jonsie

I just want to say thank you to all the experienced candle makers who are so helpful to me already. Only been here for about a week and have already asked a few stupid newbie questions -- but the great thing is, I have actually received responses from experts willing to help me out! The thing that shocks me is that there are obvious experts here who make their living making beautiful candles, and yet they are patient enough to help out someone like me who isn't really planning to open a business selling candles, just wanting to make a great one for myself because it seems so fun and interesting. I was just telling my husband this morning how great this forum is because real experts are so helpful even to people just starting out as a hobby. He was shocked, too. Neither of us have ever seen such a willingness to help out the newbie in any online forum before. I have already learned so much reading posts.

Thanks again!

I beginning to think I don't have enough sense to figure this candle burning out. If anyone can give me some advice Id be grateful. Here's where I'm at now. Made some test candles. For each scent I used

8 oz sq mason jar no wicks

1 lb of wax 464 heated to 195

Added 1 tsp co to pot before pouring measuring wax

Added 1.5 oz @ 185 of the following fos

vineyard

monkey farts

cornbread muffins

kudzu

I was pouring @ 165 but found I got cracks and @ 150 I didn't have this problem

I just cant understand how the first candles did so well and the 2nd one flopped and now, maybe one scent yes, but all of them??

Just so I understand, with every batch of FO your poured, the first candle would burn and throw very well, and the second would be bad?

My only thoughts are that maybe some additives are rising/settling between the two pours, and to try stirring before and during the pours. And depending on how you are heating your wax, you can have a 10*+ temp difference between the beginning of the first candle pour and the end of the second candle pour, and that can create a problem too.

Chances are you are already considering those things, but worth mentioning anyway. Best of luck to you.

Soy327, I'll definitely report on how it goes with them. Unity Candle shipped them pretty quickly to my mother-in-law's address in the U.S. but now I'm waiting to receive them here is Australia. And I can't wait!

SheilaRae, I'm a newbie candle-attempter (I definitely wouldn't call myself a candle maker yet, hehe) and I am working with soy too (GW 464). My biggest issue with the wooden wicks is the problem with air pockets around the wick. Since these wooden wicks have more surface area than the corded wicks, the air bubbles glom more easily to them and create these frustrating pockets. And I'm guessing that is why so many of the hand-made wooden wick candles extinguish so often. All that to say my primary focus is to minimize these air pockets in the first pour (I'm way too lazy to fuss with them after that). If air pockets aren't a problem for you, then I definitely suggest to give the wooden wicks a try!

I have all my Fos in the 16oz amber bottles and I spilled all the time. So I bought the large flip top caps from Peak. Takes me a little longer to get my oils out, but I don't spill/waste any now.

I get bottles and caps from here:

http://stores.ebay.com/CANDLECHEM-COMPANY_BOTTLES-Plastic_W0QQ_fsubZ11166453QQ

Thanks KF and Top! That is a great solution and just what I needed.

I do not "measure" FO - I WEIGH it.

I never use a measuring cup or glass - it's a waste of FO and something else to clean up.

I may try a combination of the flip top and pouring directly into the pour pot. But until I get over this habit of over-pouring, I'll probably stick with the beaker for now :embarasse

I'm starting to work with these big 500 mL bottles of FO (~ 16 oz size, I think) and pouring from them always makes a mess. I tried using a dropper I had gotten from the supplier but it was so small it would take forever to get the quantity I would need. Any suggestions on how to use these neatly?

Thanks,

Susan

Unity will mail direct to Australia.

I have purchased some from them before. Their large size crackle really nicely in palm, but in soy they were a failure as far as keeping them alight and such. I felt that although they crackled in the palm the flame was far to vicious for my liking.

As for Unity, did their wicks look any differently from wicks you've received from other suppliers? The ones I got from candlewic seemed kind of sloppy; the small, medium, and large sizes all had wide variations in width, and on many of them the two wood layers were glued together crookedly.

Thanks Tammy! That is good to know. We have The Good Guys here in WA and I was looking at their selection but they didn't have any of the temperature controllers hooked up to them...doh!

Linda, I'll be happy to! Since I'm in Australia I'm having them mailed to my mother-in-law in Tennessee, and then I'll need her to mail them to me here, lol. So it might be awhile

And I don't think there would be as many of us using them if there were a problem.

And I guess I should clarify the kind of bubbles I'm having trouble with are the tiny tiny ones that gather around the wick. Seems they bubble up once I light the wick and cause it to extinguish or burn low. But I'll save that question for another thread.

There are instructions out there on how to put the spigot in yourself. I bought mine off E-bay with the spigot already there, but I have read where others have put their own in.

The only stock of wooden wicks I've tested so far are from http://www.candlewic.com/ and I admit I wasn't thrilled with the crackle from them. Seems I might have gotten some bad batches of their smaller wicks, HOWEVER, I must explain that I am still in testing mode.

I've decided to order a bunch from http://www.unitywoodenwicks.com/ since they are the patent holder and actual manufacturer of the wicks. I searched for opinions on them here on the site but I couldn't find any. Once I receive them I'll can report back if I had better results.

I would love the ease of a Presto Pot and spigot. Or anything with a spigot! I'm not sure where to get something like that here in Western Australia but I'll look around.

But I have a question. Do you think using a spigot adds air to the wax? I've been struggling with air bubbles in my candles, and my current method is to use a pour pot in a stock pot of water. I know I still need to tweak my methods but I was wondering if the spigot might add to my problem.

Tammy, I went to the Aussie Soap Supply business this morning and it was wonderful! The couple that run it are so nice and helpful. Besides picking up some 76 CO, I also picked up one of their soap kits. Thanks for that great suggestion!

I do need to test some candles with the USA. Since I am using 464, I tried focusing on the CO for now but I should do some with just add'l USA too. I'll report back with the results.

Thanks Tribal! That is some very helpful information since I didn't know there was a soap supplier here in the area. I'll give them a call today.

And Chuck, I'm not sure how much luck I'll have but I'll give it a try Hopefully the soap supply will have what I need.

I'm still wondering how this will affect my candles. I know I need to test, test, test, but does anyone know if there is a rule of thumb on this, or if CO has an affect on how the candles look after they burn?

Since we don't have a Walmart here in Western Australia, I bought some coconut oil from a Chinese market and some from a health food store. I've been using the CO from the health food store but I noticed that CO would harden before the Chinese one. So I poured exact amounts in two of the same style containers and set them in the fridge together. Sure enough, the health food store brand still set a lot faster than the Chinese one. So does this mean the health food store CO has a lower melting point?

My poor brain is hurting! I don't know how switching to a higher melting point CO would affect my candles. My main, number one problem with my candles is that the tops look completely nasty after they burn. They look fabulous after the pour... the side and tops look great. But it's all down hill after the burn, and I'm not even adding color to them yet.

I'm grasping here!

Well, I called the supplier and she said she didn't think anything was wrong with them. She said they hadn't had any other problems from that lot and felt it was safe to assume it was ok to use.

I hope that's true!

In my 50# box of GW464 I see some white flakes among all the ivory toned ones. The whiter ones seem to be coming from one side of the box. What are they and is it anything to worry about? Should I pick them out or just ignore them?

Thanks!

Stella, thank you for your time and your patience! You are a saint... and that's a HUGE compliment from me :)

Thank you Stella! It's time for me to melt some of these down because I don't want to commit any more glassware to testers than I have to.

Once liquid, carefully pour the wax into a single container to save for future use.

Hi Steve! Thanks for the advice, I think you are right about finding a jar size and sticking with it. I think my problem is I found too big of one to start with! The 3" is just too mammoth to run repeated tests on.... shame on me for not listening to the suggestions here.

Since I started to see some good results with the 464, I bit the bullet and bought 50# (huge commitment for me!) and been running all my tests on new wax. Now I gotta wonder what to do with the 40+ testers on my kitchen table... yikes! I'm gonna pull a Scarlet O'Hara and worry about that another day.

Overall it's going well, and I'm still having a blast. But life gets in the way sometimes and I couldn't pour or burn any candles in the past day and a half. It felt strange! Once this busy weekend is out of the way I hope to be back on track.

Best of luck to all of you!

You may know this already but I'll mention this incase it helps someone else, and since I may not understand your problem yet...

8 fluid oz of water and 8 fluid ounces of oil (like FO) will have different weights on the scale. I tested this on my scale with weighing water, and then weighing the same amount of coconut oil. The CO will actually weigh less than water, so if I was attempting to measure out 8.4 oz of coconut oil on the scale, I might end up with something like 9 fluid oz of CO.

Not sure if that might address your problem but figured it was worth mentioning.

It appears that 8 fluid oz of water would mathmatically convert to 8.345 oz in weight, so it sounds like you are close.

My source: http://www.convert-me.com/en/convert/weight2volume

Thank you Stella and Richard As y'all can imagine, it's going slowly but I'm absolutely loving it! When I first thought about pursuing candles I had no idea all of the research and testing that went into it, but I'm finding that I really dig it. Even with the failures I'm still enjoying the process, and I think y'all got my expectations in reasonable shape before I poured my first candle, lol.

I haven't poured any palm today but I did do some 415 with the wooden wicks (without any CO) and I was pleased with the early results. The candles were sure ugly once they set, which is something I have to learn more about with 415, but I'm encouraged by how it works with the wicks.

Still no FO or dye today, but I'm itching to start that sometime soon. I just don't want to waste money on FO on combos that may or may not work.

Thanks again!

Aah, thanks Richard. I can respect that.

Well, I melted down some test 464 candles that had no FO or dye, added some CO, poured using the same stats as before, and my first test candle (only sat for 3 hours) burned great! Actually, it's too large of a flame, and I had a full melt pool in 2 hours on the first burn. I'll test the rest of the test candles from that batch over the next few days to see if there is any difference.

I also melted some virgin 415 flakes, only added the CO, and poured some more tests. I started burning one after sitting for 3 hours and it had a full melt pool within one hour.

So I'm excited! And I know I shouldn't be because soy can be fickle but I am just so pleased to see a pretty flame! Time to get some fresh 464 flakes and work on improving the results.

Thanks everyone for your help.

Have you tried blending some parrafin into your soy? Don't know for sure if that will help with the wood wick but it can't hurt. A parasoy blend can resolve some issues with soy such as frosting, rough tops, scent throw, and wicking. If you are willing to try other waxes this may be a good solution for you so you can still continue using soy. Incidentally Virginia Candle company that started the wood wick candle uses a 'soy blend'.

That is really good to know, thanks! I may also give some coconut oil a try but I need to find some around here first. No Walmarts to pop into around here

Yes I reckon I know pretty well who your supplier is. They are great people to deal with. I still get some scents, all of my wicks and our soy wax from over there.

That is VERY reassuring! Any possibility of them supplying wooden wicks? Right now I am having them mailed from the U.S.

I haven't visited Sydney yet but what we've seen of Perth so far we really like! We are living in the Subi area near where my husband works. Great place. You can probably also guess who my supplier is