kgala0405

I hope people don't take this as SPAM, but I have found a really cool way to market my candle business. They charge $.01 per ad view which is really cheap when you compare it to other forms like Google ads and such. I'll let you check it out, if you don't like it then forget the idea. Here is a link to the site: Varolo I simply thought it was worth checking out. The link will show you a video that shows you a bit more on what they have to offer.

@Stella: Here is a link for where I got this information: http://www.naturesgardencandles.com/candlemaking-soap-supplies/item/942/-Common-Candle-Making-Questions.html It might be hard to find, so I went ahead and copied it here for you: Q: "I notice that with some of my fragrances, I cannot get the candle to get a full melt-pool across the top. Why?" A: "Fragrances vary in flash point and specific gravity. When a fragrance has a high flash point and high specific gravity, it requires a hotter burning wick to allow the fragrance to evaporate out of the wax, and to get a nice melt-pool. When a fragrance has a low flash point and low specific gravity, it requires a smaller sized wick to allow the fragrance to evaporate out of the wax, and get a nice melt-pool. Vanilla fragrances tend to require a hotter burning wick; while citrus fragrances will require a smaller sized wick." (www.naturesgardencandles.com) I went through their website and found that the vanilla fragrances did have a tendency to have high flash points and specific gravity. I also found the lowest fragrances were the citrus ones. However, as everyone has told me I also found a few vanilla and citrus fragrances that didn’t fit the mold. @ErickofAZ: Thanks Eric, glad to hear I’m on the right path. Thanks for the tip on viscosity, I will have to keep that in mind.

Thanks Jonsie and Stella for posting; your advice was very helpful. I didn’t realize that people made such drastic changes to their system when introducing a new FO. Currently, I have only played with one type of container, one type of wick, one type of wax, and I buy all my FO’s from the same company. I guess as I gain more experience and branch into new containers and waxes, I’m sure I’ll will eventually discover why these drastic changes are needed. After reading Jonsie’s and Stella’s valid points, I think they are right. I think it would be impossible to generalize something like this so that everyone could use it. However, I think I can still play with the data and use it for my own candle making system where I have more control over the variables involved. I understand that flash point and specific gravity are not the only variables involved in deciding which wick to use, but I do feel it offers a clue as to where you should start your experiment. Thanks everyone for your feedback. :smiley2:

I don't think any system would be 100% accurate. We all make candles, but I'm sure every member makes them differently. My hopes were to collect data to find a general pattern. I know there will always be a few that won't fit into the pattern, but I was hoping this would create a better starting point for newbie’s and veteran candle makers alike. This thread wasn’t meant to find a way around testing for newbie’s, but it was meant to make experimentation and testing more efficient for everyone. I guess the results of this would cause newbie’s to test less, but I’m sure everyone could benefit from it. Thanks Vickie for sharing your information, it’s good to know. However, I’m pretty stubborn so I think I’m going to continue my testing and hopefully I’ll be able to come up some sort of pattern within my own candle making. If I come up with anything, I’ll let everyone know. I’m not one to hold my cards too close.

I am new to candle making and to this forum. I have snooped around and have learned a lot from everyone in this forum. After making a few candles I have realized that candles are a system made from a container, wick, wax and fragrance. I found it was easy to determine the proper wick when not adding fragrance, but once fragrance was added to the equation it made everything a lot more difficult. This is because I use the same wax, the same wick and the same container, and they are all consistent. However, I found that every fragrance has different properties. However, being a logical person I realize this is all science so there must be a pattern that can be found. After doing some research I have read that fragrance oils with low flash points and low specific gravities have a tendency to be wicked down and fragrance oils with high flash points and high specific gravities need to generally be wicked up. Knowing this I feel if I had enough data I could hopefully find a pattern or system that would hopefully help predict whether or not a certain fragrance oil will need to be wicked up, wicked down or if no changes will be needed. The problem is I need data and I was hoping this community could help me with that. Of course anything that I learn through this process I will share with everyone and they can do whatever they wish with it. I think every person who has been making candles for some time knows the wick size that works best in their container without adding fragrance oil. I was hoping people could share which fragrance oils have caused them to wick up and which one have caused them to wick down from the ideal wick size for the container. For the sake of consistency, if you would like to participate you can share your information in this format: Fragrance Oil Name/Company/Flash Point /Specific Gravity/Then state how much you wicked up or down or state that you didn't have to. Here is an example: Butt Naked/Natures Garden/225 F/0.999/Wick Down -1 You can generally find the specific gravity in the MSDS sheet that many fragrance distributors share on their site. Not all do, but many of them will. To find any sort of pattern I will need the flash point and specific gravity, so if you only have one number it won’t be of any use. If the specific gravity is listed as a range, just post the lower number of the range. I think if we can get enough data, we will see some sort of pattern. This will save us time from testing numerous wicks and most importantly I think it will save all of us MONEY!