EricofAZ

212MP is probably a microcrystalline wax. It might help your wick stand up better, but so does the core in paper and cotton and zinc core wicks. I use a micro wax that is pretty close to that temp and what it does for me is it saturates the wick with wax right through the core. If you put your raw spool wick in the presto with that stuff, after a few seconds it foams. This is the air from the core being pushed out from heat expansion and replaced with the wax. I think this gives me a slightly more consistent burn, though priming with the container wax does as well. I make my candles one at a time so I can let the wick slump into the wax a bit when I pour and then raise it up before the candle cools and center it with a tool. If that's too much effort for those who pour in bulk, then priming with something at or above 195 MP is probably good. Beware of pre-made wicks that have tabs already on them and are pre-primed. Most of these are not primed to the core. The core is often still dry and full of air. You'll get more flickering from them. The wicks I prime are not as smooth on the outside as the store bought pre-primed ones and I think that's just because I don't use a priming machine and also because the store bought ones use a machine that often does not saturate the core. If you cut the wick and see unprimed fiber in the middle, then gosh golly gee. Don't pay for that. Cheaper to buy raw and prime and tab yourself. (Assuming you get a good price on bulk tabs.)

I haven't done any carved candles for a while, but I have experienced some of what you are noticing. 1. The glaze you bought is probably fine, so I guess it just got diluted too much. Keep it pretty thick. It is water base and of course the candle is oil base so they don't mix at all. The glaze needs to be thick to stick. The glaze is pretty much nothing more than floor wax. Unfortunately, most floor wax these days is very thin and diluted. If you can find a thick, concentrated floor wax (acrylic) then you should be able to use that. 2. The titanium dioxide as far as I know comes in one form which is powder. Yeah, some companies mix it into blocks, but you can buy just the powder and it works fine. I'd stay with that. Sounds like the other whitener you got is not compatible. 3. I don't heat up that high. 150 is fine. Depends on the wax you are using. Keep your cooling / water tank clean. The air bubbles that form are not a problem, they go away, but the wax that drips into the water tank can be a problem so clean that out from time to time. Go slower. Let the wax from the dip run off a bit before cooling in the water and then let the water run off before going back to the wax dip. Sounds like you might be going too fast. Some of the uneven color may be from not stirring the color vats and it may also be from using dyes instead of pigments. Pigments are better for dip and cut. There is a company in Washington State that has some good waxes for dipping (IGI 1343) and maybe the shipping is not so bad? http://www.letitshineusa.com/

The Presto sure made life easier for me and I think it is a lot cleaner and safer than the double boiler method.

I use 4625 in a 3x4 1/2 mould with a medium cotton core wick. 44-32-18 Pretty consistent with a wide variety of FO's and additives and dye, though I hardly ever use an additive.

Very nice. I like the mould. I would also enjoy a tutorial some time if you are so inclined.

Depends on the scent. The backdrop suggests to me that one is a clean ocean scent and the other is an earthy scent. However, if you are going to use the pic for advertising, make the tag centered and straight. I'm a bit of an OCD guy so crooked or offcenter or twisted or rotated things in the picture draw my attention and make me wonder if there was any attention to detail. I know that's not true of you, just a personal thing that others might also experience.

My best guess is to filter the wax. I use these. http://www.webstaurantstore.com/10-paper-grease-filter-cone-50-box/121100.html

Companies that publish wick ROC do so by using a wax they select for the test and they try to keep the wax the same for multiple tests. Not all companies use the same wax. Most don't tell you specifically what wax is used so your wax may vary. That's why the ROC charts are just a guideline. The viscosity is what gets the wax moving in the wick along with the burn capability of the mixture that you mix minus the impurities and wick capping. So that means: 1. A more viscous wax / mix (FO and Dye and additives) will move faster through the wick than a thicker viscosity. 2. A mix that burns and consumes faster will vacate the wick and allow more mix to be drawn in faster. 3. Impurities will clog the wick and slow down the burn. Sometimes a little, sometimes a lot. 4. A wick that 'shrooms or carbon caps (usually from FO) slows the flow. So sometimes I filter my wax. One of those restaurant style grease filters does a great job. Make sure the wick is not carbon capping or 'shrooming. http://www.webstaurantstore.com/10-paper-grease-filter-cone-50-box/121100.html I get a pretty mean HT with EO's by filtering before adding the EO. Specific gravity is just the density of your mix compared to water. Not the same as viscosity. http://www.csgnetwork.com/specific_gravity_viscosity_liquids.html

Only two things come to mind. Make sure that the container is not pottery or earthy ceramic, those can absorb and wick. Doesn't look like it in the pic. The other is that many of these pretty containers are made in China and use lead in the glaze. You can tell if it has a metallic look. You can also tell by microwaving for a few seconds and if it heats up, it has lead. I won't use stuff that has lead in the glaze for safety reasons.

Do I wash? Depends. Some of the glassware arrives dusty or gets dusty in the desert here so I clean that. Otherwise, no. Einstein and I do shower once a month whether we need it or not though. She likes the blow dryer and then snuggling in a dry towel. Nothing like having a cat that is fluffed and folded.

I don't know how suitable they are but eclamshells has quite a few different styles. http://eclamshell.com/search_results.asp?PAGE=2&stock=1&catName=1500

http://www.craftcave.com/candle/sittingdragonmold.shtml I thought I saw another but can't seem to find it.

That is a beautiful candle. Folks will like it.

I hear you about the differences between the 104 and 1212. Seems to be too cool or way too hot. I wish there were more inbetween sizes but there just aren't. I haven't used them in soys, just paraffins. When I get that gap that HTP can't seem to work with on the diameter of the candle then I just go to one of the other brands like CD.

I go to 9 percent on the Harmony and the one thing that seems to make it throw even better is to mix it a bit with some wax that does not have all the additives in it. Dunno if I can support this theory with numbers, but I kinda wonder if the additives are a bit too much in the Harmony and "diluting" it is better. Of course, you tend to lose the single pour property depending on what you mix it with.

I went to raw wicks over a year ago because of the price. I agree that priming doesn't have much of an effect on the burn of the candle after the first burn because the wick and melt pool tend to remain stable on how they interact. During the first burn, the pure raw wick will take a while to soak to the core and likely it will form a small cap that needs to be broken off before the second burn. I've primed mostly just by letting the wick go slack and soak in the freshly poured container then pull it tight with a wick holder. I've primed also by melting high melt point micro wax and putting raw wick in the pot. This method will, after a few minutes, superheat the air in the core and push it out in place of the micro wax. As such, the burn will be consistent even with the first burn. Most pre-primed wicks are not primed through the core, only the outside. As for flopping over, I've controlled that by limiting the depth of the melt pool. The deeper it is, the more likely the wick will flop over so if you're working with a cooler burning candle, the priming doesn't really seem to matter that much (other than the first burn). The core material can have a lot to do with the wick flopping over or not as well. Obviously, zinc tends to stay straight. So do HTP cores which I prefer a lot and cotton cores which I also like. Wicks that don't have a core at all, like ply wicks, need to limit the depth of the burn so using those in tapers is often just fine. Tapers tend to do better and drip less when the wick is really flowing a higher rate of consumption for the flame size and when they tend to burn a bit above the melt pool instead of right at the melt pool. I guess that's why there are so many different kinds of wicks on the market. I tend to make my candles a little cooler only because of the abuse factor (people burning them beyond the recommended burn time). Recently I had some feedback from a new tester that she was unsure at first how much she liked (or didn't like) the fact that there was some hang on the side of the glass. She noted that it caught up which made her feel like she was getting her money's worth. The throw was definitely OK in her opinion (which is hard to do with a smaller melt pool). She did like the fact that if she had to touch the glass or grab it for some reason, it wasn't going to burn her. (Another abuse issue, people should not be moving a hot candle, but they do.) Overall I asked if she would prefer the hotter ones that leave no hang or the cooler ones and she decided that the cooler ones seemed safer.

Pennie, those are wonderful. I've not had much luck with swirls in containers. Those came out well.

I saw the cremains. Very finely ground. Just a small sprinkle of mom and dad is enough for a forever candle. Personally, I think it can be done tastefully and I wouldn't mind at all if someone did that to me. I have a different outlook on life. Once the body is left behind, I really don't give a hoot what happens to it. The idea of the candle is respectful. I appreciate the thoughts, it did help me focus on what NOT to do. (no wick) I spoke with the person enough to feel comfortable that there are no mental issues, but there is clearly a grief process right now so I'll wait a bit and see what happens.

Ok, so no wick. Yeah, I can see mom and dad looking down asking why they ended up in the trash after the final burn. Probably not a problem if it was the in-laws but this person wants her parents in the candle. She started out by saying that it was an odd question if I could make such a candle and part of me thinks it is not odd at all. She likes candles, sometimes those scary religious ones at the dollar store. So I thought maybe there could be a therapeutic / religious comfort if it was done right. I hadn't thought about the hurricane, good idea. I want to be reverent of course. I'm thinking about a pillar with a glass insert at the top that is designed to hold either a tealight or a taper (I have a bunch of those).

Someone asked me if I could make some special cremains candles. My first thought was that the "ashes" are not going to burn because they are the ground bones that already went through the process of fire. My second thought was that they might wick and start a fire at the top of the wax pool. My third thought was that they would not be good to be breathing and maybe they would clog the wick. Then I got to thinking more (which is usually scary). What about a light layer in the bottom of the glass with just a little bit of cremains mixed in with the wax and a super tall safety tab? Or, a very light mix in the wax, so light that it amounts to less that what ends up with wick ash when the wicks don't get trimmed. Of course, the candle would be white, no FO so testing would be without the cremains. A nice photo of the person on clear printable 'paper' could be added to the outside of the glass, etc. Or I guess a pillar with the cremains as part of the pillar but with a hard outer shell that is just pure wax with some light kistka writing on it. Or a pillar with cremains added and whatever photos/decorations are appropriate with a glass insert for a tealight like a forever candle. Any thoughts?

Very nice!

Nice crystal pattern.

Lovely.

Haven't tried it, but I wonder if you could make your hurricane with less wax, pour out the center like normal, keep the liner in, and fill the outside of the liner with different colors after it cools? there would have to be some way to make the layers stick so heating up the cooled layer with a torch and pour hot on top?

I don't know about the wax that you are using, but I've noticed overall that I get less mushroom with the ECO wicks.