Wood Wicks

[Daisymay66]

I am possibly interested in trying wood wicks. But I know absolutely nothing about them. I've never even tried one before which I'm gonna buy one tomorrow. Anyone have any thoughts, comments or suggestions? Good or bad! TIA

[Sponiebr]

Well, I'm not a chandler by any means but I was fooling around with some homemade wood wicks a few weeks ago. They were fussy. What I mean is:

the wick really had to be trimmed to it's ideal burn height,
the wick had to be kept at it's ideal burn height

they performed poorly at first until a good MP had developed.
Hot. 
Depending on the wood and porosity of the wood AND direction of grain wax burn rates were different.

I needed a MUCH larger wick than I was expecting, except in bamboo, and the bamboo needed to be a fraction of the size the flat wicks needed to be.
Gotta make sure you kill them with oxygen starvation. or they WILL smolder, (but not as long as I thought they would smolder) 
They HAVE to be sized with some sort of penetrating wax like substance or they won't wick or light worth a damn. (I used 100% or a 90/10 blend of pure stearic acid to "boil" my wicks in before trying them out. 


Other than that, they were really pretty and had wonderful throw. Pretty easy to light and didn't need to be constantly trimmed. They kinda self regulated. Personally, I liked them. They have a nice oil lamp like quality to the flame that I find to be nice. 

HTH, 

P.S.: Even though I am generally a smart ass, I'm being serious about this... Please don't hold my opinion about this as anything but anecdotal. Listen to the chandlers over me. Like I said, I'm NOT a chandler.  

  

[Daisymay66]

Sponiebr

thanks so much for your help! I can see I better do a ton of reading and researching before I even think about these little bad boys! Lol but thanks for your thoughts! Very appreciated