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Looking For Wood Wick Testing Advice Please


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Hi everyone,

I am seeking advice on where to begin with testing wooden wicks from the wooden wick co. for my candles. My wax is Freedom Soy by American Soy Organics. It is designed to perform like GB 464, but has a slightly higher melt point. My vessels are glass tumblers with a top diameter of 3" and a bottom diameter of around 2.75". My fragrance load is 7.5%. I was planning on starting my testing with the crackling booster wick, .04" thickness, .5" width. Does this sound about right to anyone? Orders from the Wooden Wick Co. are taking their sweet time to be processed and I'd really like to try and get away with as little testing as possible to avoid having to deal with order backups, so I'm trying to get a ball park idea of where to start with wick suggestions. Any advice is greatly appreciated. Thank you!

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5 hours ago, TallTayl said:

if you have not used wooden wicks before, mentally prepare for inconsistencies between wicks from the same exact package. 

 

^^^This.

 

I don't think I've ever wasted as much time on anything in my lifetime as I did with wooden wicks.

 

Soy wax is definitely the easiest to use with wooden wicks, but they are never consistent so if you're looking to spend time perfecting it you're wasting your time. If you're making them just for something fun then they are definitely interesting to play with. I'd just go for the sampler pack they have so you can try them all out and see what you think.

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23 hours ago, TallTayl said:

That might work. It is hard to predict with any of the FO wax combos. 
 

if you have not used wooden wicks before, mentally prepare for inconsistencies between wicks from the same exact package. 

I'm disappointed to hear that I should expect inconsistencies in wicks in the same package. I have purchased many wood wick candles from Get a Whiff Co. They use wooden wick co. wicks and I've never had one burn badly/differently from one to the next. I wonder if maybe some people are experiencing user error when it comes to their own wood wick candles. It doesn't seem like a company like Get a Whiff Co. with such a great reputation would put out candles they know will have inconsistent burns. I'm going to give wooden wicks a try for my candle business and see how it goes. Of course, I plan to test first. 

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18 hours ago, ErronB said:

 

^^^This.

 

I don't think I've ever wasted as much time on anything in my lifetime as I did with wooden wicks.

 

Soy wax is definitely the easiest to use with wooden wicks, but they are never consistent so if you're looking to spend time perfecting it you're wasting your time. If you're making them just for something fun then they are definitely interesting to play with. I'd just go for the sampler pack they have so you can try them all out and see what you think.

I'm going to give them a try. I want a luxury candle line for my candle business and the wood wicks seem like a nice feature with that gentle sizzle/crackle. I'm not looking for perfect. I don't even think perfect is possible with certain cotton wick/vessel combos. My wax is always very consistent from batch to batch, so I am hoping that a tiny bit of inconsistency with the wicks will be ok. My wax performs like GB 464 but the Freedom Soy I use is always the same/perfect from batch to batch unlike 464 which has a lot of bad batches. I get an amazing cold/hot throw in my 8 oz. tins with a CD 18 wick and 7.5% FO load. 

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I wish you the best of luck.

 

Be sure to really, really, really test. Many of us have had eyebrow raising issues with them in many waxes.

 

I’ve burned several made at the same time, from the same pot of wax  side by side. One candle burns fine. The one next to it will flare. Another will practically snuff out. Wood wicks are (obviously) made for a natural tree wood that grows differently in different seasons and under different weather conditions. That is much less controllable than a wick engineered from fibers in a factory. 

 

The near house fire in my own home was a wooden wick candle. I leave the burned area on the table as a reminder of what can happen if I fail to test well. 
 

 I was never comfy using them for retail 

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11 hours ago, TallTayl said:

@ComfortandJoy want to share your journey?

 

Sure!  I am happy to help in any way I can.

 

@jpmakescandles As others have shared, be prepared for inconsistencies.  I, too had great burning wood wick candles.  But, I had many more that burned poorly/inconsistently enough to cause me to shy away from selling them.  I used wooden wicks for 3 years, and finally had to acknowledge that it was the wicks that were causing the problem.  I used mostly soy (and different ones, including Freedom Wax)  I also tried several coconut waxes, including different vessels.  I really, really tried.  Aside from major inconsistencies, there was the problem with the wicks sputtering black soot/specs into the wax toward the end of the burn.  It happened more often than not.  As @TallTayl said, wood by nature is inconsistent.  There was a time that wood wicks did burn well and consistently, but it was more of a composite material that compensated for the inconsistency.  Sadly, they are no longer available.

 

I am now using cotton wicks and I am amazed at the difference.  I FINALLY have candles burning well, and WAY more consistently.  I almost can't believe it, after all I went through with wood wicks.

 

All that being said, the greatest freedom you have is finding out for yourself.  So, go ahead and make your own discoveries.  It will always be the best way to learn.

 

I have a ton of wooden wicks I'd like to pass along, so if you're interested, let me know!  I have a few sample packs as well.

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