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fingernailing. WHY


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Not water but air/gas, or that's what I remember anyway. They say to heat the wax to 220 or so for 20 to 30 mins to make it evaporate. I've tried every trick posted on this board and I still get it. At least it's not in every single candle like it was this summer. Same wax, different wax, same methods, different methods, sometimes it's there, sometimes not. I have yet to find any rhyme or reason to it nor any "cure" :undecided

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Hey Ducky, I agree 100%. The black candle I showed last week with the spiffy lady on it was wickless HURRICANE wax (unscented) It was fine for a few days and today it started to show fnails. I've also had the odd pillar showing slightly. Personally I think it's pretty spiffy (but definitely not rite)

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I was told it was because of water in the wax.

Maybe *moisture*. Water in your wax causes a more immediate problem. I think it was Liz who blew the top off her Presto pot and spewed wax all over the kitchen, due to a couple of drops of water that got into the wax due to condensation.

The technical cause is as Scented said. But I've noticed that it tends to get worse during wet weather, for me. I've never been able to nail down just how or why.

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Now that I think about it... I always get finger nailing with strawberry FO. There was another one too. They were about the only solid colored candles I was doing, so I let it go. I made a couple of half hearted attempts to fix it, but I kinda liked it. I was out of ideas to avoid a solid red candle anyway...

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Now that I think about it... I always get finger nailing with strawberry FO. There was another one too. They were about the only solid colored candles I was doing, so I let it go. I made a couple of half hearted attempts to fix it, but I kinda liked it. I was out of ideas to avoid a solid red candle anyway...

I get it alot when I use Lavender FO. But I have cut into one, and it is air pockets. Sometimes they are large here and there, other times, they have been real tiny all over.

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I have only one severly fingernailed pillar and am in the process of burning it now. DEFINATELY NOT water. Mine happened using 3 types of wax togther, 1343, slake wax, and pieces of an old junk pillar from a thrift store.

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Hey Tucker, Maybe this will help?

From Peaks:

Universal Additive: Inhibits mottling. Increases wax hardness. Prevents bubbles. Increases opacity to some degree, but not nearly as much as Vybar. Also minimizes the occurance of surface pits in molded candles. Improves surface gloss. Increases fragrance oil capacity of wax. Can be used with waxes of any melting point.

General usage is 1 TBS per pound of wax (2% by weight). One pound of UA will treat approximately 50 pounds of wax.

MP: 184 deg F. Wax must be heated to above 184 to add this additive directly to the wax. If not, melt separately, then add to wax

.

It seems if I dont use the correct amount of this ,I have the fingernailing issue.

Be sure your measure amount are exact.

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