Darbla Posted January 18, 2020 Share Posted January 18, 2020 I bought two unscented, cheap candles at Dollar Tree yesterday, so literally $1 each, because I want the glasses they're in for some other purposes and didn't care about the candles at all. So I have been power-burning them for 20 hours now to get rid of the wax, no trimming done during that time, and there is literally no detectable soot on the glasses at all. I'm surprised, as I would've figured these cheap things would have crappy wax and be mushrooming and smoking up all over the place. I've repeatedly checked them during that time because if I saw the first hint of soot I was going to blow out and trim to save the trouble of having to use more elbow grease later to clean them. And I know I could just melt the wax to get the glasses, but I figured while they were in candle form I might as well get some candle-lit ambiance out of them. So is it our FOs that are the true causes of soot, and not our waxes and wicks? 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BusyBee Posted January 24, 2020 Share Posted January 24, 2020 I always thought it was the wick that was cause of soot, but then your post made me think it could be the FOs also. I have found a scented paraffin wax candle that burned beautifully without any soot even in heavy drift. So, I pulled the wick out from that candle and put it in my heavy loaded FO soy candle, and it burned beautifully doing the same thing. No soot even in heavy drift, no mushroom, no trimming required, quick full melt pool but container stays cool, nice decent size flame, great HT, etc. This was the reason I believed it is the WICK that matters most, and I think I have discovered THE WICK for my candle. But then come to think of it, I had experience where I could have put any wick in coconut wax without FO to make it burn really well. No soot, clean shallow full melt pool, nice little flame, no mushrooming, etc. But when I added even just little bit of FO, black soot was coming out. So, which is it? You got me into think I need to do a lot more experiment again from different angle. Thanks! I guess this learning process is never ending journey. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TallTayl Posted January 24, 2020 Share Posted January 24, 2020 Poorly wicked candles are usually the cause of soot. I burn plain wax to form baselines and can end up with terribly blackened containers until the right wick is selected. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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