Close up pics of wicks

[TallTayl]

ever wondered what your bag of wicks looks like without the wax prime! Atkins and Pearce posted nice quality, close up pics of their wick series. It is so helpful to see close ups and figure out how and why some work better than  others with given waxes. 
 

https://www.atkinsandpearce.com/product-category/candlewick/

 

 

[bfroberts]

Very cool

[birdcharm]

This brings me to something I've wondered about, but haven't asked about ... directional wicks.  Last year I started experimenting with RRD wicks and I purchase raw wick, not pre-tabbed.  When I bought them, I didn't see anything about them being directional, so who knows what I did when I tabbed them, I wasn't paying any attention to it.  Then I read here somewhere about RRDs being directional and I thought, okay, now I need to pay more attention when I cut them to tab them, assuming that the strand that is exiting the plastic bag is pointed "upward" ... I looked at them with a magnifying glass to see them closer, but not actually knowing which way is "up" I'm mostly just guessing.

[TallTayl]

It would be a great experiment to do burns side by side to see how much difference there truly is.

[Marisa11]

@TallTayl You are totally my kind of person. Thanks for posting that. 

 

@birdcharm I have some pre-tabbed RRD wicks at home I will look to see if I notice anything that gives me a hint of the direction. I think the wax coat might hinder that view though. Also, do you wax your raw wick or use as is? That might be a silly question. I almost bought a spool of raw paper core wick but got intimidated. For now sample packs are fine. Hopefully down the road if I find a wick that ends up being my go to, you would be willing to let me pick your brain.  

[birdcharm]

3 hours ago, TallTayl said:

It would be a great experiment to do burns side by side to see how much difference there truly is.

 

That would be an interesting experiment.  Who knows what I did, lol, not realizing they were directional, when I did a batch of votives, I cut a dozen pieces, then tabbed / primed them (whatever direction), I didn't notice any differences between the burns.  Yet, that's just for a little votive, my guess is that for a larger candle, there probably would be a difference if they are considered "directional".

 

 

45 minutes ago, Marisa11 said:

Also, do you wax your raw wick or use as is? That might be a silly question. I almost bought a spool of raw paper core wick but got intimidated. For now sample packs are fine.

 

I prime them, dipping them into the same type of wax I'm using in the candle, allowing them to harden on a tray.  Sometimes I do it prior to threading through the tab, as that smooths them out as you pull it through (shaves the excess wax off).  I prefer it because I can cut to lengths required with very little waste and if I want to use a metal tab with a longer neck, I have that option.  Don't be intimidated ... once you start doing it, it's easy!

[Marisa11]

@birdcharm thank you for the info. I’ll let you know if I get to that point in my journey.  So I did look at my RRD wicks and stripped some of the wax off I could see the braid but I didn’t see anything that stood out that would show me which way the wick went if it wasn’t tabbed. Sorry. I’m interested to see your results after a side by side test too. 

[ErronB]

Cool. There's still a couple of types on that list I need to play with. I'm sure the helix wicks are just a novelty but they might be fun.

[TallTayl]

1 hour ago, ErronB said:

Cool. There's still a couple of types on that list I need to play with. I'm sure the helix wicks are just a novelty but they might be fun.

I can’t figure them out. The size 1 is perfect in one wax, one fo and one jar. The rest of the combos  are terrible 

[BusyBee]

I think Cottonwood & Helix are very nice wicks even though it did not work out in my 464.  It might work in other waxes nicely.

 

It looks like Yankxx use double Helix 5 for their tall Tumbler Candles(soy blend).  Yankxx candle was sooting really bad.  When I tried it in 464, it worked better.  But it mushrooms(just little) & HT is weak.  

 

Cottonwood burned really well in 464.  Burning characteristic was close to perfection in 464 that I almost got fooled.  But HT is weak, and it started to scorching the wax after 2 hours and 15 minutes.  I got wax & FO burning smell after 135 minutes.  I did try many times over because it was burning so good, but HT & wax scorching is big problem with this wick in 464.  It did not perform well in 6006 & coconut 83.

 

All others are good quality wicks, but there are nothing special about them in my opinion.

 

[TallTayl]

8 hours ago, BusyBee said:

I think Cottonwood & Helix are very nice wicks even though it did not work out in my 464.  It might work in other waxes nicely.

 

It looks like Yankxx use double Helix 5 for their tall Tumbler Candles(soy blend).  Yankxx candle was sooting really bad.  When I tried it in 464, it worked better.  But it mushrooms(just little) & HT is weak.  

 

Cottonwood burned really well in 464.  Burning characteristic was close to perfection in 464 that I almost got fooled.  But HT is weak, and it started to scorching the wax after 2 hours and 15 minutes.  I got wax & FO burning smell after 135 minutes.  I did try many times over because it was burning so good, but HT & wax scorching is big problem with this wick in 464.  It did not perform well in 6006 & coconut 83.

 

All others are good quality wicks, but there are nothing special about them in my opinion.

 

I loved cottonwood in soy/palm blends at first too! In one particular application they were a perfect choice to achieve the burn needed in a single wick. They are dirty, yes, yes they are.  They don’t really self trim in anything, not even c1. If not trimmed they can get downright dangerous, like those Grey ribbon wicks. 
 

the one thing I like is if nothIng else stays lit due to a tough FO they will burn with cottonwood, no doubt.  If cw won’t burn it, it can’t be burned!

[ErronB]

13 hours ago, TallTayl said:

I loved cottonwood in soy/palm blends at first too! In one particular application they were a perfect choice to achieve the burn needed in a single wick. They are dirty, yes, yes they are.  They don’t really self trim in anything, not even c1. If not trimmed they can get downright dangerous, like those Grey ribbon wicks. 
 

the one thing I like is if nothIng else stays lit due to a tough FO they will burn with cottonwood, no doubt.  If cw won’t burn it, it can’t be burned!

 

I feel like the ribbons and cottonwood are rejects that the big candle companies didn't want to use and now they're selling them to the general public to see if there's much interest. I don't think we'll ever get the chance to buy the decent wooden wicks or even the same most BBW candles use. I've asked 2 wick companies about those and I keep getting the runaround and avoiding telling me exactly what they are.

[BusyBee]

@TallTayl

Yes!  CW can get really messy & scary without proper trimming.

 

@ErronB

Hey!  You have to give them credit for protecting their customers.  I would not want my supplier to give out any of my information to others.

 

Have you thought about modifying wooden wicks yourself?  There are so many different materials that we can use to modify current wooden wicks.  I am middle of doing that thanks to having a lot of time due to current Pandemic situation.  And it works much better than just using regular wooden wicks.  There is no more worrying about wooden wick not staying lit!  Combining it with different materials by applying additional cotton sheets or special fiber sheets or coatings.  There is a burning rate chart for all different kinds of materials, and anyone one can come out with best of their own material choice.  It works a lot better than their booster wick idea.  Picture is wooden wick with multi layers of special fiber sheets added.  Top is coming out very clean considering this is soy 464.

 

[ErronB]

1 hour ago, BusyBee said:

@TallTayl

Yes!  CW can get really messy & scary without proper trimming.

 

@ErronB

Hey!  You have to give them credit for protecting their customers.  I would not want my supplier to give out any of my information to others.

 

Have you thought about modifying wooden wicks yourself?  There are so many different materials that we can use to modify current wooden wicks.  I am middle of doing that thanks to having a lot of time due to current Pandemic situation.  And it works much better than just using regular wooden wicks.  There is no more worrying about wooden wick not staying lit!  Combining it with different materials by applying additional cotton sheets or special fiber sheets or coatings.  There is a burning rate chart for all different kinds of materials, and anyone one can come out with best of their own material choice.  It works a lot better than their booster wick idea.  Picture is wooden wick with multi layers of special fiber sheets added.  Top is coming out very clean considering this is soy 464.

 

Yes, I messed with wooden wicks for a whole year trying to get them to work consistently and it was a waste of a lot of time and money. Tried every type with 6 different waxes, priming them with different things, and just when I thought I had it down they would turn to sh*t again. I didn’t test much soy because I wouldn’t touch it with a 10 foot pole nowadays, there’s no point when I don’t have to cater to treehuggers.

[TallTayl]

9 hours ago, ErronB said:

Yes, I messed with wooden wicks for a whole year trying to get them to work consistently and it was a waste of a lot of time and money. Tried every type with 6 different waxes, priming them with different things, and just when I thought I had it down they would turn to sh*t again. I didn’t test much soy because I wouldn’t touch it with a 10 foot pole nowadays, there’s no point when I don’t have to cater to treehuggers.

My guess is you learned a LOT during that process. 
 

I learned that I don’t trust buying wooden wick candles from many people, especially if they are new. 😅 

[BusyBee]

I know that wooden wicks will never work because of so many different reasons!  I would not buy any wooden wick candles either because chance of ending up with bad wooden wick is too great. 

 

But I find that wood would be the best material to be used as core of wick for soy wax(464).  For other waxes, there are many other better choices available than wood core.

[ErronB]

12 hours ago, TallTayl said:

My guess is you learned a LOT during that process. 
 

I learned that I don’t trust buying wooden wick candles from many people, especially if they are new. 😅 

 

Oh, yes.... I learned a lot more than I could have ever imagined. And it was so costly and painful that I just sit back and laugh now at all these noobs making fancy candles on reddit using them and thinking their candles are worth top shelf money when they're either going to puff black smoke constantly or have trouble staying lit. They can be primed to death, but after a couple burns they have a mind of their own again which is too unpredictable for me. 

 

It's not even worth me ranting about it anymore, I know that you know EXACTLY what I'm talking about.

Edited November 3, 2020 by ErronB