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A good friend of mine told me that she once burned a candle,(not mine but a big co.) and as it burned down the label caught fire. Has anyone ever heard of this happening? Its never happened to me but its something to think about I guess. Just curious if anyone ever had this problem.

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I don't understand why people just don't figure it out......it is fire.... and paper burns. Labels should be removed from a candle before you light it.....I have seen that instruction on some candles.....I haven't done it because I hope people are smarter than that.....but obviously they aren't. Maybe metal labels would be better (smile)... Donita

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I hear about that mostly with votives...lots of votives are sold in stores with the warning labels just stuck to the bottom and no one ever thinks to take those off...they just plop them in a holder and light....then sit back and wonder how that could have caught fire....:rolleyes2

I guess it goes along the lines of why they have to put the warnings on hair dryers of not to use them in the tub...lol

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A container should NEVER get hot enough to burn a paper label on the outside! The ignition point for paper is 451°F (ummm the book, Farenheit 451?). The ASTM standards state that a container should not be above 175° with a full melt pool. That person is lucky the entire container did not flash!!

That's a candle which should be returned to the manufacturer and a complaint made to the authorities!

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This has got to be a pillar or votive, right? I don't know of anyone who takes labels off of container candles before burning!

I am guilty of forgetting to take the warning label off of a votive before burning :shocked2: , and I should know better!

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A good friend of mine told me that she once burned a candle,(not mine but a big co.) and as it burned down the label caught fire. Has anyone ever heard of this happening? Its never happened to me but its something to think about I guess. Just curious if anyone ever had this problem.

Snow I'd be careful of having your friend burn one of your candles. It just doesn't make sense that a label would catch fire. I would of questioned how she was burning the candle. I certainly wouldn't give her one of mine til I could determine how it happened and what type candle it was.

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heres how it went. She told me I should put my labels on the lid because she was burning a store bought candle in a jar and the label on the jar caught fire. I told her I couldn't really understand how that could happen, because the jars don't get that hot, not hot enough to catch fire. But she said, well it happened. But she couldn't remember where the candle came from. My jars that I have test burned never get that hot, even with a full melt pool. You can handle them, they are not to hot to touch. I'll have to question her about this some more. I'll let you know what happened if she can remember any more details. Thanks for the info!

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I personally would question the accuracy of her memory, It seems she may not remember it exactly as the situation occured, I have never seen a candle get hot enough to make the label burst into flames on the outside of the jar, and believe me when I first started candle making I was of the mindset, the bigger the wick the better!! :lipsrseal The only thing I can think of the would be similar in situations is if the label was made of thermal paper? when thermal paper gets hot it turns black like it had been burned.... But that would be a silly choice in materials on the makers part.

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Hmmm..... I did have someone give me a tin one time and the label did get burned. I mean, it didn't burst in to flames or anything, but it turned dark with burned edges. It was brown kraft. But, I've certainly never seen it on a glass container. You would think the entire candle would burst into flames/glass most likely shatter long before the label would burn.

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Did your friend happen to see Elvis, too!?! <grin> I guess anything's possible, but this defies laws of science in my mind. Paper burns at 450 degrees, but I don't see how glass could conduct the heat needed to create a spontaneous combustion type situation. It just doesn't seem logical to me.

Susan.

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I've been mulling this over... I had a house fire a number of years back... I saw glass do MANY things from that experience! I was able to salvage some glass items, although not many, as my studio was located in one of the hottest areas of the fire. :rolleyes2 How an item fared was directly relative to the quality and type of its manufacture (and whether it got hit by water or steam). ;) I can easily see a jar becoming hot enough to "toast" a label. Assuming the glass was of high quality and did not shatter, whether the label would burst into flames might depend somewhat upon the flash point of the wax inside. They didn't report that the whole thing burst into flames, right? Just the label... So if the flashpoint of the wax was lower than 451°F, then the label would have simply toasted, but not burst into flames. BUT if the flashpoint of the wax was GREATER than 451°F, then the label COULD have burst into flames without the wax igniting also. I have no problem imagining the temp in a container becoming that high after my "flaming tin" experiment recently.

Who knows? Just my musings...

One thing's for sure: I don't think I'd wash that container out and reuse it! :shocked2:

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