Wood wicking 6006

[Gladys]

Why is it so hard to wood wick 6006? 
I have tried for months and just when I thought I found something that works, it completely changes two burns later? I’m so ready to throw in the towel and i dont know what to do at this point. 
 

The first burn is great and it even burns soot free for 6 hours. But the next burn it’ll start to soot at 3 hours. 
 

can I please have some guidance. What is the most that I should expect from wooden wicks? 

[TallTayl]

Have you tried wicking down?

Wood Wick’s can get pretty hot further down in the container

[Gladys]

Hi there. Yes I have. I like to wick down where it leaves a little wax residue on the sides so it’ll melt down as the wax level goes down. 

[Gladys]

How long does a wood wicked candle burn until it’s acceptable to soot? Or have a larger flame?

[ErronB]

The most you should expect is to find a wick that will only burn semi-properly if you meticulously trim it, in which case you'll need a decent thickness. Probably around .03 or the booster .02 or .03 depending on the fragrance load / dye levels you use. The more you use, the thicker / wider wick you'll need.

 

You're not going to get a straight clean burn with the wicks from The Wooden Wick Co, which we are stuck with because they had the decent ones taken off of the market because they own the patents for them. The chinese ones off ebay / amazon are even worse. You sometimes get a few unicorn wicks in a bag which burn perfectly but it's impossible to tell which ones they are beforehand.

[Gladys]

Thank you Erron. It’s been such a hassle and challenge that I don’t feel confident in my candles because of the inconsistency. I would like something that burns 5-7 hours only because that’s how long I know customers burn theirs. But I’ll continue to test to see what kind of consistency I’ll find. Some makers tell me theirs don’t soot even on power burns so I’m trying to get there. 

[TallTayl]

10 hours ago, Gladys said:

How long does a wood wicked candle burn until it’s acceptable to soot? Or have a larger flame?

This is a sort of a challenging question to answer.  Large flame feels like a matter of opinion from different groups I have read lately .  the flame should remain visually proportional to the candle size without flaring.somewhere on ASTM I read 3” max height, but that makes NO sense for a small jar. A 2.5” wide jar with a 2” flame would look alarming to most reasonable candle burners for instance. 
 

In the end, it should safely survive a powerburn without becoming a fire hazard in someone’s home. Check jar temps and wick so it never exceeds ASTM Guidelines of 170*F as a baseline.

 

soot indicates too much of a wick, and/or too much FO, color, etc. 6006 may need the thinner wicks (0.02”) and might need a different wood material. The crackle versus the non crackle use different woods and draw fuel differently.  I would be inclined to not use boosters if the flames grow during a burn. 

[Gladys]

Thank you so much. I agree about the 3” flame. I turn mine off when they reach 1” lol I don’t like to use boosters either but I have notice that they center the flame where it’s not wide. I’ll do another batch of testing and if I’m not satisfied I’ll switch over to cotton. I don’t use dye and my FO is at 8% so I don’t think I should be having problems like this. 

[TallTayl]

You might be able to tame some of the wood wick irregularities with a little more soy wax. 

[Gladys]

You might be right. I’m currently going to try .02 .5” in a 3” vessel with 8% and see how those do. 
 

the friends that have used my candles like them so far and like a slightly higher flame. But I’m so paranoid of the black smoke at 4 hours or the flame being too large on the 4 hour mark. Hopefully the .02 series works better for these candles after the 2nd burn. 

[TallTayl]

2 minutes ago, Gladys said:

You might be right. I’m currently going to try .02 .5” in a 3” vessel with 8% and see how those do. 
 

the friends that have used my candles like them so far and like a slightly higher flame. But I’m so paranoid of the black smoke at 4 hours or the flame being too large on the 4 hour mark. Hopefully the .02 series works better for these candles after the 2nd burn. 

The one scariest chandler moment in my career was from a wood wick that was too big for the jar. It Set the jar on fire and shattered glass shot everywhere. Luckily nobody was hit by the shards.
 

The table was scorched. I leave it scarred as a reminder to me of the awesome responsibility I have assumed offering candles to people. 

[ErronB]

2 hours ago, Gladys said:

Thank you Erron. It’s been such a hassle and challenge that I don’t feel confident in my candles because of the inconsistency. I would like something that burns 5-7 hours only because that’s how long I know customers burn theirs. But I’ll continue to test to see what kind of consistency I’ll find. Some makers tell me theirs don’t soot even on power burns so I’m trying to get there. 

They burn completely different in different waxes so you can’t really compare them to each other like that from different makers unless they are also using 6006. 5-7 hours is doable but in 6006 you’d have to really dial in the size, but then that goes back to the whole consistency thing because it won’t ever be the same every time. The .02 flat wicks have problems staying lit (but are more ideal), but the booster version can work too if it likes the wax.

Edited December 24, 2020 by ErronB

[Gladys]

Honestly I think about that scenario all the time. I’m terrified of that happening. That’s why I feel like I MUST be confident in the candles that I want to sell. I know the customer will have to trim but I don’t want a candle that becomes a hazard right at four hours. Many of the people that want to buy from me don’t know how to use wooden wicks so I need to be very safe. 

[Gladys]

Erron, I agree about the staying lit. I’m going to try those right now. I’m melting down the .03 and going to try with the 0.2 .5” and see how they do. Maybe I’ll try the .02 .5” booster too. I have so many wicks now from trying so many🤦🏻‍♀️ 

[TallTayl]

The tubes seemed easier by comparison. 

[Gladys]

You know the tube wicks were my only solution in the 3 wick tumbler. I couldn’t wick that one either until I just tried two tube wicks and that worked. I should try that with these. 

[TallTayl]

1 hour ago, Gladys said:

You know the tube wicks were my only solution in the 3 wick tumbler. I couldn’t wick that one either until I just tried two tube wicks and that worked. I should try that with these. 

Tubes with a small cotton inside have been wonderful on many jars for me.  The cotton is just enough of a catalyst to make the tubes work well. 

[Gladys]

I’ve read of makers doing that. How interesting. How do you secure them?

[TallTayl]

5 minutes ago, Gladys said:

I’ve read of makers doing that. How interesting. How do you secure them?

Soooo easy.  I use a wick tab with a long neck secured to the container. Then slip the wood tube right over the little booster wick and wick tab. It is usually pretty secure and won’t tip, but if I am worried about securing it, a little dab of hot glue holds the wood tube to the metal tab. 

[Gladys]

I wonder if I can find a video for it. I don’t quite follow lol 🤦🏻‍♀️ Lol

[TallTayl]

If you have a tube wick and a regular wick just thread the regular wick up through the tube. 

[BusyBee]

It's not a video, but picture should show how to use it.

Quality of Tube wicks are better than wooden wicks, but people without a torch lighter will have hard time with ignition.  And quite a few of them did not stay lit as with any wooden wicks.

 

 

[Gladys]

Oh thank you very much. May I ask where should I start with testing the cotton wicks for 6006? I can’t imagine starting over with cotton wicks. 

[BusyBee]

Many people are satisfied with 6006 using HTP, but 6006 isn't my favorite wax at all.  I am open to use any wax that performs well and produce good HT, but I find that soy or parasoy isn't one of them.

[Gladys]

I’ve read that 6006 is notoriously hard to wick. Not sure how I ended up with this wax but I do like the hot throw when it performs well.