Blending American Freedom Soy Wax with Paraffin

[MikeH]

We have been doing some test pours with American Freedom Soy Wax. I can never seem to get a great top from the beginning. After fixing with the heat gun, the tops look fine.

 

After test burning, the tops end up looking like cottage cheese or the surface of the moon. Very unsightly. I have read, this is just the way it is with soy wax.

 

I want to be able to use the 45lbs of American Freedom Soy Wax I have, so thought maybe I can blend it with Paraffin?

 

Any suggestion on what Paraffin to get and at what ratios to blend?

 

I cant really sell any of these I made, they just dont look high quality enough.

[bfroberts]

4630 is as good as anything.  I’d do 50-60% 4630.

[TallTayl]

midwest soy is the most finicky soy I have ever worked with. It takes MONTHS to reach its final cure state. I adore the adhesion but hate how perfect everything needs to be while making them.
 

I had the best luck with Midwest soy using 3-5% white beeswax. Beeswax gives the additional benefit of aiding in the holding in the fragrance il in suspension.  Without beeswax I had terrible problems with the fragrance “drifting” pooling and seeping. It behaved best heating to 180, adding fo, and cooling while stirring to 105 before pouring.  Pouring warmer leads to ugly tops and graining that cause seeping fragrance.
 

Paraffin did not really improve it, funny enough. Nor did palm, vybar/polyboost.
 

White petrolatum (plain unscented vaseline) at up to 2% had some promise if allowed to cure long enough. 
 

it is rumored to be the equivalent of GB 402, which there are a few threads here on the forum about. 

[Soy-N-Suds]

On 3/9/2021 at 9:49 PM, TallTayl said:

midwest soy is the most finicky soy I have ever worked with. It takes MONTHS to reach its final cure state. I adore the adhesion but hate how perfect everything needs to be while making them.
 

I had the best luck with Midwest soy using 3-5% white beeswax. Beeswax gives the additional benefit of aiding in the holding in the fragrance il in suspension.  Without beeswax I had terrible problems with the fragrance “drifting” pooling and seeping. It behaved best heating to 180, adding fo, and cooling while stirring to 105 before pouring.  Pouring warmer leads to ugly tops and graining that cause seeping fragrance.
 

Paraffin did not really improve it, funny enough. Nor did palm, vybar/polyboost.
 

White petrolatum (plain unscented vaseline) at up to 2% had some promise if allowed to cure long enough. 
 

it is rumored to be the equivalent of GB 402, which there are a few threads here on the forum about. 

I really like Midwest Soy now that I've gotten used to it. No sink holes, excellent HT and CT, and great burning candles. Most FO works, and the ones that don't I use in other applications. If I'm dead set on a wicked candle I use Parasoy. I agree most of the candles need to cure a long time, but it's worth the wait for me. 

 

What is your purpose for additives? I used it without any until just recently and now I add 1 tsp Crisco/lb. for a very smooth top.

 

I don't mind waiting for the cure, so the only downside I find is waiting for the wax to cool so I can pour it. I pour @ 100*. 

[TallTayl]

2 hours ago, Soy-N-Suds said:

 

What is your purpose for additives? I used it without any until just recently and now I add 1 tsp Crisco/lb. for a very smooth top.

 

I don't mind waiting for the cure, so the only downside I find is waiting for the wax to cool so I can pour it. I pour @ 100*. 

Without additives too many times we saw graining and fragrance oil bleeding out of suspension. Observations spanned over several years of use as a main wax and as an additive wax. If ambient conditions change - as they always do when seasons change - all new production problems arise and require expensive rework. 

 

midwest soy is not a manufacturing friendly wax. It severely limits production.  If making only a few candles a day, sure we could wait for the pot to reduce in temp to pour at the perfect temp. having to make hundreds requires cooling jackets for melters and adds several hours to a session. It limits us to making, maybe, 300 a day max in the current set up. By comparison other waxes that do not have such finicky limitations allow for many times that. 
 

We dealt with it while the price per lb was significantly lower than other wax blends on the market. Now that the price  is within pennies of others it is not worth the headache. We are finishing the last pallet and replacing it entirely. 

[Soy-N-Suds]

27 minutes ago, TallTayl said:

Without additives too many times we saw graining and fragrance oil bleeding out of suspension. Observations spanned over several years of use as a main wax and as an additive wax. If ambient conditions change - as they always do when seasons change - all new production problems arise and require expensive rework. 

 

midwest soy is not a manufacturing friendly wax. It severely limits production.  If making only a few candles a day, sure we could wait for the pot to reduce in temp to pour at the perfect temp. 

Hmmm, I see. I haven't noticed these problems. I've gone through two summers and two winters. Next month, April, will start my third summer season. I use 7% FO and the crisco. I don't test wicks until a 3-4 month cure, sometimes they sit 5-6 months. 

 

You are much bigger than I care to be and I understand production speed being a problem for sure.

 

I suppose it's like every other market out there. It's why we have choices; so we can pick our battles lol

 

Since 2001 there have been so many changes and whenever I've settled on something, it changes or gets discontinued. 

[TallTayl]

The other weird thing we saw was when a client was holding candles in less than optimal storage conditions.  weird things happened with the wax. We saw it form huge blisters in some cases. It was so weird.

[AudraT]

On 3/9/2021 at 5:50 PM, MikeH said:

We have been doing some test pours with American Freedom Soy Wax. I can never seem to get a great top from the beginning. After fixing with the heat gun, the tops look fine.

 

After test burning, the tops end up looking like cottage cheese or the surface of the moon. Very unsightly. I have read, this is just the way it is with soy wax.

 

I want to be able to use the 45lbs of American Freedom Soy Wax I have, so thought maybe I can blend it with Paraffin?

 

Any suggestion on what Paraffin to get and at what ratios to blend?

 

I cant really sell any of these I made, they just dont look high quality enough.

I know this is an old post but I found that if I pour American Freedom soy wax at a lower temperature, like around 120 F, you get pretty nice tops without having to fix them. I also blend 30% ProBlend 400 Paraffin Container Wax with some of my soy candles to help the HT and that wax blend gives perfectly smooth tops every time.