the top of the pillar. BTW, a 2.5" egg with a CSN 9 did this beautifully.

The kits tend to be a decent deal, but one thing I'd recommend just to make things more pleasant is a digital oven thermometer, the kind with a 2-4' long cord and a temperature probe. Most have a hi-temp alarm as well. Sure beats squinting at the candy thermo that comes with the kits. Also, most kits come with a 4lb pot, and I find a 1lb pot much easier to work with. Peak has a 1lb pot kit, however. I still have a lot of the mats that came with my kit because the colors and scents didn't suit me, though. Neither did the 3" by 6" pillar, since I like 1.5" to 2.5" pillars no more than 5" tall... All depends what the kit costs vs. individual items, and what you want to make. Main thing to avoid? Ordering too much equipment the first time. I, ah, did not avoid that, but fortunately I love the hobby.

I'd have to agree on the self centering wicks. Never tried them, personally. For safer molds, though, Candlescience has a couple of votive molds without sharp edges. Scottcrewcandlesupply has a couple style silicone molds. I like the straight sided 1.5" one, but 8 cavities for $70 is a bit much. They have another type that is 11 cavities for under $20, but very tapered (1" bottom, 1.75" top).

I've scratched my head at their popularity, too, but the advertising of them as "Natural" is what I blame. I've yet to find a good way to use it in pillars, but I have no problem with it in containers. I've made votives (which turn into containers), and whatever Illume does with it (they say they add beeswax) is great. They make it almost the consistency of vaseline and I'd love to duplicate their Sahara Sage fragrance...but I digress. What bugs me is the hypocrisy of calling them natural, or ecological. For one, the beans are factory farmed with petroleum derived fertilizer, and then the oil has to be hydrogenated. I can't be certain but, from looking into it a little, it seems that uses hydrogen that is probably derived from ... petroleum. I'd love to know if the fertilizer and hydrogen use as much oil to make as an equivalent amount of paraffin. You _could_ use organic beans and solar energy derived hydrogen, but I'm betting nobody does. I've also heard that paraffin makes carcinogenic combustion by-products as well as soot. I'd love to know, and suspect, that a badly burning soy candle probably makes the same nasty compounds. If I had a friend who was concerned about clean burning candles and liked fancy things, I'd get them a nice wick trimmer ( search on "Archipelago Wick Trimmer"). I've made and bought a few truly maintenance free candles. A few.

That video is a trip; and, possibly a lesson to those of us who get too worried about doing everything perfectly :embarasse . I'll assume her candles burn well enough. Advice and a question. For palm pillars, I use CS's feather palm and their CSN 9 wick for 1.5"-2" pillars. CSN 12 for 2.5". If it's a little too small you can get a very pretty "framework" of wax around the edge. This happens for me with 2.25" CSN9 and 1.5" CSN5. Smaller, and I've had leaking out the side. These are medium dye and 5% FO. They slide right out of the mold. If I was going to sell candles, it'd probably be these. I'm trying to make good rustic 1343s, but I get sweating even with 2% FO and inconsistent flame height (2", LX14,16,18 20 works but a huge flame). I have some Vybar 343 on the way we'll see if it helps. 4045H doesn't mottle enough for my taste, though perhaps it would with a hotter pour and slower cool, IDK. For soy pillars I've tried CW's "Smooth Pillar Blend", which looks the same, though I'm not sure, as EcoSoya's PB. (Can anyone confirm?) I'm thoroughly disgusted with it. All the pillars are so soft they mar when you handle them, they stick to the wick pins, and worst, they always pour out the side (maybe there's a wick that wouldn't but I've tried a few). Unlike other waxes, once it starts to pour out it will continue as long as it can. Paraffin and beeswax usually pour out the amount of the melt pool and then stop. It's OK for votives as long as you put mold release on the wick pin. The wax is too soft to take much force removing the pin without ruining the candle. I've used LX-14 for those votives. Very good scent throw cold and hot. IMHO it's really a container wax. I'll be trying it for that next, but I don't really like container candles. Too heavy and delicate.

Some Sandalwoods (which probably have no real sandalwood in them), and something called "Amber". OMFG did it take a while for the room to air out after making the Amber... I wonder if it's supposed to be "Ambergris". Amber itself doesn't even have a smell AFAIK.

I know, I was just picking on the ... exchange of attitude. True, fully true... but, it's easy to get discouraged and drop it if your first efforts don't work out. It seemed disingenuous to say that you have to spend (hundreds of bucks, implied) in testing to get some decent candles out of your starter kit. You don't. All the guy needed, and granted he asked in a petulant tone that probably turned some people off, was a few basic starter combos, or just some reassurance. Like, yeah there are 20 kinds of wick out there. But, what kind of wax are you using? OK, here's one good kind of wick, or two, and try three sizes. That's a little less daunting. I get your point but... maybe he just wants to make a few dozen candles and have fun with it. That's the impression I got, or, maybe just what I hope was the case. I like experimenting and learning and all that, and maybe I'll get to the point where I feel I could say I'm "a chandler". Perhaps, even, I'll find a few recipes that are repeatable enough that I can feel comfortable selling them to recoup a small portion of what I've spent. Maybe. In the meantime, though, I've blown $600 or so on supplies and had a hell of a good time. I'm sure at least, over the next couple of years, I'll at least break even versus what buying the candles commercially would have cost. Plus, I can have really nice blueberry scented yellow candles in just the size I want. Cool. Straight blueberry is hard to find retail. I've only seen the occasional one, and always a container. (FWIW, I think Yankee's blueberry smells too harsh, sharp, or tart. Not to mention being a right rip-off price-wise. I had a nice CCC blueberry container, can't find em any more tho.) I even made a few unintentional sales to friends. My 2 3/4" egg shaped beeswax (2/0 sq braid) with a little bit of cinnamon FO or patchouli EO just went over so well... they're probably not perfectly wicked, but good enough.

So you're saying that say, if he gets some IGI4625 and uses 1 chip per pound of, say, flutter dye, and maybe a peak FO at 3%, to make say 2.5x6" pillars... and gets a sampler of LX wicks at 14,16,18 (perhaps), that at least one of that first batch of candles won't burn well enough? Granted, I'm fairly new at this myself, but it's been my experience that more often than not I get decent results. CSN 9 in a 2 1/8" pillar and feather palm wax worked first time. Beeswax in the same with a #2/0 sq braid, no probs. Tapers with #4/0, seems like a guaranteed win. Yeah, I've had some screw ups. #18 flat braid works beautifully for a 4625 wax taper, but not for a votive. The included wicks with the votive mold worked great, though (zinc core, forget the exact size). Worst screw up? Palm wax tapers with CSN 5. Drippy mess. 'course I messed up measuring and had 5 oz wax when I thought I had 11 so the dye & FO was excessive. Still, from the looks of it, Palm wax is just not suited for a taper. My point is, though, that maybe I'm underestimating the level of perfection you need to offer candles for _sale_, but if your goal is to make some for yourself that will burn well enough and smell nice... well, it hasn't been that hard. Granted, I'm using premix waxes and going easy on dye & FO. They plenty scented and colored for me, tho. (I'm not interested in container candles, maybe they're harder, since the burn conditions are so different at the bottom of the jar than at the top)

Talk about the pot calling the kettle... What's with the secretive attitude? Are you in competition with your fellow candle makers? Why should the community as a whole do redundant testing when some members have enough experience to avoid that kind of waste? If it's only a business to you, fine, but this is a _hobby_ to many of us and the right attitude is to want to _share_ info. That said, it's true, there are too many combos to be really sure about wicks. But, if you stick to a popular wax, known type and size, set amount of a known popular FO and not too much of a good dye... then _many_ different wicks will work and someone somewhere, here or a store, will help you out.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/radellaf/3457171519/ Made from my (1st) own mold, out of Smooth-Sil 920 platinum cure silicone rubber, cast in a paper towel tube. Wax was recycled from a burned out 3x4" christmas pillar. Original was a 3/4" x 5 1/2" CKG lag bolt from Lowe's hardware. Have not tried to see if the nuts will screw on. Wick 4/0# SB, primed. Haven't tried burning one yet, but have made several more, this time using a wick pin. You have to unscrew the wax bolt from the mold when you're done

candlesandsupplies.com has some tin and aluminum ones for under $5, but only 3" wide. The ~$10 prices for the 2" ones, I have to agree, are not bad. I'm trying to find some EXAGON brand polycarb molds. They seem well made. Though, if the gasket goes I guess I'll have to go to McMaster Carr and see if I can find an appropriate butyl rubber O-ring. I got one from the above shop in an egg shape, but would like more & different. Probably just bit the bullet and pay for a silicone 2.5" ball mold.

I've got a northern tool & equipment I should probably check out for a heat gun. Right now I'm using a butane Bernzomatic pen-torch with a hot blower tip ($12, Ace HW). But, it's still quite hot. I'd like one I can use with my polycarb molds without crazing the plastic at the top (just to even off the pouring hole area). I think the blower tip is 700-1000F which probably would damage the plastic. Anyone know what temp will damage polycarb? It works fine for spot-work on candles, like tacking a wick to the bottom of a pillar you used a wick pin to make. Or, evening off votives. I'd really like the Weller 6966C as it's smaller than most, but it's over $100, and not continuously variable.

Regarding comfort blend, have any of you seen any Illume brand candles? Perhaps if you can ID the wick they're using it might help with comfort blend? They have an odd wax that "solidifies" to a paste. I didn't want to order 10+ lbs of comfort, but I did buy a 2 lb pack of "Yarley Creme Container Wax" that seems to be a similar consistency. I get a lot of mushrooms, but otherwise my two testers are burning well and have a lot of hot throw. (10% blackberry sage Peak FO as a container candle in a standard cylindrical glass votive holder from Peak and an old pack of Yarley's 2" votive wicks) I'm pretty new at this, but, initiated by my intention to make a lot of beeswax candles, I'm going to be trying square braid as my default wick. Priming, and tabbing it myself if necessary. So far so good.