Wicking help for 3" pillar

[starlessjade]

I'm working on finding the right wick for my 3" diameter pillars (IGI 1343 with 3 T stearic and 1/2 oz FO pp) but have no idea what I'm doing, lol.

I've played with flat braid and square braid, and did not like the flat braid at all- the flame and melting pool always ended up way too off-center when I burned them.

I tested two (identical) pillars side by side, one with #1 square braid and one with #1/0, and didn't see any difference at all between them. The melt pools were both exactly 2 inches after a 3 hour burn, and were a hair over 1/4 inch deep. The flames both looked good and the wicks didn't need to be trimmed during that burn.

Should I keep testing those two wicks and see what happens? Try something else? Everyone has been talking about using LX's for pillars; should I give those a shot too?

Thanks!

[ladysj]

I use straight paraffin with 5 tbsps. stearic pp. For the 3" rounds I've had really good luck with the 51-32-18z's and the LX 16 in the hexagon molds.

So far with both of these wicks I've let them burn 4 or more hours. On the hexagon it burns to the edges with no over spill. On the rounds I get pretty much the same results. I don't have any to test burn right now so I can't get a pic of how they look.

I'm test burning a 2" pillar with an Eco 4 I know that doesn't help on your diameter but this is how my other candles burn and so far I've not had any spillage of wax. Let me see if I can get a decent pic of the edges and it will give you an idea of how far out my pillars melt.

Give me a couple of minutes.

This will at least give you a general idea of what you can expect with the above mentioned wicks and a place to start. I really the Z's because they don't bend over like the LX but I've been twisting the LX's real tight in my mold so that has helped the leaning over of the wick some.

This one has been burning for well over 3 hours. The outside shell is less than 1/4 inch thick.

[topofmurrayhill]

Should I keep testing those two wicks and see what happens? Try something else? Everyone has been talking about using LX's for pillars; should I give those a shot too?

You should absolutely do more test burns with those two. There's no way to tell from just one burn. Sounds promising so far.

Over the course of 3 to 5 burns you'll get the idea of how the pillar is consuming and how much shell you get with that particular wick. You want to aim for somewhat of a rim around the melt pool, just not overly much. More so in 3 hour tests and less in 4 hour tests.

What you don't want is a 3" candle that mostly consumes the shell and melts out to the edge each time in normal-length test burns. Not because it's likely to spill over, but because it will probably be prone to tall flames. That makes for a less safe and pleasant burn, or necessitates trimming the wick extra short or extra often. It's especially not good if you want to give someone a candle, because they're less likely to stay on top of it than you are.

As for wick types, there's nothing in particular you must try or shouldn't try. It's just a matter of how much testing you feel like doing in search of a favorite wick. LX does seem to be popular with some of the better commercial producers for one reason or another.