Sponiebr Posted January 6, 2017 Share Posted January 6, 2017 I don't know where to stick this, so I'll stick it here... Some of you know me. I make soap. I don't make candles unless I'm in the middle of a hurricane and I need more light then it's all kinds of new and exciting versions of house fire threatening fun. Again I'm a soap maker. I do use wax from time to time, but it's mostly beeswax and that goes into my soap, except when I'm NOT making soap and using beeswax for "the unintended other purpose". My wooden soap molds and soap making tools need care and to care for them I make a beeswax preservative which mainly consists of mineral oil and (clears throat) beeswax, and um usually a little paraffin. I was running low on my waterproofer/sealant/soap slicker-upper beeswax wood saving goo so I started to make some more. Beeswax I had, mineral oil was abundant, but my nub of parafin was gone. I used stearic acid instead. Why? Well, because it was THERE, and the paraffin was NOT there. That's why! (Stearic has some interesting friction induced lubrication properties too... but I digress) I made up the goo, tempered it, and stirred the mess with a popsicle stick for almost 6 hours with dauntless resolve. It finally got to where I wanted it and so I poured/glopped it into a 4 oz jelly jar, and remelted it in the oven. I was looking at the pretty golden mess in that jar while holding the greased up popsicle stick and thinking, oh this would be FUN to post on the chandler's forum... I was going to do something along the lines of a picture of my jar full of perfectly poured wax and the headline of YAY!!! My VERY first container pour!!! When do I add the FO and the wick? I figured that would be funny. And it would have been funny if I hadn't been holding that damned popsicle stick. HOWEVER... I WAS holding that greasy little flat stick and my sick, demented subconscious apparently had been eyeing it and had marked it for nefarious entertainment purposes... That poor stick... You may recall my asking about using a bit of straw as a wick? (the concept is solid) Popsicle sticks ain't straw folks, they're STICKS. Wooden sticks at that. Ok, so I've got a wooden stick in my hand covered in a wax and mineral oil grease, and (oh you've already guessed it haven't you?) I set fire to the end of it. It burned, but it did not burn well. Well, the fact that it burned at all was the reason I needed to cut it into quarters smash it up a bit with my pliers (to spread out the wood fibers), and stick a bit of it into my little jar o' wood lube. In it went! Fire applied. And VIOLA!!!! Well... Better you see for yourself: The wick prototypes. Just lit: I put it out after about 45 minutes and adjusted the wick. Re-lit and left alone to burn for about 1 hr 45 minutes before I put it out because the flame was just barely hugging the end of the wick. This also shows the depth and diameter of the MP. It's not candle wax... and those aren't candle wicks but the candle burned steady, though it danced a little bit towards the end when I pushed the char line just to the edge of the melt pool for better feed. I tweaked a couple of other wicks and I have them ready for tomorrow when I will pour with some wax that should burn a bit better. Do you know how HARD it is to keep coming up with terrible ideas that are SURE to FAIL so I can apply my special brand of self effacing humor ONLY to have the DAMNED THINGS WORK!!!!? Anyway... I figured at least SOMEBODY would get a kick out of my miserable failure to produce a miserable failure of a candle... I need to go back to messing up soaps. o.O Sponiebr the King of wish-less thinking. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TallTayl Posted January 6, 2017 Share Posted January 6, 2017 Homesteaders and preppers would be proud... Might be a great hack for an emergency candle. Your mixture is a fairly easy burn compared to just beeswax. Beeswax and wood wicks do not play well, I wished and tried, but was not able to get them to work. Not sure the wood type used in either wood wicks or popsicle sticks (or if popsicle sticks are made from different woods at-hand during production). I remember Alan from Peak did similar tests in a thread I cannot for the life of me find. He stuck a wick in various household items like crisco, a stick of butter, Vicks vapo rub, etc. they did burn. While nobody in their right minds would recommend those ideas, actually doing the experiments can be fun. Safety first! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sponiebr Posted January 6, 2017 Author Share Posted January 6, 2017 @TallTayl I've got some wax that is extremely hard but very paraffin-esq that I'm going to try tonight just for giggles. Either that or I'm going to make some soap... 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sponiebr Posted January 7, 2017 Author Share Posted January 7, 2017 (edited) @TallTayl How long are you supposed to let a candle settle/steep/requiem in pace/sit in the jar before testing? (I actually made 2 little jar candles... Like actual candles with FO and mica...) Also how high should a 1/4" wide wood wick be trimmed, and a 5/32" wick? Edited January 7, 2017 by Sponiebr Wick trimming height. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sponiebr Posted January 7, 2017 Author Share Posted January 7, 2017 Never mind... Well, the squooshed toothpick one works. It's got BB bronze mica, a little CrO3 for a green, (I'll need dyes in the future), and CS' Christmas Hearth. I'm pretty sure, and Dad seems to think it might be plain paraffin. We're not really sure, it was over in some other um... materials that are used in producing things that burn. o.O It melted at 130 F so... We're going with plain old fashion paraffin. It had a really bad "sinkhole?" I just remelted the top and let it run back down into the hole to fill it. It's in a really little jar I got from Dollar Tree. Lots of little air bubbles along the sides of them. I just love how the mica swirls in the melt pool. 45 minutes-ish... A penny for scale... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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