Fingernail testing...

[SatinDucky]

I don't know if this test will give me any insight or not, but here goes. I mixed 3 lbs of 4625 all at once. Mimosa from Axtec with burgundy dye from peaks. I'll do another round with different FO and dye as well. I don't know if my noted on the paper can be read or not.

Anyway, the conditions in my shop/locally for heating, mixing, pouring and cooling were 93*F, Humidity 40% (sure feels higher!), Dewpoint 65*F. No clue if dewpoint can make a difference or not I'll be doing this agan today, changing the cooling method. Waterbath and maybe the fridge to change cooling speed.

Left column is plain. Center column is with 1 tsp. each stearic and UA.Right has 1 tsp Vybar. UV was alrady in my wax pot so it's in all three.

Rows, bottom was poured at 140*F to top poured at 200*F and inbetween is increments of 20.

Just an hour after unmolding, one had a white mark in it, but it doesn't look like a fingernail. You can also see the color difference the additives made. Well, maybe not so much in the picture...LOL. With Vybar, it almost looks like a creamy container wax.

This picture was taken about 2 hrs after unmolding.

[Candle Man]

That test may not give you the results you are looking for, because there is not enough wax. You may need to pour at least a 3x3 pillar or bigger to get good test results.

[SatinDucky]

That test may not give you the results you are looking for, because there is not enough wax. You may need to pour at least a 3x3 pillar or bigger to get good test results.

Maybe if you only have a slight problem with fingernailing, that might be true. In my case, very small amounts are affected. One I poured last week, I liked the final color. So, I poured about 1/2" into a metal tealight cup then I would bag it up later and write on the outside exactly which colors I used and how many drops pp. That little blob of wax is full of the marks as well... so these should be plenty big enough. They're standard sized muffin pans filled about half full.

Guess I'll wait and see

[grama]

Had an order for some 3x4 pillars in lavender fields today. What I did - To approx 8 lbs of 4625 and I say approx because there was a little in presto but when it all melted to came to about where 8 lbs comes . So I heated this to 250 for 30 minutes then lowered temp. When it came to 200 degrees added 1 lb of ecosoy and that made 9 lbs in presto. To this I added 1/2 tsp vybar 103 per lb. Stirred real good and then took out what I needed for candles, which was 1 & 1/2 lbs. Added fo - 1 & 3/4 oz and 1 drop of purple liquid dye from Lonestar and poured slowly at approx 185 degrees. They have been out of molds for about 3 & 1/2 hours and so far no fingernails. Usually they appear as soon as I take them out of molds. Will see what they look like tomorrow. Don't know if this will work next time or not but so far it is good.

Had air on in shop but since I am cold natured it was not real cold in shop. If they start fingernailing I will post.

[Candle Kitty]

Dew point is actually a measurement of atmospheric moisture. It's the temperature to which air must be cooled to reach saturation, assuming air pressure and moisture content are consistent.

Humidity is based on temperature and dew point. The higher the temperature and dew point percentage (we all know this) the higher the heat index because the humidity also rises. The higher the temperature but the lower the dew point, we get comfy days.

Most people don't realize, but when you have severe weather in your area, watch the dew point. If the dew point suddenly and sharply changes and the barometric pressure bottoms out, you're about to get a tornado knocking on your door.

IF we are to assume that fingernailing may be an atmospheric issue, dew point is everything because it's air moisture.

Let's coordinate this experiment, Ducky. With you being in Alabama and me being in Missouri, the differences may be enough to get a rough idea about whether or not it's really an atmospheric thing in the southern states.

[Candle Kitty]

Yikes, I forgot something. My workshop isn't air conditioned, but I have a fan in there to move the air around to make it somewhat bearable (I do that on purpose, I can't handle that much A/C without my joints really hurting me) and I'm using IGI-1343 right now.

[SatinDucky]

Yikes, I forgot something. My workshop isn't air conditioned, but I have a fan in there to move the air around to make it somewhat bearable (I do that on purpose, I can't handle that much A/C without my joints really hurting me) and I'm using IGI-1343 right now.

You notice I said room temp was 93*? NO A/c here either

[Candle Kitty]

I am so glad I'm not the only one that doesn't air condition the workshop, Ducky .

I start pouring tomorrow afternoon, I have some new candle scents coming in that I'm considering light colors for.

As for no fingernailing a few hours later, grama, I've had fingernailing show up the day after I've poured the candle. We've got a beautiful deep burgundy/wine color 3 x 3 that was perfect out of the mold and a day later, it was riddled with fingernails. Which is why I honestly believe this phenomena is atmospheric. If anymore candles pop up with any out of the blue, I'm putting it in my fingernail test journal.

[grama]

Yea - I've had some to show up about a week later but usually they show up first thing with me. It's still looking good so far :rolleyes2

[Candle Kitty]

Keeping the fingers crossed then for you!

[SatinDucky]

Well... they've started showing up in the plain ones. Ones poured at 160-180. Looks like there might be a tiny bit starting in some with the stearic/UA added too. They are developing slow this time. Sometimes is overnight, sometimes a week or two later.

I haven't had time to take any more pictures yet. I bought a new computer last week and have spent all week trying to get Vista OFF it! Gonna be bald soon

[grama]

Still no fingernails :yay: :yay:

[Scented]

Hey Duck,

Have you tried it without the UA? Just eliminate the UA completely. That stuff always caused it with me and I could redo a candle six times and just get one.

As for the fingernailing, I think it's trapped gas. If you burn a candle with that stuff in it and listen, you'll hear hissing going on when the tip of a fingernail is melted away.

[SatinDucky]

Hey Duck,

Have you tried it without the UA? Just eliminate the UA completely. That stuff always caused it with me and I could redo a candle six times and just get one.

As for the fingernailing, I think it's trapped gas. If you burn a candle with that stuff in it and listen, you'll hear hissing going on when the tip of a fingernail is melted away.

You mean adding just stearic instead of both? No. I picked up the idea from someone else here and they mentioned both together.One column doesn't have any extra additives, but that's the one that has the most marks so far.

As for trapped gas... I know it's somehting trapped, gas, air whatever, because when the fingernailing gets close to the surface, there is actually hills on the outside, so the wax is expanding, not just changing color. I haven't heard anything, but it's not usually that quiet here. I'll have to make a point of burning one on a quiet nite.

[grama]

Just an update on my fingernailing - The lavender fields pillar - 3" was made on the 19th June and so far there has been no fingernailing. So reckon that little bit of soy and vybar broke up the fingernail process

I do know on some votives just made though had to wick up, don't like that. Now guess I will have to test again. Of course it had got to the point when I make pillars or votives I make one to test anyway. Seems any given day, any given time, and any given who knows it seems to change.

So it goes

[Scented]

Yes, just steric. Course you'll get the mottling, maybe, but you can add a few grains of vybar to kill it. UA, IMO, is the culprit. When I've used it, I get the ugliest looking fingernails. When I don't, seldom are they around.

[topofmurrayhill]

I thought I clued y'all in on this already.

Fingernails and mottling are equivalent. Getting rid of it requires different amounts of additives, depending on what you use. With stearic, it takes at least 10% to get clear wax. With UA, it takes at least 2%. With Vybar, 1% is plenty.

Without enough additive, the crystal structure of the paraffin isn't stable and the crystals peel apart. With just paraffin or paraffin and stearic, this happens on a very fine level and produces mottling. Add a very small amount of gloss poly and it happens on a larger scale. The crystals peel apart in long sheets and you get fingernails instead of normal mottling. UA happens to contain a form of gloss poly - just a small percentage in a base of microcrystalline paraffin.

One of the problems is the suppliers don't accurately tell you how much UA to use. Many people use just 1 tsp pp. The manufacturer (IGI) says to use 2 to 5 tsp pp.

It would happen with gloss poly also, except a teaspoon of that is several times the amount that you'd find in a teaspoon of UA. That's more than enough to ensure a smooth finish. The first time I had major fingernails was when I accidentally contaminated mottling wax with just a tiny bit of polyethylene. That got me tons of fingernails in place of mottling.