lenarenee Posted February 26, 2018 Share Posted February 26, 2018 Hello everyone! I'm kicking myself for not using paper and pencil for keeping notes because a major MS update on my computer screwed it up so much it can't completely be fixed. (hello Linux) I've done a few more tests myself with straight coco 83 and different wicks and so far my favorite has been the small booster wooden wicks. Second place goes to eco 4 and 6, but not really happy with them, 4 is a little too small I think, and 6 has a dancing flame and mushrooming. The cd wicks burned only one side of the candle. I've lost the specifics of all of the testing and I'm sure there's many forgotten details I'm wondering if it's time for me to start combining this wax with soy or beeswax. How are your experiments going? Any suggestions on which waxes that have worked for you? (my goal is only to make candles for myself, so shipping cocowax isn't a problem) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pughaus Posted February 27, 2018 Share Posted February 27, 2018 FYI: I'm a 3 month rookie so weigh my feedback accordingly I couldn't find a suitable wick for straight coco83. So far I've only thoroughly tested a beeswax blend with wood wicks. All my tests are in a 3.10" dia. straight tumbler with coco83 as the main wax: So with wooden wick and a 3% beeswax blend: Best w/ original wick - 030./ 3/8" or 1/2" for lively crackle or dual wick 3/8" for a mellower crackle The boosted wicks gave me more wax browning, more debris and tended to hiss too much for my taste. The set up above worked well with fragrance oils and with essential oils.(LV, YY, PATCH) The EO candles were divine- and potent! I also tried small ribbon wicks which actually burned very well in the 3% beeswax blend but are limited in size options and too hard to trim deeper in the container so I won't be using them in the future. I'm now testing regular wicks with: 3% beeswax + 5% stearic- just started burn tests with CD's 10% just stearic- nope-didn't work, killed the throw 3% rice bran wax- promising, working well with the premiers I'm testing in it this week HTH 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lenarenee Posted February 28, 2018 Author Share Posted February 28, 2018 That was very interesting pughaus, thanks! What type of regular wicks other than premieres have you tried? TallTayl suggested eco wicks - which I tried and I'd like to retest with either some added soy or beeswax. Or palm. The cd wicks burned so unevenly - heating one side of the glass so I shelved those. I have some htp to try. Your 3% beeswax with the wooden wicks sounds like a good idea. I'm mostly happy with the booster 3/8 wick, but it did run a little hot and eventually I'd like to make some with fragrance. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TallTayl Posted February 28, 2018 Share Posted February 28, 2018 Wooden wicks freaked me out in my early tests. I used the boosters, and If not trimmed religiously before lighting they got out of hand in typical jars. Loved them in a few ceramic jars in soy. I’ll give your choices a try. Thanks for sharing! cottonwood and ribbon wicks were a bit much in my plain coconut too 😒. I jumped too high with 10% beeswax in one blend and 10% sunflower wax in another and got soot with eco. 🙃. I need to make time to back down on the additives and go again because coconut wax is one that I personally like to burn at home. 3% beeswax sounds really good. WRT stearic added to coconut, the throw seems to return with a hotter wick. 10% is a little high. Keep in mind that stearic naturally occurs in other waxes, like soy, so there’s a bit more math involved when blending. I am waiting for some paper core wicks to try next. Really hopeful that we can dial in these wicks soon. Summer is coming and I’ll want to be anywhere but in the shop. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kandlekrazy Posted February 28, 2018 Share Posted February 28, 2018 I purchased a coconut wax candle at a market and loved it! (yeah I'm the sucker who can't pass your tent up without buying) Makes me want to try the wax. The guy said he used just coconut & beeswax but wouldn't share % which I get, maybe he's here and will chime in??? It really burned rather nicely. Couldn't tell which wick either other than it was round not flat but as a guess maybe CD or Cotton, possibly ECO can't remember what they look like. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pughaus Posted February 28, 2018 Share Posted February 28, 2018 10 hours ago, lenarenee said: What type of regular wicks other than premieres have you tried? TallTayl suggested eco wicks - which I tried and I'd like to retest with either some added soy or beeswax. I dabbled in ecos with beeswax but nothing very "scientific" and its certainly worth re-testing in several sizes: on eco my notes say: "1/3 down + convection winds start up and candle is throwing wisps of smoke, flame getting wild / also odd chemical smell not noticed with the RRD- ending test here." The RRD: "mushroom forming by start of hour 2, significant MR by start of hour 3." Honestly, I was so new to this I wouldn't trust my observations- I probably wicked too big and I now allow much, much later in a burn for any wax hang up to burn down. And then I moved right to wood wicks (and stayed there) before testing all my other wick possibilities. And then I moved to the rice bran wax. Soo..I wouldn't rule anything out yet. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pughaus Posted February 28, 2018 Share Posted February 28, 2018 @kandlekrazy Confession: I've destroyed more than 1 perfectly good commercial "coconut wax" candle trying to get a good look at the wick so I could ID it. I've also yanked a couple of wood wicks out. The obsession is real 1 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TallTayl Posted February 28, 2018 Share Posted February 28, 2018 44 minutes ago, pughaus said: @kandlekrazy Confession: I've destroyed more than 1 perfectly good commercial "coconut wax" candle trying to get a good look at the wick so I could ID it. I've also yanked a couple of wood wicks out. The obsession is real The sacrifices we make in the name of science!. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lenarenee Posted March 1, 2018 Author Share Posted March 1, 2018 On 2/28/2018 at 7:42 AM, pughaus said: @kandlekrazy Confession: I've destroyed more than 1 perfectly good commercial "coconut wax" candle trying to get a good look at the wick so I could ID it. I've also yanked a couple of wood wicks out. The obsession is real Where did you purchase coconut wax candles? (I want one!) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pughaus Posted March 1, 2018 Share Posted March 1, 2018 @lenarenee https://ethicssupplyco.com/ I love this line + the people behind it! I've also mangled a couple of voluspa candles, attempting to get a better look at the wick. ( I've stopped abusing candles that way, especially expensive ones! ) 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lenarenee Posted March 2, 2018 Author Share Posted March 2, 2018 Oh I would love their White Mountains (born in New England) and their Redwood Avenue candle! But after spending hundreds of dollars on car maintenance....I just can't. FYI: there are some candles heavily discounted - for 15 dollars! Their website says they use cotton wicks. But they have pictures of with wood wicks. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TallTayl Posted March 2, 2018 Share Posted March 2, 2018 18 hours ago, pughaus said: @lenarenee https://ethicssupplyco.com/ I love this line + the people behind it! I've also mangled a couple of voluspa candles, attempting to get a better look at the wick. ( I've stopped abusing candles that way, especially expensive ones! ) Thank you for that link! I just ordered a couple to try. Any thoughts a outnwhich coconut waX they use? There are several retail available right now. They all seem to contain paraffin. The only place that I have ever seen advertised as “organic” coconut wax was NorthWood Candle Supply. Incidentally, more recently they changed the catalog to no longer read as “organic” in favor of “Natural”. The appearance and performance is very close to the “beads”. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pughaus Posted March 2, 2018 Share Posted March 2, 2018 2 hours ago, TallTayl said: Any thoughts a outnwhich coconut waX they use? There are several retail available right now. Their Joshua Tree candle smells divine to me. Not sure what coco wax they start with but IIRC Candle and Supplies has at least 1 coconut wax that they note as "organic". I noticed that last time I was on their site.. I was tempted to buy some but I'm so close to a supplier of coco83, I'm just going to stick with that as a foundation for now. For all I know that's what C&S is selling! Who can tell? 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kerven Posted March 2, 2018 Share Posted March 2, 2018 (edited) Candlewic has a coconut wax that doesn't appear to have any paraffin in it. Their SDS lists the ingredients. I'm guessing it's a proprietary blend they make at their facilities. Haven't tried it yet - it's a bit pricey. Their coco-apricot blend is nice and works well with soy, although, it does have paraffin in it and is as difficult (maybe a little more) to wick as coco83. Edited March 2, 2018 by Kerven 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TallTayl Posted March 8, 2018 Share Posted March 8, 2018 On 3/1/2018 at 1:50 PM, pughaus said: @lenarenee https://ethicssupplyco.com/ I love this line + the people behind it! I've also mangled a couple of voluspa candles, attempting to get a better look at the wick. ( I've stopped abusing candles that way, especially expensive ones! ) Whiskey. tango. foxtrot. i just tore into my Shipment of Ethics Candles. So excited. The outer box is well branded. the inner packaging is finished with care. the first jar jar is pretty as a picture. Opened the lid and.... where’s the wick? second candle. Same verse same as the first. the candles were rattling in the jars so i dumped the second one out. There’s the wick. Way off center and about an inch too short to reach the top of the candle to light. first jar, centered but also far too short to reach the top of the candle, let alone light. the wicks will not thread back into the candle. They are totally useless at this stage. Looks like CD wicks, but I sure don’t want to have to find the right sizes. Big GIANT Swing And A Miss miss for these. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TallTayl Posted March 8, 2018 Share Posted March 8, 2018 their site won’t even load for me so I can’t get a return ticket to ship these back to them. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GoldieMN Posted March 8, 2018 Share Posted March 8, 2018 (edited) Whoa! Quality control=F Love the label, lid and jar though. Maybe not even quality control. More like someone doesn't know what they are doing. GoldieMN Edited March 8, 2018 by GoldieMN Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TallTayl Posted March 8, 2018 Share Posted March 8, 2018 4 minutes ago, GoldieMN said: Whoa! Quality control=F Love the label, lid and jar though. Maybe not even quality control. More like someone doesn't know what they are doing. GoldieMN These candles go for close to $40 a pop plus pretty high shipping. Their website won’t even load now. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pughaus Posted March 8, 2018 Share Posted March 8, 2018 oh boy- oops! That's quite an oversight. Here's the phone # from their facebook 800.270.4316, in case it's not on the bottom of the candle. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TallTayl Posted March 8, 2018 Share Posted March 8, 2018 I think it is just a weird thing about their choice of wax. I heat gunned the wick out of the container to check the length. It was cut to about 1/8” over where the top of the candle would have been. As the wax traveled in the cold trucks and planes the wick wiggled further and further down into the candle. The fact that the wax shrinks that much much makes me worry about my own new lines of coconut candles! Eek! the wax coating on the wick is totally gone, so it must have been poured very hot, like many coconut wax instructions advise. This would surely have caused the wick to flop back into the candle’s shrunken open wick channel. Moral of the story, TEST SHIP your candles in all weather extremes! I wrote to them using the info email on my shipping notification. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TallTayl Posted March 8, 2018 Share Posted March 8, 2018 Well, I did surgery on both and am calling it a success. Was able to heat gun out both wicks, poke a New centered hole from the underside of the candle and rethread. I’m exhausted. Here is a pretty picture of a candle for your enjoyment. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pughaus Posted March 8, 2018 Share Posted March 8, 2018 A disappearing wick! Now there's a weather/wax possibility I had never considered! (If anyone here is a Seinfeld fan they might be reminded of George Castanza's pool "shrinkage" incident.) 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TallTayl Posted March 9, 2018 Share Posted March 9, 2018 It is burning fine now after surgery. they replied that a bad batch of wax made it into their inventory. One observation, though, coconut wax can really throw soot. . This plate wad held 6” above the candle for three seconds. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pughaus Posted March 9, 2018 Share Posted March 9, 2018 Oh yikes, something went very wrong with that candle. I have their blue butterfly one and it sure isn't throwing that kind of smoke. Even my coconut candles, for all their flaws, don't soot like that despite my very imperfect wicking. I noticed they use a coco, beeswax, soy blend. I wonder if the soy you all have been struggling with is the "bad batch of wax" in this candle. Well, at least these ailing candles ended up in capable hands. They are refunding your money, I hope? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TallTayl Posted March 9, 2018 Share Posted March 9, 2018 I lit the second one this morning for the first time. Those wicks need to be trimmed to absolute nubs, or they perform exactly like a paraffin candle with tall, thick soot stacks. Lit the first one for the second time, ditto. Once you trim to about 1/8 inch they are ok, like all other candles. This is the same behavior as the other retail available coconut waxes i have I have worked with. It’s hard to argue that coconut is so much healthier and cleaner when they are exactly alike WRT soot. 😒 I’m still plugging along with my own blends because I do like the concept, and once trained how to burn they are far superior to any of the inconsistent soy waxes currently available. Now to justify the cost to my established soy base 😫 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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