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How to make a good flame


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Hi, I've only recently started making candles, and i have mainly made chunky pillar candles. Anyway i bought some LX series wick to use in the pillars. So far i've tried to use the right LX to meet the diameter of the candle. I've been priming the wick and wicking them in the mould, adding the chunks and then pouring in the wax. They usually set ok and come out of the mould ok, and i trim the wick to about 1/2 inch. Anyway when i've burnt them, the flame has been quite high, and a bit flickery. No noticeable soot/smoke has come off the candle though, and the wax generally melts to pretty near the edge of the candle

Anyway what i'm wandering is if there is something i may be doing wrong when making the candles for the flame to flicker, be high, but not smoke. Thanks

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I'm not an expert on paraffin pillar wicks, but the LXs naturally have a high flame. I've been testing square braids and so far they have burned nicely. Flame is not as high as LX - but of course you have to keep them trimmed - but once you trim them they can burn for 5 or 6 hours just fine. (I've not burned them longer than that).

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Besides trimming to 1/4 inch, be prepared to try different sizes. There's no such thing as the right LX wick based on the diameter. It depends on your wax and fragrance oil. It wouldn't be unusual to be using 4 different LX sizes to wick various fragrances -- each can burn quite differently.

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Hi, Thanks for the tips, i'll try them all out! As i'm still quite a newbie, i find theres so much variation that i don't know where to start! I thought i would start with testing different wicks, but even then they all vary so much, and now i've got a box of candles to burn to test! Who would have thought it would be so complicated!

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