jonsie

Thanks, Richard! It's nice to see that you are in Australia. I'm an American but I moved to Perth about a year ago. We are here for about another three years (my husband is here on a work visa) and I am home taking care of our daughter. Now that she is starting Kindy, I thought I'd pick up a hobby. I noticed there weren't very many wooden wick candles around here (if any) so I thought I'd let that be my niche. My niche may very well have to change but I wanted to give it a good try. I have a 5 kg bag of palm crystallising container wax that I'll try soon. But I wanted to exhaust my soy options before giving up on it.

Thank you Richard I always remember the good advice and I don't mind admitting defeat. And I don't mind being defeated by soy wax. But I'm gonna continue to focus on the wooden wicks for a bit longer, even if it means changing to palm or parrafin.So despite my quixotic goals, I'm begging that we exclude the role of the wicks (although I know they play a big one), and if possible focus on other factors like I suggested above. Many thanks!

Ack! I was trying to avoid having to admit what I was doing! Well, I'm focusing on wooden wicks for now. I know from reading here on the forum that the wooden wicks are generally considered fadish and a liability, and despite all of that, I would still like to pursue them. Whew! Having confessed that, the specifics of my problem are that I am using the large-size wooden wick (~0.5" wide) in a 3-1/8" diameter glass container. Much appreciated!

This is my first post here, and I want to start off by saying how much I love this forum! I've learned so much just from reading and searching that I haven't had to post a question since I created my account weeks ago until now. I am a newbie with candle making and I am trying my best to work through the learning process as methodically as possible. I've created a spreadsheet to document all the stats for each batch I do, as well as another sheet to document the candle aesthetics and burn results. Y'all are good teachers! My main problem for now is I constantly get a small flame and the subsequent small melt pool. I'm testing just plain GW464 with no dyes, FO, or additives at this point. From reading here on the forum, wick size plays a big part of the flame and MP size. So BESIDES wick size, what other factors can I tweak in something like 464 to help improve the flame/MP? Such as, do I need to use some additives? Do I need to pour at a lower/higher temperature? Do I need to extend the cooling period? Do I need to cure longer? Should I temper? I respect that y'all have done a lot of testing at your own expense so I'm not asking for a magic number; I'm just asking for the area to tweak in order to increase flame/MP. Thanks in advance!!!