baretree

Okay. An update. And another thank you to all who have responded. It was air pockets evidently. Researched, poked relief holes, did an overpour, etc. Retested yesterday and though the candle now burns evenly without the rapid tunneling, it is still underwicked evidently. Sooooooooooo, I am going to do another melt and repour and move up one size in wicks. And yes, I probably overdid it a bit on the FO, but I've been playing around with % of FO to see what it does to throw (and so far I'm discovering increasing the % does little to nothing for hot throw, IMO). My apologies @ Janet. I should have made clear in my OP that I truly am a novice at this, having picked up the candle hobby to try to tie it into my woodworking hobby and budding business. I'll update again if it looks like there is still interest in this thread.

@ rj. Yes. It happened rapidly. Within an hour.

And thank you to all. I am just a novice at this, but trying to learn.

Thank you to all who replied. @ JanetsCandles - No, I have not had experience with too small of wicks. As I stated, this is my first attempt at container pours. I've done research, looked at a lot of different forums, so I picked up the lingo, as it were. The wick I used was stated to be for a container size of 3" to 3.5", which is actually wicking up for the I.D. of my container which is about 2-3/4". @ the two or three others who mentioned air pockets: I haven't, in my research, run into a mention of this problem/condition. If this is what caused this to happen, how do I identify it in the future? And, how do I fix it if I encounter it? I let this candle air cool (no water bath, etc.) with the lid off. Pour was done at 165. Pics of the end result attached.

Okay. Using IGI-6006 wax (paraffin/veg blend) with FO at 10% by wgt, poured an 8 oz mason jar. I was using an HTP-93 wick from Peak Candle. Initial wick trim was about 3/8" long. When I lit this candle for a test burn, every thing started out just fine. Melt pool was slowly expanding. Went to make myself dinner, and then ate dinner. Checked on the container candle, and lo and behold, a tunnel had been created right down the center of it, about an inch in diameter, maybe two inches deep into the candle. Needless to say, the candle is ruined (will have to clean out, remelt and repour). I am guessing I chose too big of a wick, or the wrong type, because it would seem to me if the wick is the "pipeline" supplying the wax to the flame, this "pipeline" was too big and prevented a proper melt pool from forming. I would appreciate any input from experienced chandlers on this. Thanks.